The reference here is of a country called Rwanda and led by President Paul Kagame. With a different leadership, this exercise would be futile for understandable reasons.
Some might not be aware of this news, but on 18 October 2012, Rwanda as a new member of the United Nations Security Council, this among the rotating membership of the Council will be confirmed, if nothing opposes its candidacy.
However, it will be ironic if the seat to Rwanda is unequivocally approved, considered its persistent responsibility in the ongoing destabilization of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Let’s assume the country gets the aspired membership to the Council despite its non deserving behavior towards DRC. How can it use its new position to further its detrimental policies in the Great Lakes region?
Destabilizing factor
Before 1990, Rwanda would’ve hardly experienced genocide of the scale seen in 1994. If 800,000 people died during that period, part of the blame should be bared by the current president of Rwanda.
Though the country had its own governance flaws, harmonious ethnic policies were gradually and positively changing its society makeup.
His Rwandan Patriotic Front of exiled Tutsi mainly from Uganda started a guerrilla war which destroyed existing social harmony between Hutus and Tutsis.
Kagame’s decision to shoot down the plane of his predecessor Juvenal Habyarimana sparkled massacres on April 6, 1994.
Without US and UK backing, the Rwandan president, working with his Ugandan and Burundian allies, wouldn’t have invaded the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1996 and 1998.
They supplied him with military intelligence and logistical assistance directly or through a network of intermediaries. No wonder the Anglo-Saxons achieved what the little Rwanda couldn’t on its own: controlling stream of Congolese minerals through a permanently destabilized country.
By joining the UNSC, Rwanda would be part of a club of countries that share an imperialistic vision of the world, with whom it has been working with successfully over the years.
It will be for Kigali, an opportunity to contribute closely to shaping that tendency, not anymore acting as agent but mainly too as decision maker.
Enhanced impunity
During the last eighteen years, the role of agent of US and UK in the Great Lakes region has so far enabled Rwanda to benefit from impunity for its criminal and persistent presence in DRC under different names.
In recent months, with particularly the rise of the Congolese rebel movement M23, there has been a view among backers of Kigali that dialogue between Rwanda and DRC could bring peace. They know well it won’t. And that is why they push for it.
They are aware that addressing the root causes of the issues – removing dictatorships in Kigali and Kampala and supporting democracy in the region, would fundamentally change their plans.
From experience between Rwanda and DRC, especially during these years where Kagame has been seen by many and for the wrong reasons as the strong man of the region, he has time and again proven to be untrustworthy.
With a seat at the UNSC, he could only strengthen his position on untrustworthiness and forcibly and always point at his detractors as the ones in the wrong. With certainly more offenses to come because of the new acquired position, Kagame could benefit from enhanced impunity.
Imperialist in its own right
“They back me, I back them.” This seems to have been the mantra of Paul Kagame so far. And that has created a “Win/Win” situation. In the process he can even blackmail his backers, like when the UN Mapping report on DRC was published on October 1st, 2010.
The Rwandan president supported George Bush in his invasion of Iraq, which was undertaken without the consent of the international community. We remember what came to be of the weapons of mass destruction which were claimed as justification of going to war against Saddam Hussein.
Last year, the Rwandan president was equally prompt to get behind NATO in its invasion and destruction of Libyan infrastructures and lives.
In recent years Paul Kagame has been behind the majority of rebellions in Eastern Congo against their central government in Kinshasa. His support to M23 has gone unabated despite multiple condemnations from a variety of sources and governments assisting Rwanda.
Will Rwanda of Kagame at the United Nations Security Council be another little “imperialist” joining the club, or could it be considered by permanent members as an embarrassment which does not have the required refinement to operate expertly as they do?
The death toll in the Great Lakes region since Paul Kagame emergence from the guerrilla wars mounts today to almost 8 millions all nationalities included.
What giving a seat to Rwanda at the Security Council will do, can unfortunately be to leverage its position in the commission of acts which led to previous and ongoing tragedies for Rwandans andCongolese particularly.
Rising Continent 
Reblogged this on Human Rights & Politics.
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I am not very religious. But for convenience, let’s effectively call for some heavenly blessing for GLR, as it is long needed for what has been happening in the region for the last quarter of century.
I will start by questioning which story you want me to look at from the eyes of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and other countries experiencing chaos up to now. Is it their story as told by western media or the one told by those experiencing that chaos as you call it? Have you ever wondered if what you have been bombarded as news was not propaganda for a certain opinion about what is going on in those different places you mentioned? Let’s take the cases of Iraq and Libya. In the first one, wouldn’t you agree with me that the chaos created in that country wasn’t aimed to create business contracts for American firms involved in war equipment and reconstruction? This should be obvious since today there is ample evidence showing that the reasons to go to war and invade Iraq were fabricated, particularly with regards the weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein was claimed to possess. In the case of Libya, I will only highlight the fact that the chaos was fabricated by Western media and those who were opposed to Qaddafi; but the same chaos became real after the assassination of the Libyan president. But it has also enabled capitalist companies to gain business contracts in Libya they wouldn’t have had access to before the fall of the assassinated leader.
I don’t how long you have been following the situation in the Great Lakes region, this with an analytic perspective, which means by not falling again into the discourse of dictators of Rwanda and Uganda, who explain the ongoing chaos in DRC from an angle which advantages them. Effectively each country has its own problems. DRC, or Rwanda or Uganda are not different.
But as I pointed to you in the case of Iraq and Libya, there are problems that some countries experience and which are forced onto them by others. And denying that fact in the case of DRC in what has been a persistent interference of Rwanda, and even Uganda, in its internal affairs, won’t change the evidence on the ground for any objective eye to see. I will dispense you from checking the numerous UN reports which have been attesting for more than 10 years that reality.
You are pointing me to other rebel movements in DRC as if Rwanda cannot be behind any of them, but supposedly only M23, because everybody has been accusing Kagame of supporting the latter. But you forget that after 1997, with the fall of Mobutu, James Kabarere, present Rwandan minister of defense, became DRC defense minister in Kinshasa [what an irony of case in international affairs] and since then the whole Congolese administrative and military institutions have been invaded by Rwandophone. Furthermore, you should also remember that all peace agreements [Sun City and Lusaka] that followed the two wars of invasion of DRC in 1996 and 1998 had Congolese of Rwandan descent strongly behind them such that no one could a 100% say that Kigali with all its network of agents in DRC cannot interfere negatively into Congolese affairs by creating chaos.
I have to concede with you that MONUSCO is not doing what it has been tasked to do in DRC, but I will disagree on the intentions of the neutral international force promoted by IGLR with regards the situation created by M23, which are in reality to serve more Rwanda and Uganda interests than bringing peace in the region. A similar structure was created in 1991/92 when Kagame’s RPF was attacking Rwanda from Uganda, and its purpose was only to delay the chaos that his bush war was creating for the attacked country. And for the majority of Rwandans and citizens of DRC [particularly Eastern Congo] Paul Kagame has managed to achieve the chaos and the whole lot of misery it brings for them and opportunities for those who thrive under such contexts.
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For sure it is unbelievable how on earth you write this story! I would advise you look your story on the eyes of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and other countries experiencing chaos up to now; do you also advise that US, UK, European countries should be removed from the UN Security Council?!
The problem with Rwanda is that they went to a “court at UN SC” but Rwanda forgot that the case was against UNSC itself!
DRC has its own problem to the extent that blame should go to others; in this case, Rwanda. BUT for God’s sake, what is the responsibility of DRC government? Let us suppose that Rwanda supports M23; what about other militias of Mai Mai and those who want to be independent in Katanga or those taking control of Pweto and other areas in Katanga and South Kivu? It seems you are waiting for leaked info about many letters sent to UN SG! Open your eyes to see the truth in this world. I’m sure Rwanda can do better than UNSC permanent members or those countries of your choice.
What is observed on the other hand is the failure of international community to the extent that its force (MONUSCO) fails to be neutral and now ICGLR has proved it and UN finally conceded.
God bless GLR.
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