‘The people of Congo continue to live in poverty, while much of its massive wealth is taken by foreign countries.’ Photo: by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
The lie of the land: Elizabeth Coleman on truth, Rwanda and Congo
‘If we are not told the truth about this, we will not act to change it.’
As Quakers, we seek truth. But, as Thomas Penny reminded us in this year’s Swarthmore Lecture, truth is not a simple thing. Truth is complex and complicated. There are ways of being untruthful without telling direct lies.
Think of the mainstream news services available to us. If a lot of coverage is given to happenings in a particular country, there is an underlying message that what happens in that country is important and interesting. Conversely, if a country is rarely mentioned, the implication is that what happens there is unimportant and uninteresting. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rarely features in the press or on radio or television news, and this applied even when there were wars there in which millions died. These news sources may not be telling lies about DRC, but there is something untruthful about the lack of coverage.
The most striking thing about the country is the contrast between the huge wealth of its mineral resources and the desperate poverty of most of its people. Turning a blind eye to this is to be complicit in injustice, while we benefit from these minerals in our phones, computers, cars and elsewhere.
Rwanda also does not often feature in the news, though the 1994 genocide was covered. But there is a myth or partial truth about Rwanda that is believed by many, and it leads to policy decisions that may have a damaging effect on the DRC.
This myth is that Rwanda has been through the dark times of genocide, but has put these behind it, and is now a peaceful country, a beacon of hope, and worthy of Western aid. The truth is much darker, and more complicated. To quote Desmond Tutu: ‘The whole world wanted to believe in the miracle that was Rwanda – a country built from the wreckage and devastation that intertribal violence and ethnic cleansing had caused. The whole world ignored the few voices pointing out the silencing of political opponents through imprisonment, kidnapping or torture. To our shame, our need for Rwanda to succeed far exceeded our desire or ability to see the cost at which that success was bought.’
Rwanda has in fact been playing a role in violence and war in the DRC. After the 1994 genocide, many Hutus fled to East Congo, and settled in refugee camps near the Rwandan border, where military training openly took place, in preparation for an invasion of Rwanda. The government of Congo, then called Zaire, did not stop this, so the Rwandan army came into East Congo and forced the refugees to return. Some, however, in particular those prepared for military action, fled deeper into Congo, pursued by the Rwandan troops, who murdered men, women and children, including Hutus of Burundian and Zairian nationality. The UN Refugee Agency estimated that some 200,000 people remained unaccounted for. By Christmas 1996, Rwanda controlled a sixty-mile zone running along Zaire’s border with Uganda.
Zaire had been weakened by the long rule of Mobutu Sese Seko, who had been president of DRC/Zaire since 1965. Infrastructure, and any semblance of good government, had gone to ruin, and the Rwandans found that they could take town after town, eventually arriving at the capital, Kinshasa, in 1997, where they made Laurent Kabila, a Congolese figurehead to a Rwandan invasion, the president.
Kabila, however, did not act as a puppet to his Rwandan masters, and wanted the Rwandan troops to leave Congo. This led to conflict between him and Rwanda. In 1998, when there was a revolt against Kabila in the Congolese army, Rwanda and Uganda took the opportunity to invade Congo again. Early in 2001, Kabila was murdered by one of his bodyguards. By this time, Congo had effectively been dismembered, with different parts controlled by various militias and different foreign armies. Rwanda’s interest in Congo was no longer to keep itself safe from a possible Hutu invasion. To quote Michela Wrong (in Do Not Disturb: The story of a political murder and an African regime gone bad), ‘Security was no longer the main reason for maintaining troops there. Using their local rebel allies as fronts, Rwanda’s and Uganda’s militaries were vacuuming up Congo’s diamonds, gold, cobalt, columbo-tantalite, cassiterite, and iron. Tropical timber, cattle herds, elephant tusks, quinine, and tea were being trucked across the border, then exported abroad, miraculously rebranded as Rwandan and Ugandan produce.’
The people of Congo continue to live in poverty, while much of its massive wealth is taken by foreign countries, including Rwanda, to this day.
If we are not told the truth about this, we will not act to change it. But if we do know, and would like to do what we can to change things, what actions can we take? Quaker Congo Partnership UK has worked with Congolese Quakers in the eastern provinces since 2009. It works to support a rural hospital, trauma counselling, clean water, peace building and a scheme giving women the skills and resources to improve their livelihood. But DRC’s problems need addressing at a policy level. Rwanda is still reliant on foreign aid. In fact, the UK government seems rather uncritical of Rwanda when it gives that aid. The new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office still uses a paragraph on its website from the 2017 profile created by the now-subsumed Department for International Development: ‘A peaceful and prosperous Rwanda is essential for stability in Africa. The government of Rwanda is committed to poverty reduction and meeting the Global Goals, achieving increased prosperity and opportunity for its citizens, and ensuring stability. They have a strong record of using aid effectively to achieve these objectives and produce impressive results. However, it is only just over 20 years since the genocide and poverty remains high. It is important to continue supporting development and economic growth efforts so Rwanda can succeed in the long term and be self-reliant.’ The following sentence has now been removed: ‘This in turn will help minimise the risk of conflict within and between countries in the region.’
A more critical approach to foreign aid, which involved discussion of Rwandan involvement in the DRC, might lead to better aid-giving, making it conditional on Rwanda keeping out of Congo. This could improve the lives of the people of Congo, reducing their poverty and reducing violence in the east of the country. It would be a worthwhile campaign for Friends to support.
Comments
Can you please indicate how I can join Quaker Congo Partnership?
By marghuerita@gmail.com on 9th September 2021 - 12:44
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