By M. Suleman

29^th Oct 2012: Since 1996 when the NRA/RPF forces entered DRC under frivolous excuses of defending their territorial integrity, DRC has not had peace. It has been looted, brutalized, thousands killed, many displaced, and others forced to flee.  From then to date DRC has never regained its sovereignty and peace which it had.

It is a well known fact that after the overthrow of Mobutu, the invading forces did not hesitate to install a Rwandese (current Defense Minister of Rwanda) as the army Chief of Staff of DRC.  This effectively made the DRC an occupied state under the control of Rwanda and Uganda.

When the late President Laurent Kabila tried to restore DRC’s sovereignty by taking steps to loosen Rwanda’s firm grip, the Rwandese run to the East of the DRC and launched a war against Laurent Kabila’s government.

Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola intervened and stopped Rwanda and Uganda from colonizing the DRC.  A truce was declared, after which Rwanda and Uganda were ordered to leave DRC around 2003. Unfortunately, in the haste of trying to achieve peace, little help was given to DRC to enable it sieve its security forces.

Without a strict, tight, and internationally supervised demobilization program, asking DRC to deal with this huge challenge was to effectively ask it to absorb Ugandan and Rwandese forces into its army.  It is these “alien DRC soldiers” that have caused the endless rebellions by a multitude of armed militias that are backed by Museveni and Kagame.

The problem is that their superior weapons notwithstanding, these minority ethnic militias are incompatible with the people and cultures of the DRC.  In the circumstances, (and perhaps with the support of the UK and US), it is not inconceivable that Museveni and Kagame may actually be in the final stages of declaring Eastern DRC an independent Banyamulenge state.

Despite their consistent denials, it is now a well established fact that Uganda and Rwanda have been, and continue to be the Godfathers of conflict in the DRC who operate under the false pretext of protecting their respective strategic national interests – restraining the Intarahamwe militias for Rwanda, and restraining the ADF and LRA rebels for Uganda.

Museveni’s and Kagame’s true agenda of creating a Banyamulenge state out of DRC territory has been deceptively camouflaged with peace keeping missions in Darfur and Somalia.  It is these peace keeping missions that have hoodwinked the international community to vote Uganda (a few years back) and Rwanda (recently) to the UN Security Council.

It is also the same devious peace keeping missions that have fooled the world into thinking that the conflict in Eastern DRC must be defined from the prism of the Rwandese and Ugandan leadership.

So with the connivance of the international community, the crimes against humanity in the DRC will continue, and the DRC will continue to be a vassal state.  In short, I think as long as Museveni and Kagame remain in power, the DRC should forget about its sovereignty and stability.  END:  Login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories mid-week for our updates

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