DRC has been dragged to many summits for peace with the metamorphosis of notorious Tutsi foreign armed groups, but those meetings have not yet yielded any fruitful results since 1997 during Mobutu-KABILA negotiations followed by negotiations between Kabila and his former allies who turned to be RCD rebels and numerous other peace processes the Lusaka one, Ethiopia, Gaborone, Nairobi, etc which preceded the Sun City talks in 2002. Instead, all of these talks have given and created many gaps for Rwandan Tutsi criminals to manœuver the situation in their favour each time the government of DRC naively accepts to hold talks.
The Sun City talks which are paraded as the milestone achievement in pursuit of peace, produced 1+4 presidents with Joseph alias Kabila as 1st president, this nefarious deal was facilitated by Thabo Mbeki now the famous spokesperson of the so-called Banyamulenge. That deal was in fact, described by many political analysts as a farce, and manifested itself as the worst ever tried in the world because Mbeki forced and threatened the deal to be signed to save himself from embarrassment and criticisms but not see peace DRC.
Now, why is the government of DRC still pursuing the same methodology and following the same route which has never produced any good results as far as the return of peace is concerned in DRC?
For how long and to what extent shall the government in Kinshasa allow the suffering of civilians in the eastern part of DRC to continue, instead of fighting against the enemy even if it requires fighting bare hands if the government does not have enough equipment to defend and protect its population from Tutsi genocide campaign against Congolese people which happening Kivus right now?
DRC government shall stand to defend its people and not go around crying about aggression while expecting the same aggressors to help and rescue its people and the country.
I said before in one of my readings that SADC or any regional body is not the solution to the crisis in eastern DRC.
Mbeki’s assertion places all blame on the situation in DRC solely on the government and exonerates Rwanda of any wrongdoing yet, the Congolese political class is comfortable with South Africa’s participatory contribution to the SADC mission to DRC overlooking Thabo Mbeki’s influence in the SADC region.
Mbeki since has opted to campaign for the ANC in the upcoming elections, he is now enjoying significant support and, being listened to in the ANC since his deputy and another former president of the party and country Jacob Zuma opted to part ways with the party he once led. ANC desperately needs people like Mbeki at this crucial juncture to encounter detractors among them Jacob Zuma during election campaigns scheduled next month. From here, Mbeki is likely to give injunctions to the government to take a different approach regarding the SADC mission, particularly the one in DRC because of his relationship with Paul Kagame who is involved in the destabilization of peace in eastern DRC and the region. This aspect of things should make you think why South Africa when Mbeki was still in government never sent troops to fight RCD in 1998 when Laurent D Kabila requested assistance from SADC when DRC was barely months after joining the block.
Even though SADC had a reputable mission in DRC in the past, the difference this time around is that the 1998 mission was composed of countries whose intention was purely to rescue Congo although Angola later betrayed LD Kabila by facilitating his assassination in exchange for the elimination of Jonas Savimbi. Therefore, the current SADC mission is unimpeachably based on strategic mineral interest that DRC possesses in abundance.
I am leaving here. Next, I am going to talk about the challenges that SADC will encounter in DRC because of the lack of fighting experiences faced by countries that have contributed their troops to that mission.
Carabin,
Independent thinker, specialising in Great Lakes geopolitics.
