U.S./U.K. Allies Grab Congo Riches and Millions
Die 2001-03 UN Expert Reports
04 November, 2008 | By Prof. Peter Erlinder/Global Research
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who don’t pay much attention to the details of African history and
politics, the humanitarian disaster in the Congo has exploded into
public consciousness, as if the 25-year war to control Central
Africa began only yesterday.
The "Congo story" Behind the Headlines
But, in fact, the human rights disaster that the people of the world
are watching on our TV screens is just the most recent human
tragedy in a 25 year struggle for economic and political dominance
in Central Africa that has been raging since the decline and eventual
collapse of the Soviet influence in Africa in the 1980’s and early
1990’s. A sad fact of the 20th Century is that, even after the end of
formal "colonialism" in the mid-20th Century, ruling African elites in
virtually every African nation have looked to one or more powerful
"sponsors" in the developed world to gain or retain power. And, to
grab the personal wealth that goes with political/military power in
Africa.
In Africa, "government" is a well-accepted avenue for trained and
educated African elites to get ahead economically, without having to
immigrate to more developed nations outside of Africa. Few major
private multi-national economic entities are based in Africa, and
"para-statal" government monopolies or government-approved
contracting with private foreign sources of capital from the
developed world are the main sources of economic development in
many African countries. The result is that political and military
power is inevitably entwined with economic benefit for those who
manage to achieve state-power whether by the ballot, or by force.
In addition, direct support from industrialized nations in the form of
"aid" must be funneled through governmental agencies. And, even
today, "donor income" from the industrialized world makes up a
large portion of the budgets of nearly every African nation. And,
after the end of support from the Soviet Bloc in about 1990, local
leaders were forced to choose between Anglo-American aid and
investment or from former colonial masters that comprise the EU
countries, at least until China began developing economic relations
with African nations within the past few years,
"Blood Diamonds," Leonardo DeCaprio’s recent film, makes the
point that every lengthy war in Africa is possible only with support
from foreign governments or private interests (or both)…..which
necessarily have designs on African resources in return. And, so it is
with the 25-year war for control of the riches of Central Africa,
of which the humanitarian disaster in the Congo is the most recent
example.
The recent British/French "diplomatic initiative" to discuss yet
another ceasefire with Congo’s President Kabila and Rwanda’s
Paul Kagame, makes absolutely clear who the real protagonists are
in this most recent eruption of the war in the Congo. It is now
generally understood that the Congo "rebels" are closely-enough
connected to Kagame’s Rwanda that it is more important to
negotiate with him than with Gen. Laurent Nkunda, the titular leader
of the Congolese-tutsi "rebel" army.
But, the connections between the suffering in the Congo and either
Rwanda or Uganda are rarely discussed in mainstream media, least
in the English-speaking world. And, to the extent we are informed
about the reasons for the Congo War at all, we are told that Gen.
Nkunda is at war "to protect the tutsi minority." That the continued
fighting as something to do with the 1994 "Rwanda genocide." And,
that "hutu genocidaires" have to be rooted out of the Eastern Congo
to protect both Congolese "tutsis" and the territory of Rwanda, itself.
However, it has been more than 14 years since Kagame seized
complete power in Rwanda, which means that anyone under 30
could not have been directly involved in the 1994 events in Rwanda
that Kagame’s government calls the "Genocide". Today’s teenage
combatants were either children or not yet born, when civilians-
killed-civilians in Rwanda in 1994. At most, Gen Nkunda is fighting
the "children of the genocidaires"…and the scope of the fighting as
reached far beyond the limited areas near the Rwandan border
where anti-government Rwandan-refugees (both tutsi and hutu) are
actually located.
And, even without considering the wars in Uganda and Rwanda that
lasted from 1981 to 1994, at least, there can be no dispute that the
Congo war has been raging since 1996…which means that the war
is not only inter-generational…but must be funded from outside
Africa in a "Blood Diamonds"-like scenario….and it is.
Origins of the Congo War: 2001-03 UN Experts’ Reports
In fact, evidence has long existed that the war in the Eastern Congo,
between 1996 and today, has little or nothing to do with "ethnicity"
or capturing "genocidaires." Like "weapons of mass destruction"
used to justify another war of aggression by the U.S. on Iraq.…."
ethnic" and "response to the genocide" have been used by both
Uganda and Rwanda to justify a war of aggression, waged for
economic reasons, described in the UN Experts Reports. Not
coincidentally, Uganda and Rwanda are two of the largest recipients
of US and British economic and military assistance in Africa. Wars
initiated by Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda’s Paul
Kagame, have raged in Central Africa since Museveni’s 1981
invasion to seize power in Uganda, which the Red Cross reported
had killed at least 300,000 civilians by the time he took power in
1986.
The real reasons for the ongoing war in the Congo is described in
great detail in several United Nations Security Council Expert
Reports, make clear that war and massive civilian deaths in the
Eastern Congo since 1996 have little, if anything to do with
"tribalism," "ethnicity," or even the "Rwanda genocide." But, rather,
have everything to do with the rape of the Congo’s resources by the
militaries of Rwanda and Uganda and their local surrogates.
According to three separate UN Security Council Reports, issued
between 2001 and 2003, war on the Congo began when Uganda
and Rwanda made common-cause with local Congolese leader
Laurent Kabila, and other Congolese elites, to control the vast
resources of the Eastern Congo in 1996. The UN Reports show
that that since, the 1996 invasion and a second invasion in 1998,
Rwanda and Uganda have become the major trading centers for
diamonds, precious metals and other natural resources that are not
found in either country.....but which exist in great quantities in the
Congo. As of 2003, the UN Security Council Reports put the
cost of civilian lives at some 3 million (the current estimate is more
than 5 million lives….so far).
The Rwanda/Uganda Rape of the Congo Continues Today
For more than 3 decades, the "anti-Communist" credentials of the
former Congolese Joseph Mobutu had protected him from western
criticism during the Cold War, despite his brutal kleptocracy that
had been matched only by vicious pre-independence colonial rule of
Belgian King Leopold. But, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in
the early 1990’s and Mobutu became politically expendable,
Uganda/Rwanda-supported "Congolese rebels" replaced him with
Laurent Kabila in 1997 and Kabila agreed to a treaty that split
economic dominance of the Eastern Congo between Uganda and
Rwanda in the areas adjacent to their own borders.
By 1998, however, Uganda and Rwanda invaded Eastern Congo
again, after the new President Kabila began attempting to reclaim
military and economic influence in the areas of his country controlled
by Rwanda and Uganda. Unlike 1996, Kabila had made alliances
with other African nations that opposed the foreign-supported
aggression against the Congo and troops from Angola, Zimbabwe
and Namibia entered the war in support of the Kabila government.
Despite a 1999 Lusaka peace treaty, which also provided for the
creation of MONUC (UN Observer Mission in the Congo), the
war continued. In 2000, while the U.S. media was distracted by the
Bush/Gore campaign, the Uganda/Rwanda began vying for control
over portions of the Congo and the long-standing alliance split over
control of the resources of the Eastern Congo.
UN Experts: Decades-long Congo Resources Rape
By January 2001, this "first world war of Africa" had killed more
than 3 million people, Laurent Kabila was assassinated and was
replaced by his son, Joseph. For many years, the Rwandan
government had claimed that its interests in the Congo was
protection from "genocidaires" hiding in the Congo…but the falsity
of this claim was exposed in July 2001, when the UN Security
Council received its first preliminary report on the exploitation of
Congo’s resources. The first, interim report documents the plunder
of coffee, timber, diamonds, gold and "coltan" (the grey gold that is
in every cell phone that can be found only in the Congo) by
Rwandan and Ugandan forces in the areas each controlled.
Another more extensive report in October 2002 documented the
seizure of banks, sugar refineries, mines and provides the names of
local leaders and war-lords with ties to Uganda and Rwanda…as
well as describing the ties between both "hutu" and "tutsi" Rwandans
who were working together to enrich themselves, and their
Rwandan and Ugandan sponsors, at the expense of the indigenous
Congolese. And the October 2003 Security Council Report states:
"….The Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) still play an important
but highly discreet role in the [RCD-Goma’s] operations…."
And, that the Rwanda-linked network in the Eastern Congo
had the objective of "…permanent, autonomous control over
the territory of the eastern DRC…" (citing training operations and
lines of communication to Kigali).
By 2008, the MONUC "peacekeeping-observer" mission has
grown to 17,000 troops, the largest in UN history, but its Spanish
military commander resigned last week "for personal reasons" after
only a month in his post when Kagame/Nkunda troops over-ran
Congolese military postsand war-torn Congolese began stoning UN
forces for failing to protect them. But MONUC is the creation of
the UN Security Council. But, U.S. and Britain have Security
Council veto-power that can prevent more aggressive options, as
also occurred during the Rwanda War in 1994, when the US/UK
prevented UN-military opposition to Kagame and Museveni’s
military
adventures.
A History of Big Power-Central Africa Disinformation
Although the real reasons for the Congo War have been well-
documented by UN Security Council sources, as well as the fact
that US/UK surrogates are getting rich in the Congo, neither the
United States nor Britain have much of an interest in helping critics
and Human Right activists "connect the "dots" that link Yoweri
Museveni/Kagame’s 1986 military-takeover of Uganda or Paul
Kagame’s military-takeover of Rwanda in 1994, with the horror
that has engulfed the Congo since the joint Rwanda/Uganda
invasion of 1996. The indisputable evidence of the
Museveni/Kagame/Nkunda "axis of evil" in Central Africa has
rarely, if ever, seen the light of day.
After Museveni seized power in 1986, Uganda became, and
remains, a major recipient of British aid to Africa, as well as the
beneficiary of British military training and armaments. After
Museveni took power, the CIA also established its major African
electronic listening post in Kampala, Uganda’s capital. And,
Kagame’s long-standing Pentagon ties can be traced to the 1980’s
and he was actually had been receiving U.S. officer training in Ft.
Leavenworth Kansas which he returned to Uganda, then Rwanda,
to lead the 1990 invasion. His reputation in U.S. military circles
remained intact when he seized power in 1994, during his first
invasion of the Congo in 1996 AND during the 1998 second
Congo invasion.
By the time of the 1996 Congo invasion, the Rwandan military had
been receiving U.S. military training for at least two years (and
perhaps more) and Kagame’s Pentagon ties had been established
for at least ten years. Today Britain remains Uganda’s largest
foreign patron. And, U.S. support as swelled the Rwandan army
from 7,000 Belgian/French-trained troops under the previous
government when Museveni/Kagame invaded in 1990, to an
estimated 70,000 to 100,000 U.S.-trained and armed troops in
2007.
But, the mutually-beneficial relationships between the U.S. and
Britain and their African surrogates goes both ways. Not only are
Rwandan and Ugandan elites basking in the Congo’s stolen wealth,
but "private contractors" from both countries are two of the largest
contingents of military-mercenaries in Iraq and in Darfur, where the
Chinese-supported Sudanese government has rejected US/UK
investment and have been labeled "genocidaires" in a far less-
bloody conflict than the Rwandan/Ugandan adventure the Congo.
Ugandan troops are also part of the U.S.-Ethiopian "Christian"
occupation of "Muslim" Somalia….which was the greatest
humanitarian tragedy in Africa before last week…. when the Congo
War disaster reached the headlines, again.
Casual visitors to Uganda and Rwanda can’t help but notice that
both Central African countries are better off than their neighbors,
both economically and in terms of social organization. Compared to
other African countries that lack close relationships to wealthy
sponsors, these two, small, densely-populated nations appear to be
outposts of calm and relative prosperity on a continent. But, the fact
is that the relative prosperity and calm in Museveni’s militarized
Uganda and Kagame’s militarized Rwanda has come at the terrible
price of more than 5 million Congolese lives, as documented by the
UN Reports.
"Piercing the Veil" of Central Africa Disinformation
There is now no doubt that , when Ugandan Major Paul Kagame
invaded Rwanda in 1990, he was accompanied by nearly 25% of
the Ugandan army and Ugandan complicity has been confirmed by
formerly confidential US and UN files at the UN Tribunal for
Rwanda. And, like other African wars, the cost of supporting the
Museveni/Kagame 4-year war of attrition must have come from
outside the country. And, most probably, the massive support must
have come from or been known by Uganda’s main foreign
sponsors, the US and UK. As one former U.S. State Department
source has stated:
"Either Museveni was misusing (the U.S. support ) he was receiving
and was not being called to account…or he was using it for the
purpose intended."
Previously classified U.S. and UN documents and testimony, now
in evidence at the UN Rwanda Tribunal, show that Kagame,
himself, touched off the "Rwanda genocide" by assassinating former
Rwandan President and launching an assault to seize power within
minutes after shooting down President Habyarimana’s plane on
the night April 6, 1994.….long before any of the alleged civilian
killings began, in response to the assassination. The well-planned
and organized "blitzkrieg" controlled the eastern-third of the country
by the third week in April, and civilian killings were reported to the
UN in the Kagame-controlled area days later.
Even former UN Rwanda Tribunal Chief Prosecutor, Swiss Judge
Carla del Ponte, and former Chief Investigator, Australian Barrister
Michael Hourigan have called for the UN Rwanda Tribunal to
prosecute Kagame. And, even though both France and Spain have
issued INTERPOL warrants for Kagame and his associates, he
continues to receive invitations to speak at prestigious institutions in
the US and Britain, where the INTERPOL warrants have been
ignored.
The Rwanda/Congo "Genocide" Connections
Perhaps most important, at least from an American perspective,
recently de-classified UN and State Dept documents show that U.
S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher had reports of massive
civilian killings by Kagame’s no later than September 1994. And,
despite the evidence in contemporaneous UN and US documents,
the U.S. has permitted Kagame’s crimes to be blamed on
others…and to be re-characterized by Kagame and the ICTR as a
"genocide" committed by Kagame’s enemies. Which, if true, would
make the Rwanda War the first in history in which only the losing
side in the war committed crimes and atrocities. A WWII analogy
would to blame the Japanese, not only for their own crimes, for U.S.
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, too, or blaming the Germans
for the fire-bombing of Dresden, the massacres on the Eastern
Front and the sack of Berlin.
The former UN Chief Prosecutor Del Ponte has publicly described
how she was to the State Department in the summer of 2003 by
Bush Ambassador for War Crimes, Pierre Prosper. Prosper, also a
former ICTR Prosecutor, told her that she must drop all
investigations of Kagame’s crimes, or risk being removed from
office. When Judge Del Ponte insisted that the evidence required
that he be prosecuted for war crimes and genocide, she was
removed from her office at the Rwanda Tribunal within 90 days, at
the insistence of the U.S. and Britain.
And, now that we know (from the 2001-03 UN Security Council
and UN original UN Rwanda documents) that we have been the
victims of a disinformation campaign, when it comes to the origins
and reasons for the Congo War. If the role of Rwanda and Uganda
in the Congo have been distorted, how can we be sure of Kagame’s
version of how he came to power in Rwanda in 1994, as a "saviour"
…when the Security Council knew that, less than two years later,
Kagame and Museveni invaded the Congo to enrich themselves and
are responsible for more than 5 million deaths since that time?"
Either the 2001-03 Reports are wrong….and former UN Chief
Prosecutor Del Ponte is wrong….and the UN Chief Investigator
Hourigan is wrong….or the story of the Congo War, as well as the
"Rwanda Genocide" must be re-investigated… and re-written. But
we need not start a debate before the research into original,
contemporaneous documents is more complete than it is now.
Some the answers about the "Rwanda Genocide" are in the
formerly classified documents now in evidence at the UN Tribunal
for Rwanda, but which have received no more attention than the
2001-03 UN Security Council Experts’ Reports that detail the
Ugandan and Rwandan rape of the Congo. The evidence exists in
publicly accessible archives of the UN Security Council and
Rwanda Tribunal….just waiting to be read!
This version does not contain endnotes. An updated version
containing endnotes will be posted shortly.
Courtesy
Die 2001-03 UN Expert Reports
04 November, 2008 | By Prof. Peter Erlinder/Global Research
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- Once again, the suffering of
African people caught up in
a war that makes little sense
to non-Africans has made
the front pages in western
media, as more than a
million people have been
displaced in the past week
who don’t pay much attention to the details of African history and
politics, the humanitarian disaster in the Congo has exploded into
public consciousness, as if the 25-year war to control Central
Africa began only yesterday.
The "Congo story" Behind the Headlines
But, in fact, the human rights disaster that the people of the world
are watching on our TV screens is just the most recent human
tragedy in a 25 year struggle for economic and political dominance
in Central Africa that has been raging since the decline and eventual
collapse of the Soviet influence in Africa in the 1980’s and early
1990’s. A sad fact of the 20th Century is that, even after the end of
formal "colonialism" in the mid-20th Century, ruling African elites in
virtually every African nation have looked to one or more powerful
"sponsors" in the developed world to gain or retain power. And, to
grab the personal wealth that goes with political/military power in
Africa.
In Africa, "government" is a well-accepted avenue for trained and
educated African elites to get ahead economically, without having to
immigrate to more developed nations outside of Africa. Few major
private multi-national economic entities are based in Africa, and
"para-statal" government monopolies or government-approved
contracting with private foreign sources of capital from the
developed world are the main sources of economic development in
many African countries. The result is that political and military
power is inevitably entwined with economic benefit for those who
manage to achieve state-power whether by the ballot, or by force.
In addition, direct support from industrialized nations in the form of
"aid" must be funneled through governmental agencies. And, even
today, "donor income" from the industrialized world makes up a
large portion of the budgets of nearly every African nation. And,
after the end of support from the Soviet Bloc in about 1990, local
leaders were forced to choose between Anglo-American aid and
investment or from former colonial masters that comprise the EU
countries, at least until China began developing economic relations
with African nations within the past few years,
"Blood Diamonds," Leonardo DeCaprio’s recent film, makes the
point that every lengthy war in Africa is possible only with support
from foreign governments or private interests (or both)…..which
necessarily have designs on African resources in return. And, so it is
with the 25-year war for control of the riches of Central Africa,
of which the humanitarian disaster in the Congo is the most recent
example.
The recent British/French "diplomatic initiative" to discuss yet
another ceasefire with Congo’s President Kabila and Rwanda’s
Paul Kagame, makes absolutely clear who the real protagonists are
in this most recent eruption of the war in the Congo. It is now
generally understood that the Congo "rebels" are closely-enough
connected to Kagame’s Rwanda that it is more important to
negotiate with him than with Gen. Laurent Nkunda, the titular leader
of the Congolese-tutsi "rebel" army.
But, the connections between the suffering in the Congo and either
Rwanda or Uganda are rarely discussed in mainstream media, least
in the English-speaking world. And, to the extent we are informed
about the reasons for the Congo War at all, we are told that Gen.
Nkunda is at war "to protect the tutsi minority." That the continued
fighting as something to do with the 1994 "Rwanda genocide." And,
that "hutu genocidaires" have to be rooted out of the Eastern Congo
to protect both Congolese "tutsis" and the territory of Rwanda, itself.
However, it has been more than 14 years since Kagame seized
complete power in Rwanda, which means that anyone under 30
could not have been directly involved in the 1994 events in Rwanda
that Kagame’s government calls the "Genocide". Today’s teenage
combatants were either children or not yet born, when civilians-
killed-civilians in Rwanda in 1994. At most, Gen Nkunda is fighting
the "children of the genocidaires"…and the scope of the fighting as
reached far beyond the limited areas near the Rwandan border
where anti-government Rwandan-refugees (both tutsi and hutu) are
actually located.
And, even without considering the wars in Uganda and Rwanda that
lasted from 1981 to 1994, at least, there can be no dispute that the
Congo war has been raging since 1996…which means that the war
is not only inter-generational…but must be funded from outside
Africa in a "Blood Diamonds"-like scenario….and it is.
Origins of the Congo War: 2001-03 UN Experts’ Reports
In fact, evidence has long existed that the war in the Eastern Congo,
between 1996 and today, has little or nothing to do with "ethnicity"
or capturing "genocidaires." Like "weapons of mass destruction"
used to justify another war of aggression by the U.S. on Iraq.…."
ethnic" and "response to the genocide" have been used by both
Uganda and Rwanda to justify a war of aggression, waged for
economic reasons, described in the UN Experts Reports. Not
coincidentally, Uganda and Rwanda are two of the largest recipients
of US and British economic and military assistance in Africa. Wars
initiated by Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda’s Paul
Kagame, have raged in Central Africa since Museveni’s 1981
invasion to seize power in Uganda, which the Red Cross reported
had killed at least 300,000 civilians by the time he took power in
1986.
The real reasons for the ongoing war in the Congo is described in
great detail in several United Nations Security Council Expert
Reports, make clear that war and massive civilian deaths in the
Eastern Congo since 1996 have little, if anything to do with
"tribalism," "ethnicity," or even the "Rwanda genocide." But, rather,
have everything to do with the rape of the Congo’s resources by the
militaries of Rwanda and Uganda and their local surrogates.
According to three separate UN Security Council Reports, issued
between 2001 and 2003, war on the Congo began when Uganda
and Rwanda made common-cause with local Congolese leader
Laurent Kabila, and other Congolese elites, to control the vast
resources of the Eastern Congo in 1996. The UN Reports show
that that since, the 1996 invasion and a second invasion in 1998,
Rwanda and Uganda have become the major trading centers for
diamonds, precious metals and other natural resources that are not
found in either country.....but which exist in great quantities in the
Congo. As of 2003, the UN Security Council Reports put the
cost of civilian lives at some 3 million (the current estimate is more
than 5 million lives….so far).
The Rwanda/Uganda Rape of the Congo Continues Today
For more than 3 decades, the "anti-Communist" credentials of the
former Congolese Joseph Mobutu had protected him from western
criticism during the Cold War, despite his brutal kleptocracy that
had been matched only by vicious pre-independence colonial rule of
Belgian King Leopold. But, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in
the early 1990’s and Mobutu became politically expendable,
Uganda/Rwanda-supported "Congolese rebels" replaced him with
Laurent Kabila in 1997 and Kabila agreed to a treaty that split
economic dominance of the Eastern Congo between Uganda and
Rwanda in the areas adjacent to their own borders.
By 1998, however, Uganda and Rwanda invaded Eastern Congo
again, after the new President Kabila began attempting to reclaim
military and economic influence in the areas of his country controlled
by Rwanda and Uganda. Unlike 1996, Kabila had made alliances
with other African nations that opposed the foreign-supported
aggression against the Congo and troops from Angola, Zimbabwe
and Namibia entered the war in support of the Kabila government.
Despite a 1999 Lusaka peace treaty, which also provided for the
creation of MONUC (UN Observer Mission in the Congo), the
war continued. In 2000, while the U.S. media was distracted by the
Bush/Gore campaign, the Uganda/Rwanda began vying for control
over portions of the Congo and the long-standing alliance split over
control of the resources of the Eastern Congo.
UN Experts: Decades-long Congo Resources Rape
By January 2001, this "first world war of Africa" had killed more
than 3 million people, Laurent Kabila was assassinated and was
replaced by his son, Joseph. For many years, the Rwandan
government had claimed that its interests in the Congo was
protection from "genocidaires" hiding in the Congo…but the falsity
of this claim was exposed in July 2001, when the UN Security
Council received its first preliminary report on the exploitation of
Congo’s resources. The first, interim report documents the plunder
of coffee, timber, diamonds, gold and "coltan" (the grey gold that is
in every cell phone that can be found only in the Congo) by
Rwandan and Ugandan forces in the areas each controlled.
Another more extensive report in October 2002 documented the
seizure of banks, sugar refineries, mines and provides the names of
local leaders and war-lords with ties to Uganda and Rwanda…as
well as describing the ties between both "hutu" and "tutsi" Rwandans
who were working together to enrich themselves, and their
Rwandan and Ugandan sponsors, at the expense of the indigenous
Congolese. And the October 2003 Security Council Report states:
"….The Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) still play an important
but highly discreet role in the [RCD-Goma’s] operations…."
And, that the Rwanda-linked network in the Eastern Congo
had the objective of "…permanent, autonomous control over
the territory of the eastern DRC…" (citing training operations and
lines of communication to Kigali).
By 2008, the MONUC "peacekeeping-observer" mission has
grown to 17,000 troops, the largest in UN history, but its Spanish
military commander resigned last week "for personal reasons" after
only a month in his post when Kagame/Nkunda troops over-ran
Congolese military postsand war-torn Congolese began stoning UN
forces for failing to protect them. But MONUC is the creation of
the UN Security Council. But, U.S. and Britain have Security
Council veto-power that can prevent more aggressive options, as
also occurred during the Rwanda War in 1994, when the US/UK
prevented UN-military opposition to Kagame and Museveni’s
military
adventures.
A History of Big Power-Central Africa Disinformation
Although the real reasons for the Congo War have been well-
documented by UN Security Council sources, as well as the fact
that US/UK surrogates are getting rich in the Congo, neither the
United States nor Britain have much of an interest in helping critics
and Human Right activists "connect the "dots" that link Yoweri
Museveni/Kagame’s 1986 military-takeover of Uganda or Paul
Kagame’s military-takeover of Rwanda in 1994, with the horror
that has engulfed the Congo since the joint Rwanda/Uganda
invasion of 1996. The indisputable evidence of the
Museveni/Kagame/Nkunda "axis of evil" in Central Africa has
rarely, if ever, seen the light of day.
After Museveni seized power in 1986, Uganda became, and
remains, a major recipient of British aid to Africa, as well as the
beneficiary of British military training and armaments. After
Museveni took power, the CIA also established its major African
electronic listening post in Kampala, Uganda’s capital. And,
Kagame’s long-standing Pentagon ties can be traced to the 1980’s
and he was actually had been receiving U.S. officer training in Ft.
Leavenworth Kansas which he returned to Uganda, then Rwanda,
to lead the 1990 invasion. His reputation in U.S. military circles
remained intact when he seized power in 1994, during his first
invasion of the Congo in 1996 AND during the 1998 second
Congo invasion.
By the time of the 1996 Congo invasion, the Rwandan military had
been receiving U.S. military training for at least two years (and
perhaps more) and Kagame’s Pentagon ties had been established
for at least ten years. Today Britain remains Uganda’s largest
foreign patron. And, U.S. support as swelled the Rwandan army
from 7,000 Belgian/French-trained troops under the previous
government when Museveni/Kagame invaded in 1990, to an
estimated 70,000 to 100,000 U.S.-trained and armed troops in
2007.
But, the mutually-beneficial relationships between the U.S. and
Britain and their African surrogates goes both ways. Not only are
Rwandan and Ugandan elites basking in the Congo’s stolen wealth,
but "private contractors" from both countries are two of the largest
contingents of military-mercenaries in Iraq and in Darfur, where the
Chinese-supported Sudanese government has rejected US/UK
investment and have been labeled "genocidaires" in a far less-
bloody conflict than the Rwandan/Ugandan adventure the Congo.
Ugandan troops are also part of the U.S.-Ethiopian "Christian"
occupation of "Muslim" Somalia….which was the greatest
humanitarian tragedy in Africa before last week…. when the Congo
War disaster reached the headlines, again.
Casual visitors to Uganda and Rwanda can’t help but notice that
both Central African countries are better off than their neighbors,
both economically and in terms of social organization. Compared to
other African countries that lack close relationships to wealthy
sponsors, these two, small, densely-populated nations appear to be
outposts of calm and relative prosperity on a continent. But, the fact
is that the relative prosperity and calm in Museveni’s militarized
Uganda and Kagame’s militarized Rwanda has come at the terrible
price of more than 5 million Congolese lives, as documented by the
UN Reports.
"Piercing the Veil" of Central Africa Disinformation
There is now no doubt that , when Ugandan Major Paul Kagame
invaded Rwanda in 1990, he was accompanied by nearly 25% of
the Ugandan army and Ugandan complicity has been confirmed by
formerly confidential US and UN files at the UN Tribunal for
Rwanda. And, like other African wars, the cost of supporting the
Museveni/Kagame 4-year war of attrition must have come from
outside the country. And, most probably, the massive support must
have come from or been known by Uganda’s main foreign
sponsors, the US and UK. As one former U.S. State Department
source has stated:
"Either Museveni was misusing (the U.S. support ) he was receiving
and was not being called to account…or he was using it for the
purpose intended."
Previously classified U.S. and UN documents and testimony, now
in evidence at the UN Rwanda Tribunal, show that Kagame,
himself, touched off the "Rwanda genocide" by assassinating former
Rwandan President and launching an assault to seize power within
minutes after shooting down President Habyarimana’s plane on
the night April 6, 1994.….long before any of the alleged civilian
killings began, in response to the assassination. The well-planned
and organized "blitzkrieg" controlled the eastern-third of the country
by the third week in April, and civilian killings were reported to the
UN in the Kagame-controlled area days later.
Even former UN Rwanda Tribunal Chief Prosecutor, Swiss Judge
Carla del Ponte, and former Chief Investigator, Australian Barrister
Michael Hourigan have called for the UN Rwanda Tribunal to
prosecute Kagame. And, even though both France and Spain have
issued INTERPOL warrants for Kagame and his associates, he
continues to receive invitations to speak at prestigious institutions in
the US and Britain, where the INTERPOL warrants have been
ignored.
The Rwanda/Congo "Genocide" Connections
Perhaps most important, at least from an American perspective,
recently de-classified UN and State Dept documents show that U.
S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher had reports of massive
civilian killings by Kagame’s no later than September 1994. And,
despite the evidence in contemporaneous UN and US documents,
the U.S. has permitted Kagame’s crimes to be blamed on
others…and to be re-characterized by Kagame and the ICTR as a
"genocide" committed by Kagame’s enemies. Which, if true, would
make the Rwanda War the first in history in which only the losing
side in the war committed crimes and atrocities. A WWII analogy
would to blame the Japanese, not only for their own crimes, for U.S.
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, too, or blaming the Germans
for the fire-bombing of Dresden, the massacres on the Eastern
Front and the sack of Berlin.
The former UN Chief Prosecutor Del Ponte has publicly described
how she was to the State Department in the summer of 2003 by
Bush Ambassador for War Crimes, Pierre Prosper. Prosper, also a
former ICTR Prosecutor, told her that she must drop all
investigations of Kagame’s crimes, or risk being removed from
office. When Judge Del Ponte insisted that the evidence required
that he be prosecuted for war crimes and genocide, she was
removed from her office at the Rwanda Tribunal within 90 days, at
the insistence of the U.S. and Britain.
And, now that we know (from the 2001-03 UN Security Council
and UN original UN Rwanda documents) that we have been the
victims of a disinformation campaign, when it comes to the origins
and reasons for the Congo War. If the role of Rwanda and Uganda
in the Congo have been distorted, how can we be sure of Kagame’s
version of how he came to power in Rwanda in 1994, as a "saviour"
…when the Security Council knew that, less than two years later,
Kagame and Museveni invaded the Congo to enrich themselves and
are responsible for more than 5 million deaths since that time?"
Either the 2001-03 Reports are wrong….and former UN Chief
Prosecutor Del Ponte is wrong….and the UN Chief Investigator
Hourigan is wrong….or the story of the Congo War, as well as the
"Rwanda Genocide" must be re-investigated… and re-written. But
we need not start a debate before the research into original,
contemporaneous documents is more complete than it is now.
Some the answers about the "Rwanda Genocide" are in the
formerly classified documents now in evidence at the UN Tribunal
for Rwanda, but which have received no more attention than the
2001-03 UN Security Council Experts’ Reports that detail the
Ugandan and Rwandan rape of the Congo. The evidence exists in
publicly accessible archives of the UN Security Council and
Rwanda Tribunal….just waiting to be read!
This version does not contain endnotes. An updated version
containing endnotes will be posted shortly.
Courtesy
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