Monday 5 October 2015

Great Lakes Region: Ubwenge or geopolitical strategy?

Great Lakes Region: Ubwenge or geopolitical strategy?

State leaders spreading terror in the Great Lakes region are protected by international powers that need proxies such as presidents, politicians, army, rebels ... to achieve their objectives with regard to their policies in the region?

06/10/2015

By Ishiaba Kasonga
With the collaboration of Serge Egola Angbakodolo
Paul Kagame, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and Joseph Kbila

In July 2015, Obama warned his counterparts in Africa; do not have the statutory additional periods to remain in office. Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in particular, ignored this warning. Whereby more than three-quarters of Africans polled support term limits. The young and those who are exposed to the media overwhelmingly reject these autocrats and their systems of patronage as we witness recently the black spring in Burkina Faso.

The royal path to power?

Some historical and actual contexts needed to understand what can cause the proxies Kaguta Museveni, Kagame Paul and Kabila Joseph, to go deaf. And why the trio seem to be protected while they are continuing to terrorize the Great Lakes Region.

Kaguta Museveni of Uganda -with his National Resistance Army (NRA)- took over in 1986 after two decades of  the Amin and Obote government. His relation with Kagame of Rwanda is based on the decisive role he played in the plot of the assassination of Habyarimana in 1994; he forced the Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryanira and Habyarimana to fly later in the same plan as planned by the RPF so they could ambushed them, and maintained its role as the RPF's military arsenal.

Between 1980-1985, Kagame Paul helped KagutaMusevni seize power in Uganda. With his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), Kagame came to power, in Rwanda, after the assassination of Habyarimana that triggered the 1994 genocide. He masterminded -with the help of United States, United Kingdom and Belgium- the invasion of Zaire in order to install Joseph Kabila as President of DRC after ordering the killing of Congolese president, Laurent Desire Kabila, who was used as frontman during the invasion of Zaire in 1997.

Kabila Joseph -refered as "le petit Rwandais" (The little rwandan), and also known as Kagame's Trojan Horse in DRC- was  a former "Rwandan-flagged" military spy in Rwandan Patriotic Army  (RPA)  and Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation (AFDL) warlord commandant who was imposed to Laurent Desiré Kabila, by Kagame, into the very heart of the system of his power to spy  on him and to be the guardian of both Uganda and Rwanda's interests. In 2001, Joseph Kabila  took power after the ignoble assassination of Laurent Desiré Kabila.   

The trio "K" (Kaguta, Kagame, Kabila): the proxies that made obama's words unheard?

The key factor to understand the trio's behaviour is that they were all been brought  in the ancient Rwandan tradition called "Ubwenge" also known as the culture of lying. Ubwenge literally defined as knowledge and its deeper meaning is lies and deceptions.
Kaguta -an illusionist politician who is able to use all means at his disposal to seduce in order to achieve his objective- is a former Marxist converted to liberalism who cleverly has attracted the International community, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and the United States to collect international funds that helped him to build the strongest army in the region.  He was seen by the international community as a new breed of African leaders to be emulated for introducing key institutional reforms. He rules under the paradoxes of a hybrid regime which are neither autocracies nor fully democratic, and created an impression that was on a steady path to strengthen democratic institutions. 

Kagame -described by BBC as a quiet soldier who runs Rwanda- is able to set your house on fire while hiding the smoke, and at the same time to portray himself as the victim while he is the executioner as he did in the Great lakes Region chaos. He used various connections such as  NGOs, international medias, western political and academic personalities, and robust network of campaign to help him be portrayed as freedom fighter. While evidences of his complicity in the crash of Habyarimana's flight and other numerous crimes are buried in UN's drawers. Kagame's  dictatorial regime is accused of gross violation of human rights in his country and abroad.
Kabila, an unknown character with an obscure background, has the ability to disguise himself as he presents himself as Congolese subject while he is a Rwandan Tutsi by birth, and governs Congo to serve both Rwandan and Ugandan interests. Even while his fraudulent behaviour is already known and he kills and prosecutes everyone that displays his Rwandan citizenship. Kabila's role was to collapse entirely the Congolese state whereby basic functions were lacking including an intentionally and tactically fielding army in order to transform DRC into weak state so as to dismember it. Joseph Kabila's regime is a bloody and corrupted dictatorship.

The Ubwenge Strategy?

The trio proxies' record of plundering and fuelling atrocities in the region is one of the most exhaustively detailed of the present human age.

In a U-turn at the United Nations Human Rights, western governments are closing eyes to the trio's human rights violation. While They are using this violent behaviour to stay in power for life. Because  leaving the office surely would mean exile, repression, imprisonment or death.

The change of direction came when US and UK shyly warned the trio  not to cling onto power. This might be because the trio's impunity has reached scandalous proportions.

Combining the above, one can extrapolate the trio's backgrounds that make Obama's warning unheard.

John Kerry and Kaguta Museveni

In the mean time  Secretary John Kerry said to Museveni; "We need to ‘finish the jobs’ in Somalia, South Sudan and the Lords Resistance Army. Somalia now has the ability to build a better government. We have made tremendous progress, we need a successful story. What do we need to do to finish this job.”. He commended President Museveni’s peace efforts and said they needed his leadership to resolve the conflict situations in Somalia, South Sudan, Burundi and the LRA.

In regard of Kagame: Bill Clinton called him"one of the greatest leaders of our time", and Tony Blair calls him a "visionary leader" to govern Rwanda. Also, Dr. Hazel Cameron states that "everywhere we visited the Rwandans want that Kagame remains in power even after 2017"

Additionally, Obama's administration portrays Kabila as if he is the only one that is trying to bring peace to the DRC, and safeguard and maintain DRC territorial integrity and national sovereignty.

Following the above, the trio strongly believes in the presidential life-termism. Museveni -who's fifth term ends in 2016- scraped off the term limits in 2001. Kabila - whose second term ends in 2016- is trying every means to stay in the office includin "glissement" (French for sliding) and constitutional amendments. And Kagame -who must leave the office in 2017- is also lobbying to scrape the constitutions for an unlimited term.

With proxy wars in the region; the strategy of chaos would also justify their presidential life-termism by permanently keeping afloat the flame of the 1994 genocide as "Mal Nécessaire Perpetré" (MNP) french of  "Necessary evil perpetrated" (PNE).

The Burundi crisis is not just electoral;  it challenges rather the Arusha Accord. Burundi- where president Pierre Nkurunziza (another autocrat) have recently solidified his hold on power by removing constitutional obstacles- is burning. Regional Leaders  might use the crisis - especially the assassination of high-ranking personalities in Bujumbura's regime- as a detonator that will set fire in the Great Lakes Regions like the 1994 genocide was a trigger for the chaos.

The questions are;  is the trio effectively, in a Machiavellian fashion, using the Ubwenge strategy against the world? Or, are the international powers, especially the US, the mastermind of Ubwenge that found their similarity in the trio to determine their policy in the region?
                            
Meanwhile, Rwanda and Uganda and "Joseph Kabila" are still killing and raping in the Great Lakes Region and together the trio keep manipulating the world by signing "accords" and "agreements" they never had any intention to honour or use to stop the killing

Nevertheless, the sustainable peace in the region demands strong institutions  -that include justice, truth, reconciliation and end of cycle of impunity- not a strong man in the office.

To be continue.........

By Ishiaba Kasonga
With the collaboration of Serge Egola Angbakodolo

Sources:

Term limits: http://afrobarometer.org/sites/default/files/publications/Dispatches/ab_r6_dispatchno30.pdf

The black spring: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/burkinafaso/11199820/African-protesters-launch-Black-Spring-in-Burkina-Faso.html

Burkina Faso: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/24/burkina-faso-coup-rise-and-fall-of-what-you-need-to-know

The royal path to power: http://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/detail_rdc-rebelle-la-voie-royale-vers-le-pouvoir?id=9080835

Le petit Rwandais: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yaalengi-ngemi/repression-in-the-democra_b_6512092.html

Ubwenge: http://www.musabyimana.net/20091001-la-culture-du-mensonge-au-rwanda/
Kills: http://afrique.kongotimes.info/afrique/afrique_est/tanzanie/9808-rdc-joseph-kabila-fait-assassiner-politicien-tanzanien-mchungaji-christopher-mtikila.html

Quiet soldier who runs Randa: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/689405.stm

Unknown Character: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=20010121&id=TvFPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=awgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4439,1595056&hl=en
Rwandan by birth: http://vacradio.com/2015/09/17/rdc-kyungu-a-t-il-reellement-donne-le-nom-de-kabange-a-joseph-kabila/

Secretary of state John Kerry: http://www.theinsider.ug/kerry-says-us-still-needs-museveni/
Bill Clinton and Tony Blair: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/19/kagame-africa-Rwanda

Dr. Hazel Cameron: http://www.newsofrwanda.com/featured1/26898/partout-ou-nous-avons-visite-les-rwandais-souhaitent-que-kagame-reste-au-pouvoir-meme-apres-2017-dr-hazel-cameron/

Glissement and constitutional amendements; http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-06/congo-s-opposition-coalescing-to-stop-kabila-from-extending-rule

Arusha Accord: http://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/note_burundi_defaire_la_paix_vircoulon_brabant.pdf

Burundi is burning: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/01/burundi-protest-pierre-claver-mbonimpa

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