Côte d'Ivoire: Rwanda redux... redux

In 2005, I wrote an essay entitled Côte d'Ivoire: Rwanda Redux.

The country was then, as now, run by the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI). The FPI was a long-time opposition party that gained power through the same public outrage against a rigged election that now threatens it. The FPI has cultivated a hypernationalistic and very xenophobic streak to preserve its grip on power, against the obvious will of the people, at all costs... to the point where they are willing to destroy the country to hold on to it.

In my 2005 essay, I described the similarities between the situation then in Cote d'Ivoire and pre-genocide Rwanda as such:

There are so many parallels between the two, it's scary. From the leader who considered making peace with rebels but was opposed by extremists in his own camp. To the despicable hate media campaign against 'foreigners.' To the involvement of French and UN troops. To the meticulously planned campaign against all 'enemies' of the regime... and thus enemies of the Republic... the rhetorical unification of the government of the day with the nation as a whole is a key part of any sinister propaganda campaign. Even to the Lady MacBeth wife of the president with her own Pretorian Guard entourage (Agathe Habyrimana in Rwanda and Simone Gbagbo in Côte d'Ivoire).

Laurent Gbagbo and his FPI have changed little since that essay was written, despite being declared loser of the recent presidential runoff by the Ivorian Independent National Electoral Commission among others.

There are serious warnings of genocide in the country by pro-Gbagbo forces.

The UN has accused the regime of blocking access to mass graves.

Ivorian observers have expressed concern about the proliferation of hate media, a key component of the Rwandan genocide. As someone who's read and listened to the Ivorian media for many years, these accusations are consistent with my own experiences, both past and present.

No doubt hearing reports of serious human rights abuses and the violent fanaticism of some Gbagbo supporters, thousands of Ivorians have fled to neighboring countries, with officials fearing that influx could be as high as 100,000.

Gbagbo has been called upon to give up the power he legitimately lost not only by westerners and the UN, but also by the African Union and the West African regional body ECOWAS. ECOWAS threatened to remove Gbagbo by force by has since backed off. The military option is unlikely without the support of Ghana, which has one of the region's strongest militaries.

And that's probably just as well for the moment. Threats of outside intervention only play into the hands of the hypernationalistic Gbagbo camp and may provoke a return to civil war should it actually take place. Pressure should continue to be heaped upon the losers to give up power before a bloodbath occurs; a Nigerian human rights group has offered some suggestions in that regard. However, ECOWAS should be ready to intervene if Gbagbo's forces get out of control. Already, the pro-Gbagbo Young Patriots thugs have threatened Ouattara and his aides.

Botswana's president Ian Khama rubbished the idea of a power-sharing agreement with Gbagbo remaining as president and Ouattara returning to his old job as prime minister until the next elections. And very rightly so. Power sharing agreements prevent solutions rather than addressing them.

Pres. Khama denounced the precedent that this would set, noting that "Elections there [in Kenya and Zimbabwe] were hijacked by the ruling party and if that is what is going to happen every time someone wants to dispute an election result and then stay in power by default through a mechanism of power-sharing, then it’s wrong."

Former president Gbagbo has two options. He could follow the example of Cellou Dalein Diallo in neighboring Guinea by accepting defeat with dignity and prevent his country from descending into hell. Or he might end up facing trial in the Hague, like Charles Taylor of neighboring Liberia. May he choose the path of a civilized human being.

Periodic Twitter update

Note: This is a series highlighting selected stories from the Twitter feeds for my blogs Musings of a (Fairly) Young Contrarian and Black Star Journal. The Twitter feed contains not only links to original pieces from my blogs but also links ("re-tweets") to diverse stories from other media outlets. 129 people presently get their updates this way. Those interested are encouraged to subscribe the Twitter feed to get all stories by going to Twitter.com/mofycbsj and clicking 'follow'.



-Poll: [NYS] Voters Say No To Raises, Yes To Taxing Rich (The Journal News)

-EU to sanction Cote d'Ivoire (al-Jazeera)

-How Glenn Beck's Twisted Worldview Goads Disturbed People into Acts of Violence (AlterNet)

-Australian Media's Finest Defend Wikileaks [unlike craven American journalists] (The Wakely Foundation)

-TX GOP Official Opposes Jewish House Speaker: Christians ‘Are The People That Do The Best Jobs’ (Think Progress)

-Indoleaks launched [Indonesian answer to WikiLeaks] (Jakarta Globe)

-Rwandan genocide finds release in photos (NPR)

-Julian Assange, like Daniel Ellsberg and Joe Wilson, Feels the Heat (The Progressive)

-Howie Hawkins says the Green campaign continues (GPNYS)

-Phone Companies' $100 Billion Rip-off -- Where Is That Hidden $6 a Month Going in Our Phone Bills? (Alternet)

-Guinea's [President-elect Alpha] Conde plans truth commission on violence (Reuters)

The nature of reconciliation

Al-Jazeera's Barnaby Phillips (a former BBC journalist) has an interesting blog on reconciliation in Africa. In it, he suggests that one of the things Africans do better than people in other parts of the world is to figure out how to live with each other after conflict. He cites the tension and difficulties in places like Bosnia and Northern Ireland following prolonged civil conflict. He notes that people in Africa would find it absurd to be fixated by the outcome of a 14th or 17th century battle.

He adds that in African countries from Mozambique, to Angola, to Sierra Leone, rebel and government forces that fought on opposite sides in brutal civil wars, marred by atrocities and massacres, are now united in national armies, and apparently oblivious to recent divisions.

He also cites post-conflict stability in places like Biafra/Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa. Philips concludes that the lessons Africans take from conflicts is that the price of disunity is too high to pay.

Yet that approach has its own flaws. Countless dictators, from Mobutu to Meles Zenawi, have exploited this very sentiment. The Rwandan dictatorship itself, praised by Phillips, uses the pretext of unity to crush all opposition... as the newly formed Rwandan Democratic Greens were the latest to learn first hand.

In the mid-90s, both Sierra Leone and Liberia were embroiled in savage civil wars, which sent hundreds of thousands of refugees into neighboring countries, including Guinea where I lived. Countless Guineans complained about the sclerotic, corrupt rule of Gen. Lansana Conté and his cabal. But few were willing to rise and challenge the dictatorship. When I asked why, I was told that Conté's regime was bad but at least the repressive stability was better than the alternatives they saw on the southern border, with women and children having their limbs chopped off by drugged boy soldiers.

But that forced unity has a price of its own. The forced unity didn't solve any of Guinea's myriad of problems; it simply delayed their explosion for a decade or so. When the problems finally did erupt, beginning with the general strike of 2007, it was not pretty. There were riots, at least one major massacre, mass rapes, reports of small scale ethnic cleansing and very real fears (expectations in some quarters) of a Liberia/Sierra Leone-style full scale civil war.

Thanks to the intervention and strong will of a sane military man, Gen. Sékouba Konaté, and to mobilization of the international community and especially of Guinean civil society, the country appears to have gotten past the worst of it. If not for a fortunate sequence of events (including an unmitigated disaster with an unexpected silver lining), things could have been much, much worse.

Phillips makes the valid point that honest dialogue is essential to move forward in post-conflict situations. But true reconciliation involves a voluntary partnership of equals not fake 'unity' imposed at the barrel of a gun.

When 'Never Again' happened again

Earlier this week marked the 16th anniversary of the beginning of the Rwandan genocide during which at least 800,000 people were murdered. It was one of the world's worst atrocities of the century and certainly the worst to be covered during the age of cable news television. It occurred a year, almost to the week, after politicians and dignitaries in Washington solemnly promised 'Never again' while inaugurating the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

In 2004, I wrote a long series of essays on the occasion of the 10th anniversary which gave a lot of information and background about the genocide.

They are as follows (yes, I know the images do not work):

-Ten years later (an intro)
-Pre-genocide history
-How the genocide unfolded
-Myths and realities about the genocide (Part 1)
-Myths and realities about the genocide (Part 2)
-The genocide's orphans
-Hate media and their role in the genocide
-International law and American law on genocide
-Post-genocide justice
-The post-genocide government
-Lessons and conclusions

Repression in Rwanda

The Economist has a piece on strongman Paul Kagame and his regime of paradoxes in Rwanda.

The Facebook group We Support the African Greens has a number of links to stories and resources related to repression by the Rwandan dictatorship against journalists and others.

When 'Never Again' happened again

Today is the 15th anniversary of the beginning of the Rwandan genocide during which at least 800,000 people were murdered. It was one of the world's worst atrocities of the century and certainly the worst to be covered during the age of cable news television. It occurred a year, almost to the week, after politicians and dignitaries in Washington solemnly promised 'Never again' while inaugurating the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Rwanda's New Times newspaper has an editorial on the commemoration.

Global Post has a good three part series...

-Part 1: Many Rwandan survivors only now starting to confront their trauma
-Part 2: One community works for forgiveness
-Part 3: TBA

In 2004, I wrote a long series of essays on the occasion of the 10th anniversary which gave a lot of information and background about the genocide.

They are as follows (yes, I know the images do not work):

-Ten years later (an intro)
-Pre-genocide history
-How the genocide unfolded
-Myths and realities about the genocide (Part 1)
-Myths and realities about the genocide (Part 2)
-The genocide's orphans
-Hate media and their role in the genocide
-International law and American law on genocide
-Post-genocide justice
-The post-genocide government
-Lessons and conclusions

Was Nkunda a victim of a financial squeeze on Kigali?

A few days after being arrested, DRC rebel leader Laurent Nkunda remains in detention in neighboring Rwanda, his former backers. Kinshasa wants him extradited but Kigali claims that there's no extradition treaty between the two countries. Despite the recent military cooperation between the two countries, it seems Rwanda is eager to find reasons NOT to hand over Nkunda to Congolese officials. One can only speculate that they are afraid what tales Nkunda might tell in open court if given the opportunity.

In an interview with Radio France Internationale, Belgian academic Philippe Reyntjens speculates that the Kagame regime's turning against Nkunda is related to last month's release of a damning UN report that, among other things, openly accused Rwanda of backing Nkunda's forces. Reyntjens pointed out that some donors had suspended aid to Kigali and that the country's biggest foreign backer, Britain, was threatening to follow suit.

I'm loathe to use the word 'victim' to describe Nkunda but it appears international pressure on Rwanda to remove him from the scene succeeded.

Nkunda arrested

DR Congo rebel leader Laurent Nkunda was arrested by Rwandan troops. The arrest came only days after the launching of a joint military operation between the Congolese and Rwandan national armies (a mission not universally appreciated), after years of tension between the two governments. The DRC has called for Nkunda's extradition.

Rwanda was long accused of being his benefactor. Nkunda was originally a military leader in the RPF, the movement now in power in Kigali. Nkunda then joined the forces of Laurent-Désiré Kabila, which overthrown the Mobutu regime and whose son is now the DRC's head of state.

However, a BBC analysis believes that Nkunda's big mistake was launching a vicious military offensive last October around Goma that caused widespread international condemnation. The BBC analyst believes that this opened the space for a new relationship between Kinshasa and Kigali.

In mid-January, a group of soldiers part of Nkunda's movement claimed to have ousted him as leader.

A week later, he's in detention.

Some are optimistic that Nkunda's departure from the scene may lead to peace in the eastern DRC, a region devastated by war and instability for over a dozen years. But with the massive 'interest' and always murky activities in the country's mineral resources, caution is prudent.

North Kivu spirals out of control

As many of you may be aware, there is a burgeoning crisis in North Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rebel 'general' Laurent Nkunda's Rwandan backed forces have started fighting again. The DRC's central government refuses to meet with Nkunda. The Congolese national army is so indisciplined and poorly paid that many observers say they are as much a threat to stability as Nkunda's forces.

Standing by impotently is MONUC, the largest and most expensive UN 'peacekeeping' mission in the world. The UK Independent ran an Associated Press analysis claiming that the 'Congo conflict shows flaws in UN force.'
The quick unraveling of the world's largest UN peacekeeping effort has come as no surprise to the mission's critics, who complain the force was unprepared for its main task — protecting civilians from the war.

Growing numbers of civilians are furious at the UN's failure to keep them safe. Angry Congolese have pelted rocks at all four UN compounds in the provincial capital of Goma. One such attack on the disputed road north of the city critically wounded an Indian officer.

MONUC has 17,000 troops in the DRC, a country the size of Western Europe. But the main trouble spots are in North Kivu, a province only slightly smaller than the country of Sierra Leone.

Only 6,000 of MONUC's soldiers are in North Kivu, even though most of the rest of the DRC is relatively peaceful and stable.
By comparison, the eventually successful UN mission in Sierra Leone itself once had over 17,000 troops.

MONUC needs a new mandate and the resources to execute it. Its current mandate is to support the DRC national army, an 'army that doesn't exist,' according to one UN official. Much like the rebels, the army is accused of widespread human rights' abuses. And the army is the official arm of a government that refuses to talk with Nkunda.

In December 2007, the UN empowered peacekeepers to forcefully disarm Nkunda's militias but they don't have the resources to do that. Nkunda has almost twice as many men as MONUC and the UN forces are poorly equipped.

Additionally, international pressure must be put on Rwanda to stop backing Nkunda's destabilizing forces. Worse yet, Rwanda has been accused of being more overtly involved in the conflict.

Rwandan forces fired tank shells or other heavy artillery across the border at Congolese troops during fighting last week, the UN said recently.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in North Kivu continues to spiral out of control for the Congolese, while aid workers helping them are subjected to many of the same dangers.

The role of women in Rwandan politics

The Rwanda Project of the Hunt Alternatives Fund has some interesting literature on its work in that country. The project particularly focuses on enabling females to more fully participate in society. It notes that since the 1994 genocide, Rwandan women have made remarkable contributions to rebuild their society. They also made unprecedented political gains, achieving near parity in the legislature's lower chamber.

It notes that female parliamentarians in the country have drafted the only substantive bill to emerge from the legislative rather than the executive branch, a far-reaching law to combat gender-based violence; spearheaded efforts to eliminate discrimination and enhance human rights protections; and fostered cross-party and male-female collaboration through the Forum of Rwandan Women Parliamentarians and by involving men in efforts to craft legislation.

The website includes reports on women's involvement in defending the rights of children, promoting anti-domestic violence legislation and supporting female participation in local politics.

Rwanda: remembrance day

Note: I am remiss for having neglected to publish this yesterday.

14 years ago today, a plane carrying the leaders of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down, killing both men. The event was used as the pretext to carry a pre-planned genocide in Rwanda. At least 800,000 people were murdered in the slaughter.

A few years ago, I marked the 10th anniversary of the massacres' start with a series of essays and analyses exploring the genocide more deeply as well as addressing many myths surrounding its causes and implementation.

As i wrote in my introduction back in 2004:

Ten years ago today, the airplane carrying the leaders of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down, killed both. This was the pretext used by a group of extremists to execute a pre-planned genocide against the minority Tutsi community. It also targeted Hutu political opponents, most of whom were moderates in favor of a power-sharing deal with the Tutsis, a deal opposed by the regime's hardliners. In the slaughter, around 800,000 people were killed in only 100 days -- approximately 5 1/2 murdered every single minute of every single day for over three months. It is widely believed to be the most "efficient" mass murder in history. And far from being secretive or in the fog of war like previous genocides, this was unique in that it was broadcast around the world live and in color on CNN and the BBC.

Pieces in the series can be found:
-Pre-genocide history of Rwanda
-How the genocide unfolded
-Myths and realities about the genocide (part 1)
-Myths and realities about the genocide (part 2)
-The genocide's orphans
-Hate media and its role in the genocide
-International and American law on genocide
-Post-genocide justice
-The post-genocide government
-Lessons and conclusions

Please take a moment from your day to remember the dead.

Eastern DRC violence to spread?

The Christian Science Monitor reports on fears by the UN and other agencies that the resumption of war in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo risks crossing the border into Rwanda. The region has been unstable since 1994 when genociders and civilians from Rwanda poured into the then-Zaire and were housed in refugee camps. Rwanda and Uganda have invaded the eastern DRC several times under the pretext of their own national security.

French judiciary liberates genocide suspects

Relations between France and Rwanda got even frostier recently when the French judiciary released from custody two prominent genocide suspects that Rwanda had been trying to extradite since 1995.

The Rwandan regime attacked the French decision, noting that the two were the subject of international arrest warrants.

Charles Murigande, Rwandan foreign minister, said that France has undermined the integrity of the International Criminal Court to which it is a signatory.

“We are shocked and displeased, of course, by this decision, but it is not surprising that all these people have been living unhindered in France, benefiting from the protection of France for the last 12 years. Let me tell you that before International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) issued the international arrest warrants, we had done the same before. We had requested the extradition and all these efforts fell on deaf ears from France. So, it appears that it is the same old story of protecting people who are involved in genocide in Rwanda,” Murigande said.

He said France’s action smacks in the face of its espoused values.

“What may be shocking is to see France undermining an international tribunal that was put in place by the UN Security Council. And yet France is a permanent member of the Security Council,” he said.

Murigande added that if France did not want to extradite the pair two Rwanda, they could do so to the UN-run International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda based in Arusha, Tanzania.

The row came only a few months after a book revealed that France allegedly played a more active role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide than previously believed.

French troops advised Rwandan Hutu extremists how to hide their gruesome work from spy satellites, according to Andrew Wallis, author of the book Silent Witness.

Wallis said some troops became aggravated by corpses floating on rivers -- images picked up by spy satellites.

"So the French soldiers were telling them you have to slit off the bellies of these Tutsi that you kill so that they sink and satellites do not see them," Wallis told Reuters in Kigali.

[...]

Wallis said the French role went far beyond arms deals with the pro-Hutu government, saying that before and during the genocide, French special forces armed and trained soldiers who later become the militias that carried out most of the killing.

"Their role is fairly clearly marked, their role is that of accomplice to the genocide crime," Wallis said.

Rwanda broke diplomatic relations with France late last year when a French judge issued arrest warrants for nine aides of the current head of state, who were accused of killing the country's previous dictator.

So men accused of playing key roles in the genocide and deaths of hundreds (or more) of innocent people are free men. But the French judiciary is more concerned with guys who allegedly targeted a single dictator.

Reconciliation in Rwanda

The Anglican Bishop of Rwanda John Rucyahana says that 'wonderful things' are happening in his country

Rucyahana, who fled the country during the 1994 genocide, says the aftermath of the horror has united the different ethnic groups in Rwanda, and there’s a new spirit of hope and reconciliation in the country.

VOA has a long story on Rucyahana and his new book Bishop of Rwanda: Finding Forgiveness Amidst a Pile of Bones.