Letter To His Excellency the President of the Republic, Head of State RDC

Letter To His Excellency the President of the Republic, Head of State RDC

Send a copy for information to:
– The Honorable President of the Senate
– The Honorable President of the National Assembly
– His Excellency the Prime Minister of the DRC
– His Excellency the Minister of the Interior and
Security
– His Excellency the Minister of Defense
National
– Mr. US Ambassador to the DRC
– Mr. Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium in
DRC
– Mr. Ambassador of the French Republic in the DRC
– Mr. Ambassador of the European Union in the DRC
– Madam Head of MONUSCO
(All) in Kinshasa
– His Excellency the Governor of the Province of
South Kivu
in Bukavu / South Kivu
————————————————– ———–
To His Excellency the President of the Republic, Head of State (With the expression of our most deferential tributes) Palace of the Nation in Kinshasa / Gombe
Concerns: Complaints
Your Excellency the President of the Republic, It is with humility and deep respect that I address me to your august person to share with you my questions about the incomprehensible attitude displayed by the institutions of our country vis-à-vis the tragedy experienced by members of the Banyamulenge tribe who inhabit the heights and medium plateaus of Fizi-Mwenga-Uvira since 2017.
Indeed, when on 24.01.2019 you swore solemnly before God and before the nation (on your own terms) to defend the constitution and laws of the Republic, to be guided only by interest general and respect for the right of the human person, to devote all your strength to
the promotion of peace …, I was far from imagining that it was under your mandate that a
part of your fellow citizens, those of the Banyamulenge tribe in this case, would 2 know the worst tragedy in its history in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The
Articles 12 and 13 of our constitution state:
– “All Congolese are equal before the law and have the right to equal protection
laws “
– “No Congolese can, in terms of education and access to functions public or in any other matter, be the subject of a discriminatory measure,
whether it results from the law or from an act of the executive because of his religion, his
family origin, social condition, residence, opinions or his political convictions, his belonging to a race, to an ethnic group, to a tribe, to a cultural or linguistic minority”.
Your Excellency the President of the Republic, do you not know, after 3 years at the head of our country that the rights provided for in the the aforementioned articles are not guaranteed to Banyamulenge citizens residing in the middle and high plateaus of Fizi-Mwenga-Uvira? Sincerely, I couldn’t
imagine that a national of the Kasaian community, moreover Head of State, whose members were persecuted and driven out of Katanga by the men of the tandem
Ngunz and Kyungu in the early 1990s could remain insensitive to the same atrocities suffered by some of his compatriots.
Indeed, it is since 2017 that
Banyamulenge are victims of an indescribable barbarism unknown to their compatriots, except their immediate neighbors and the authors of this barbarism as well as
their sponsors. Everything has been done to cover up this situation. The institutions of
the Republic, the national press (with a few exceptions) and the international and
human rights NGOs (national and international) have all remained silent in the face of this tragedy. Since that year, several hundred Banyamulenge were killed, several others injured and thousands of them pushed
in exile and internal exodus, about half a million cows raided, hundreds of villages, schools, churches and health centers destroyed by local armed groups and foreigners with a notorious complicity of the FARDC in the middle.
In your inauguration speech you said I quote: “Also, as part of a concerted action, we intend to engage the government
and all the customary authorities of our country to work for peace and tolerance
with a view to peaceful coexistence between our different communities. By these virtues, the painful episode of tribal and local conflicts that have grieved our country will not be only a distant and sad memory “. Unfortunately, this commitment never materialized for the Banyamulenge whose security situation worsened 3 years later this speech.
Your Excellency the President of the Republic, I have
unfortunately noticed that some of your decisions made during the episode of rural town of Minembwe which has caused a lot of ink and saliva to flow last year brought water to the mill to those who were against its creation. So you have 3 solemnly removed the official installation of its animators before an inquiry summer prior to confirm or deny the allegations of those who were against his
erection. In my humble opinion, this was done to please the anti-Tutsi extremists of the
Kivu whose verbal attacks against the Banyamulenge had reached their climax at this moment. Even more, I was flabbergasted as I listened to you, during your speech on
06.12.2020, also announce the solemn abolition of the Ministry of Decentralization while a few minutes (if not seconds) previously during
this same speech you had just announced the reduction in the number of ministries in the
government that was in the making. Was there an urgency to announce in preview the name of a single ministry to be deleted before the others that were pending to be deleted too? It is as if it was absolutely necessary to erase everything related to the creation of the “hated” rural commune of Minembwe and continue to always satisfy those who demanded its removal.
After establishing a state of siege in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, a question was asked during one of the trips to Europe if I’m not mistaken, question of to know why you did not extend the state of siege to the province of South Kivu yet as insecure as they are. In response you said that the situations were different in these provinces, affirming that in North Kivu and Ituri there are foreign armed groups while in South Kivu it is simply a conflict between farmers and herders. Yet foreign armed groups are rampant also in South Kivu and this is known to all in the aforementioned territories and beyond. So I would be surprised if our President could ignore it. Here is some information given by Radio Okapi in its delivery of 07.07.2021. I quote: “Nearly fifty local and foreign armed groups operate in South Kivu… Beyond armed groups locals, Uvira, Fizi and Itombwe are full of foreign negative forces, according to authorized services. Rwandan CNRD fighters, ex FDLR, and rebels
Burundians in particular those of the FNL, MRP ABARUNDI and RED TABARA according to them “.
Would it have been possible, Excellency Mr. President, that you had ignored the information made public by a national media? Skilled services to which this radio refers to know more than your own intelligence and security who are supposed to report to you regularly on the security status of the nation? You have learned about the conflicts between breeders and farmers in the middle, but oddly, you were not informed of the presence of armed groups
foreigners in the Lemera grouping, Uvira territory where they crisscrossed the villages with the knowledge and sight of all since 2016. This is to be understood! By the way, a conflict between
farmers and herders is assumed to be a land dispute. In which group, from which chiefdom (or sector), from which territory (among the three the Banyamulenge) would we have recorded such a conflict? Nowhere to my knowledge and no one else can confirm that. What you called a land conflict that yet is not one has already pushed several thousand Banyamulenge into forced exile, turning thousands into internally displaced people, not to mention around half a thousand raided cows, and hundreds of villages with schools, churches and health destroyed. And hundreds of deaths above all. Surely a state
emergency operations in South Kivu would have limited the damage. The notables Banyamulenge residing in 4
Kinshasa have repeatedly denounced this situation through conferences of press in which they called for government intervention, while reiterating their loyalty to your august person and their attachment to the institutions of Republic. Unfortunately, nothing was done to stop the destructive rage of the armed groups against the Banyamulenge.
Excellency Mr. President, in the minutes of the meeting of the Council of Ministers held on July 17, 2021, i.e. 10 days after the revelations from Okapi radio concerning the number of armed groups operating in the Sud-Kivu we talked about: “the determination of the Congolese Armed Forces to put an end to the activism of the armed groups GUMINO, TWIRANEHO and ANDROΪD in Mwenga, Fizi and Uvira in South Kivu ”. It is curious to note that the only target groups are those made up of the young Banyamulenge who are desperately trying to oppose the local and foreign armed groups in their mission to drive out members of their
community of South Kivu with the support of part of the FARDC. Why don’t we have
cited other armed groups? I tell myself it’s because apparently they would be
became “integrated brigades” within the FARDC. The colla boration between them and
FARDC, which we will demonstrate below, suggests this. Did not one of the Mai-Mai leaders say that their aims were identical to the mission and objectives of the FARDC?
The facts on the ground confirm this.
Your Excellency the President of the Republic,
somewhere in your speech you said: “Our defense and security forces
must promote dialogue between civilians and their various trades ”.
Let me tell you that to see this wish come true with the people
Banyamulenge is an unrealizable dream. During these years that you have just spent at
power and even long before, relations between the FARDC and Banyamulenge civilians
were not easy. But the situation worsened with the arrival of the general
Dieudonné Muhima in Minembwe in March 2020. Abuses against civilians
Banyamulenge have reached worrying proportions. And the situation of their insecurity
grew crescendo until the military started killing civilians by shooting
on them at close range. For example, on the evening of June 30, 2021, 5 civilians (among
which 4 women, the oldest of which was 75 years old) were cut down by bullets from
soldiers in Minembwe where the General Commandant of the 3rd defense zone was staying.
Your Excellency the President of the Republic, the
Banyamulenge have more than once denounced the involvement of certain elements of the FARDC
alongside the armed groups that have been cracking down on them for several years. I’m off
I’m going to give you just three of the many proofs below. The first i
yours from the Final Report of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo
addressed to the President of the UN Security Council dated 10.06.2021. I quote a
extract from this report: “Several members of the FARDC were also in connivance
with Mai-Mai groups when the latter attacked Banyamulenge villages and
stolen cattle. Six sources from FRDC, civil society leaders, local leaders
Banyamulenge, people close to Mai-Mai chiefs, researchers and sources
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MONUSCO quoted General Dieudonné Muhima, commander of the 12th brigade
rapid reaction to Minembwe since March 2021, as a key element
the support provided by the FARDC to Mai-Mai groups “. Excellency Mr.
President, I am convinced that your services have had this report since its release.
What have you done with this General whose crimes have been exposed on a scale
international? If the people close to the Mai-Mai chiefs, themselves beneficiaries of
the assistance of this General denounced him, who can still doubt his involvement in
the drama playing out in the highlands? When the Banyamulenge denounced
regularly as this report revealed, each time they were contradicted by outings
lying media of Major Dieudonné Kasereka, spokesperson for the FARDC
Operation Sokola II in Uvira and a true champion in disinformation and diversion, which
denied by stating cynically that the army was there to secure all citizens,
all tribes combined. A big lie. Strangely enough, some of the young
Banyamulenge who attempted to oppose the realization of the plot to uproot
their community in South Kivu are imprisoned in Kinshasa, the seat of our institutions,
while the elements of the FARDC and the Mai-Mai, all executing arms of this project
macabre take it easy in South Kivu, where they continue to enjoy sales products
Banyamulenge cows regularly raided by them. What an injustice!
Your Excellency the President of the Republic, to the
during 2019, thousands of cows were raided and several villages destroyed
in the Savannah Itombwe by May-May groups with the support of FARDC elements
In the region. I will give you here a concrete example of this collaboration. Dated
04.10.2019 in the morning, May-May attacked my village located southwest of
Kipupu, capital of the Itombwe sector. The shepherds of our herd of cows have
fled with them towards the nearest military camp, which was less than
2 km to the south. To their surprise, as they approached the camp, they came under fire
from those from whom they sought protection. Three cows
fell on the field under the bullets, two of the shepherds were apprehended
and tortured to finally hear from their military executioners that they did not want
not their faces in the middle. And the fate of our cows? They were easily
recovered by May-May. The soldiers in question had just given them a pass
Golden. Note that in several cases of raids, the mai-mai benefited from the support
soldiers and their cover when the Banyamulenge tried to e them
pursue in order to recover their cows.
Your Excellency the President of the Republic, the
case I end with further illustrates the evidence supporting some elements
FRDCs in May-May. The region of Bibokoboko (middle plateau above the city
of Baraka in Fizi territory) was the only place in South Kivu where the
Banaymulenge still lived in peace alongside their neighbors from other tribes until
12.10.2021. The safety of goods and people in these medium platforms was
ensured impeccably by the men of Colonel David IPANGI MUKAZ, Commander
of the regiment which was based in Baraka, a true soldier of the people who had not only
well mastered the security situation, but also succeeded in uniting the different
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communities. The battalion he had deployed there was a real bulwark for the
Banyamulenge against possible Mai-Mai attacks. Against all odds, at
during the month of last September, a decision to transfer this valiant and Commander
patriot (among the few that still count the FRDC in South Kivu) with all his
regiment was taken from somewhere. This change aroused the anger of the population of
Baraka who did not understand why we had to relieve a regiment which had
Controlled the security situation in Baraka and its surroundings. Civil society in Baraka
begged the Brigadier General and Commander of operations Sokola 2 South of South Kivu
to stay this decision, but he refused. Faced with this refusal, a dead city day was
organized on September 25 as a sign of protest. But alas, this is not enough to
to weaken the determination of this Brigadier General to move this regiment. After the departure
the valiant colonel with his men, his replacement refused to deploy the soldiers to
Bibokoboko despite numerous pleas from the Banyamulenge who
feared the worst. It is clearly evident that the initiators of the mutation in
question simply wanted to open a breach for the Mai-Mai to come
attack the villages of the Banyamulenge. The worst that the military hierarchy was looking for
the initiator of the mutation occurred at the dawn of 10/13/2021. Several villages of
Banyamulege were taken over by the Mai-Mai who burned them while the population in
stampede fled in disorder. The first fugitives who arrived exhausted in Baraka
September 14 at nightfall were greeted by heckling and jets of
stones which wounded some of them. From others we have stolen meager possessions
with which they had managed to escape. After these attacks, we counted several
dead, several dozen villages burnt down, several hostages carried away by the
assailants, several raided cows, material goods carried away or charred in the
houses set on fire, not to mention the thousands of displaced people crammed into Baraka and its
surroundings. This is what the initiators of the mutation in question were apparently aiming for.
They knew very well what awaited the Banyamulenge of Bibokoboko after
withdrawal of their protection.
Your Excellency the President of the Republic,
noting that the Mai-Mai groups (initially sub-contractors of the FARDC) were not
managed to completely drive out the Banyamulenge from the highlands, the same FARDC
decided to take action themselves under the guise of tracking down armed groups
In the region. While the number of these groups in South Kivu was estimated at more or
less 50 according to the authorized services quoted by radio Okapi, dated 12.07.2021, i.e.
5 days after the revelations of this radio, General Kasonga Léon Richard spokesperson
of the FARDC announced muscular operations to be carried out against only three groups.
Not surprisingly, the groups targeted by the operations in question were none other than
those who will also be mentioned in the minutes of the Government meeting
held 5 days later (July 17, 2021), namely vigilante groups
Banyamulenge, thus proving that only the latter were in the crosshairs of
FARDC and the Government. As a diversion, just like his subordinate Major Kasereka,
this General will add, deadpan in his press release, two armed groups
Burundian foreigners including RED TABARA as allies of self-defense groups
Banyamulenge while the latter was the main support of the Mai-Mai Fuliru, without which
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the latter would not have managed to drive out the Banyamulenge from the highlands
from Uvira. The mission of tracking down the selected groups was entrusted to General François
Mukalay. With nearly a thousand men, he crossed the whole of the Uvira Territory from South East to South West within the confines of three territories before entering that of
Fizi looking for target groups. While as a General of a so-called army
Republican, he was supposed to fight all armed groups without distinction, he left
knowingly quiet behind him in Uvira territory several Fuliru armed groups
as well as the Burundian RED TABARA, who however had been cynically given as
ally of the Banyamulenge self-defense groups through Army spokesman General
national. It is undeniable that if it had not been for the support of the FRDC and RED TABARA to the groups
Mai-Mai locals (Bembe, Fuliru and Nyidu), the latter would not have been able to
to dislodge the Banyamulenge from just one of their villages despite their numerical superiority.
They themselves know it well.
Your Excellency the President of the Republic,
some believed there was a war between the Banyamulenge on one side and their neighbors
Bembe, Fuliru and Nyindu on the other. This is absolutely wrong. There is rather in my opinion a
plan to uproot the Banyamulenge from the high and middle plateaus of Fizi-Mwenga-Uvira.
The designers of this plan use the Mai-Mai groups from neighboring tribes to the
Banayamulenge as executors, with the assistance of Burundian armed groups,
certain elements of the FARDC constituting the conductor. Like diseases
opportunists attacking a body eaten away by an AIDS virus, rantings such as
that project of balkanization, taking of land, etc. by the Banyamulenge heard during
of the hysterical euphoria following the installation of the animators of the rural commune
of Minembwe last year were nothing but opportunistic claims by fishermen in
troubled waters, the real issue being the uprooting of the Banyamulenge of South Kivu.
Your Excellency the President of the Republic, more
aloud I pointed out that in my humble opinion, the tragedy that the Banyamulenges are going through
in the high and middle plateaus of Fizi-Mwenga-Uvira is not the consequence of a
tribal conflict between them and their neighbors, but rather the execution of a meticulous plan
designed to uproot them from their ancestral lands in South Kivu. Here are some points
on which I base my conviction:
1. The modus operandi used today by local armed groups against
Banyamulenge with the support of the FRDC.
I was an eyewitness to the first abuses by Bembe and Fuliru armed groups against
the Banyamulenge a little over half a century ago during the Mulelist rebellion of
1964. Admittedly at the time they also killed people, cows were raided, but the
crimes had not reached current proportions in terms of deaths, cows
raids, exiles and internally displaced persons. Much more, while several families
Banyamulenge had found their houses intact, sometimes with doors and beds after
about two years or more of abandonment following this war, today the attackers do not
leave no building intact. In this case, there is a systematic destruction
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of houses, churches, schools and health center. Apparently it’s as if they received
the order to completely destroy the wealth of Banyamulenge (raiding all
cows) and their infrastructure in order to force them to permanently leave the
South Kivu.
2. The silence of the politico-administrative authorities and civil society.
Your Excellency the President of the Republic,
as indicated above, the ongoing tragedy affecting the Banyamulenge in South Kivu
has claimed several hundred victims, forced tens of thousands into exile, caused
thousands of internally displaced persons and the raid of around half a million cows, the
destruction of hundreds of villages, churches, schools and health centers. Against all
waiting, nowhere have we heard the slightest condemnation of this barbarism whatsoever
at the level of the Presidency of the Republic, the Senate, the National Assembly (except
Honorable Moïse NYARUGABO), from the Government, to their territories
via the provincial authorities of South Kivu. It wasn’t until one day that a
Banyamulenge vigilante group attacks a May-May stronghold in an attempt to
recover cows raided to see an avalanche of reactions and
condemnations at all levels to denounce for the first time the consequences
of a war (which had started three years earlier) than all politicians,
leaders of religious denominations and civil society actors in South Kivu
(yet very talkative) refrained from denouncing as long as the victims
were only Tutsi.
Your Excellency the President of the Republic, I
believe that you have given you sufficient evidence of a close collaboration between a
part of the army of which you are the Supreme Commander and the armed groups to
persecute and kick out of the national territory a fringe of your compatriots vis-à-vis
which you have also sworn to guarantee security and rights. I showed you
how the Ban community yamulenge was abandoned by those who had to
defend their rights and ensure their protection. As President of the Republic, he
I find it hard to believe that you ignore the ins and outs of the drama that is unfolding
plays in the middle and highlands against the Banyamulenge. As for the General Staff
of our army, I think he knows more than too much given the involvement of some
of his Generals and soldiers alongside the armed groups to drive out some of your
fellow citizens of their mother country.
Your Excellency the President of the Republic, all
power comes from God says the Bible. However, our God does not rule with the one to
who He gives it unless the latter asks Him for it as King Solomon did. I
heard you say during your swearing in that it is, among other things, in front of
God you did. Soon after I saw you at the Martyrs Stadium with a crowd of
people in a prayer session to ask forgiveness from God for all the evils committed
by Congolese politicians against their populations. I sincerely believe that the key to
the solution to the problem in question is in your hands. If your request
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of forgiveness that day was really sincere, let me ask you, Excellency
Mr. President, stop the uprooting of the Banyamulenge and protect all
their rights as they are for the rest of the Congolese. You have the power and it is
in your prerogatives as the Guarantor of the security of goods and people
as well as their rights in our country.
With the renewed expression of our most deferential tributes,
Jean Baptiste RUTHIRIRIZA NKANIKA
One of your compatriots
Done in Kinshasa, on 11/10/2021