The current war and atrocities going on in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC led by criminal fugitive Laurent Nkunda must stop and must be condemned by the United States, Britain, Rwanda and Uganda, the known leading backers of Nkunda. Nkunda is a war criminal who must be arrested and tried for the death of over 5 million Congolese whom he killed with support from Rwanda and Uganda funded and armed by the United States and Britain since 1997. By Peter Otika.

12 months ago: A file photo taken 13 October 2007 shows dissident general Laurent Nkunda approaching a dog at his mountain base in Kachanga, eastern Congo. President Joseph Kabila 17 October 2007 ordered his troops in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo to prepare to disarm renegade soldiers led by the criminal dissident Laurent Nkunda. Today, Nkunda continues to kill, plunder and rob Congo’s resources which he shares with his Western crooks in the USA and Britain.

This week, The Black Star News published an editorial calling upon the UN and the International Community to stop Nkunda’s led criminal war. Nkunda is a criminal who wants to loot Congolese resources and sell them to criminal enterprises in Europe and America who fund his criminal activities in the Congo. This is a criminal war to control Congolese natural resources like Gold, Diamonds, Uranium and Coltan which are abundant in eastern Congo. This must stop and Nkunda and his backers must be arrested and tried for war crimes.

To give you a background information, below is an article I wrote years ago about the Congo and those involved in it.

Genocide and Criminal Enterprise in the Congo

(This part of the article was first published in 2004, Peter O. Otika)

If there is any group of people in Africa who have been betrayed by their own African leaders, looted, maimed and killed by foreigners then those
people are no doubt the Congolese people of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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In Mobi, rebels and tutsie soldiers walked down the street with a humanhead in their hands, in some other places children where force to look the mutilated corpes of their families members

Genocide, torture and economic plunder have been and still remain the major instruments Western nations have used to exploit and ruin the Congo. For the 115 years of Belgium colonialism and subsequent U.S. imperialism over 10 millions Congolese were killed. Today, Congo is no better off than it has been 100 years ago and has remain what some analysts have preferred to call the “world’s biggest disaster.”

Under King Leopold II who personalized the Congo after the 1885 Berlin Conference that led to the partition of Africa, the Belgians used brutal torture, forced, labor, and slavery of the Congolese as they plundered Congo resources. History has it that one of the daily duties of the Belgian soldiers and their agents in the Congo was to deliver at least 1000 severed hands of those who have refused to work to the overall official. Women were raped, forced to work all day and Belgian officials would shoot arrested Congolese for leisure and sport.

As if those were not enough, the United States took over what the Belgians had not finished. With the help of the Belgians and CIA agents, the U.S. liquidated Congo’s first ever-elected leader Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. To fill up the power vacuum, the U.S then supported the then Colonel Joseph Mobutu take over power in a the bloody 1961 coup. A previous assassination attempt on Lumumba by the CIA through scientist Sidney Gottlieb using biological toxins had just been foiled.

Following the publication of his book “The Assassination of Lumumba,” in which Dutch authors Ann Wright and Renee Fenby clearly narrated how Lumumba was killed, the Belgian Prime Minister apologized to the family of Lumumba for its role in the death of Lumumba.

Colonel Mobutu who later came to be known as General Mobutu Sese Seko was a Western boy for 37 years. He was the greediest and most luxurious African leader ever known I the history of Africa. General Mobutu Sese seko came with more vigor than his predecessor and with a guaranteed Western support; Mobutu plundered the country, liquidated and silenced political opposition until natural justice came his way. As long as Mobutu was sharing his loots of Congolese resources with the U.S., Belgium, France, Britain and his other European thieves, his Western support was guaranteed.

In 1996 when Mobutu had become too big to fit into Western shoes because he was forgetting to share Congolese riches with his Western allies, Washington pull away its support for Mobutu. By then Mobutu was ranked among the world’s riches rubbing shoulders with wealthy cheats like the King of Brunei, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Queen of Britain and Bill Gates among others. He had scores of bank accounts in Swiss banks and allegedly owned one full street of real estates in France, let alone in his own impoverished nation of Zaire.

In what the Wall Street called a “brain child of Washington,” the US trained and armed to the teeth, the Rwandan and Ugandan armies whom it later used to toppled Mobutu. Washington trained Rwanda army officers in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina shortly before the 1996 Zaire invasion. When Mobutu was overthrown by Rwandan and Ugandan troops using American training and weaponry, Uganda and Rwanda installed their stooge in the name of Lauren Kabila. Kabila’s rule became very rocky when he started voicing concern over Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers massacring Rwanda Hutu refugees as a revenge for the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Kabila was reported to have rewarded Uganda, Rwanda and South Africa in Gold bullions for their support in overthrowing Mobutu. The U.S was reportedly promised mineral
concessions in the Congo.

But like Lumumba, on the same date January 17, Kabila was assassinated allegedly by a conspiracy by Rwandan and Ugandan governments who have since fallen apart with the Kinshasa government. It is said he was assassinated because he was not allowing Rwanda and Uganda control the Congo or continue with the genocide of the Hutu refugees who have sought sanctuaries in the Congo after the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Kabila’s son Joseph Kabila has since taken over leadership of Congo although the entire mineral rich eastern part of the Congo remain up to now still under Ugandan and Rwandan military occupation who masquerade
as MLC and RCD rebels respectively.

As all these are going on behind the scenes and the world continue to passively watch the situations get form bad to worse. Uganda and Rwanda continue to plunder Congolese resources, which they routinely transport to their allies and fellow thieves in Europe and the U.S. respectively. Rwanda that does not have any coltan makes a U.S. $250 million every 18 moths in coltan exports alone. Coltan, which is short name for columbite-tantalite, is used in the making of chips in computers, cell phones and electronics all over the world. Although Australia and America also produce coltan, the coltan produced in the Congo is the best in quality the world over. Burundi and Uganda were also mentioned in the 2001 U.N report on exploitation and plunder of Congo resource to fund their occupation of the Congo. Uganda’s 2000 Gold export was 10.83 tones outstripping Uganda’s national production figures of0.0044 tones
a year. All the excesses came from the Congo.

The U.N. report pointed out directed at President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda whom it said are operating “criminal cartels” in the east of the Congo. U.N. said Western governments, companies, and multilateral institutions like Sabena and Belgium airlines giving transportation while Citibank give required finances. Western governments then awarded Rwanda with an increase in aid from $26.1 million in 1997 to $51.5 million in 1999. Also, out of the 35 companies the U.N. listed as illegally dealing in resources from the eastern  Congo through Rwanda, 26 of them are from Western countries. These firms include Cogem, Transintra, Issa, Finconcorde, Cogecom, Tradement, MDW, Sogem, Soger, Cogea and Finiming. Others are Cicle, Eagleswing, Union-Transport and Banro Resources, a Canadian company.

Other than the above and Uganda and Rwanda big shots exploitation, ten other Canadian mining companies have also seriously committed their investments in the minerals of the Congo. These companies are: Barrick Gold, American Mineral Fields (AMF), Tenke Mining, Banro Resource, Consolidated Trillion, First Quantum Minerals, International Panorama Resource, Milkior Resources, Samax Gold and Starpoint Goldfileds. These companies have gained concessions of cobalt, gold, platinum, zinc and copper mines. These companies have very strong influence on the law makers in Canadian parliament who have stood very strong against any political or military stability that may ripped them off their ludicrous mineral profits.

While all these Western conspiracy and criminal enterprising is going on, millions of Congolese are being killed, thousands of women raped and thousands others displaced.As the West is busy plundering Congolese resources, Uganda, Rwandan troops are on a slow but sure genocide of the Congolese and Rwandan refugees in the Congo. As stated by Alison Des Forges who is Senior Advisor at the African division of the Human Rights Watch, “the only loser in this huge business venture is the Congolese people.”

To crown up the family of all hypocrisy has been the silence of conspiracy by the Western media about the real situation in the Congo. The Western media have constantly remained mute and when they report, they report about the need to change the government in Kinshasa. When you compare this with the intentions of the Uganda, Rwanda, the U.S. and companies dealing in resources in the Congo, you find that there is actually no sympathy for the poor Congolese. No one want to report the progress president Kabila is trying to make in ending the war. Instead, the media are busy humming war drums of how the rebels are advancing to Kinshasa. They even portray the suffering of the Congolese people under Ugandan and Rwandan controlled areas as if it was being caused by the Kinshasa government but not foreign aggression. No one wants to mention the fact that it is foreign aggression and greed for minerals resources in the Congo that has caused suffering to the Congolese.

It is very sad that the whole world has ganged against the Congolese in the scramble over resources. The Western world is solely morally and criminally responsible for the over 15 millions lives lost in for the over 115 years since the West got involved in affairs. There is no reason why Uganda and Rwanda should continue to aggressively occupying eastern Congo. If Uganda and Rwanda cannot get out of Congo, the U.N. should get them out, as did the U.S. during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

For the Congolese, there no single friend left that they can trust. Not even an African nation because even the fellow Africans are all looking forward for a share of the Congolese resources. Africans have betrayed fellow Africans for a share of handouts and military support the West gives them. There is no one who wants to speak for their plight and this is exactly what lies dark and deep in the hearts of humans. May be one day the world will realize how unfair and evil it has been treating the Congolese people. Until then, prayers and sympathy for the innocent Congolese people. Liked it? Hated it? Review It!