By David Himbara
Rwanda head of state General Paul Kagame and chairman of the African Union (AU) has a new mission — mediating power contenders is a contentious presidential election in DR Congo. Kagame is off to Congo to tell the government of Joseph Kabila that the real winner of the just-completed presidential elections was swindled out of his victory. Kagame’s mission in DR Congo is an irony of colossal proportions.
In 1997, Kagame imposed on the Congolese people, Laurent Kabila, as head of state. In the process of putting Kabila in power, Kagame armies massacred millions leading the United Nations to accuse him of “possible genocide.” At the same time, the Congolese mineral wealth was stolen on grand scale.
In 1998, Kagame attempted but failed to remove from power Laurent Kabila. The current Congolese president, Joseph Kabila, came to power in 2001 when Kabila senior was assassinated. Kagame sponsored all kinds of militias in Congo — the last was M23 which was defeated by a combined force of Tanzanian, South African and Malawian armies in 2013.
Kagame’s murderous record in DR Congo recalls the words of Voltaire, the French historian and philosopher — “It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” Kagame mediating the democratic process in DR Congo is the cruelest of ironies.
