A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
The name “Rwanda” evokes instant sympathy among Americans, who view the African nation as a quintessential victim of genocide. But Rwanda is also the main player, along with Uganda, in a much larger genocide: the death of six million Congolese. A leaked UN report shows Rwanda’s Tutsi rulers are up to their old, deadly tricks in Congo – under U.S. protection, of course.
The Endless Genocide: Rwanda Still Spreading Chaos and Death in Congo
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“A leaked United Nations report charges that Rwanda continues to prey upon its Congolese neighbor.”
Rwanda, the tiny African country run by a small but armed-to-the-teeth Tutsi tribal minority, is known to most Americans as the site of the 1994 genocide that killed hundreds of thousands. But Rwanda, along with fellow U.S. client state Uganda, is largely responsible for the worst genocide since World War Two: the death of six million Congolese. A leaked United Nations report
It’s not surprising that the UN report on Rwanda’s serial crimes against Congo had to be leaked. U.S. collusion with the world’s most genocidal regimes does not jibe well with Washington’s constant preaching about humanitarian intervention. In 2010, another leaked UN report
“The United States is deeply involved in the deadly games that both Rwanda and Uganda play in Congo.”
The focus of the current UN report is a Congolese Tutsi warlord whose allegiance is clearly with his fellow Tutsis in Rwanda – and to his own bank account. General Bosco Ntaganda took part in the overthrow of the Hutu-led government of Rwanda in 1994 and has acted as a proxy warlord for Rwanda in Congo ever since. Ntaganda is also known as “the Terminator.” The International Criminal Court charged him with war crimes in 2006, including the use of child soldiers. But he was never arrested, undoubtedly because the United States, from which the Court takes its orders, is deeply involved in the deadly games that both Rwanda and Uganda play in Congo – games whose ultimate winners are multinational corporations.
But before Congolese minerals find their way to the big corporate guys, they are first stolen by warlords like Ntaganda, the Terminator. A UN Group of Experts reported late last year that the general controls a network of mines in Congo. He also uses his militia to levy “taxes” on other mining operations. Ultimately, it appears Ntaganda is an important cog in a vast criminal enterprise centered in the Rwandan government, itself – all profiting off the bones of six million dead Congolese.
In a peace deal between the Congolese government and Rwanda in 2009, the Tutsi Congolese militia was technically merged into the Congolese Army. But it was just a façade. Under Ntaganda, the Tutsi Congolese staged a mutiny. According to the leaked UN report, young Rwandans who thought they were being recruited for their own country’s army found themselves shipped to the Congo to fight alongside Ntaganda against the Congolese Army. In reality, there was no mutiny
Which means they also serve United States interests in Africa – a ticket to impunity, no matter how many Africans you kill.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com .
Black scholars have worked to challenge the accepted white supremacist imperialist historical narrative of colonialism and enslavement. The legacy of the Haitian Revolution sits at the center of this…
The United States once again failed in its attempt to force regime change in Venezuela and extinguish the growth of socialism in South America. Therefore, it reverted to its old and unsuccessful…
Kenya’s police deployment to Haiti and the spurious claim of "reciprocity", knowingly and willfully promoted by Ariel Henry, William Ruto, and others, is in flagrant violation of the National Police…
Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger pulled out of the West African economic union ECOWAS, in major blow to the regional integration project and rejection of Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to…
The genocide in Gaza includes the calculated destruction of Palestinian intellectual labor and knowledge producing institutions, part of Israel's larger colonial strategy of epistemological…
