Techniec
Drugs and Kalashnikovs
especially considering the magnitude of this conflict
So no thread on the Congo War?
- Thread starter the next guy
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especially considering the magnitude of this conflict
Based on my readings and observations, I think the reason he is willing to risk his reputation to back M23 and other rebels in the eastern Congo is because of Rwanda's relationship with the west (particularly the US). The Tutsi led government in Rwanda have used the Rwandan genocide much like the Jews in Israel have used the Holocaust to gain sympathy and commit crimes that will have the international community (not to say that the genocide and holocaust did not happen...they most definitely did but tbh we can't deny that politicians are not wise enough to know and use these historical incidents to advance their geopolitical goals)
I'd say there is an ethnic element to it, but Rwandan involvement is more economical IMO
Some more info you should research is the case of Victoria Inagbire, who is a "Hutu" Rwandan opposition figure who is a political prisoner who was originally arrested for terrorism and threatening national security. They also accused her of being a genocide denier. She recently was given a sentence of 8 years in prison.
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza » Icon of the Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in Rwanda
Techniec said:
Most of the Africans on here are specialists/experts on their particular countries and sub regions. Although were all "Africans" the continent is too large....it's hard to know and sometimes even care about what's going other parts of the continent that are so far away from yours. I do try to keep tabs tho but I understand if others are not interested in doing so. BTW, most of the Africans on here are from West Africa (Nigeria,Ghana,etc.) and Horn/East Africa (Ethiopia,Somalia,Eritrea,Kenya). I don't think we have many Central Africans on here.
Techniec
Drugs and Kalashnikovs
sorry i worded it incorrectly. we dont have many africans here who can speak on africa outside of the maghreb and the horn...
oh ok
but there also a lot of west africans on here who can speak on our region. Topics just need to be presented. In West Africa tho, not much is going on besides Nigeria's ongoing problems and the recent Mali conflict. The rest of the countries are pretty calm
TrueEpic08
Dum Shiny
Let's see:
1). Here's the thing about the ethnicity issue: In Rwanda, ethnicity's been "outlawed". One doesn't talk about Hutus and Tutsis anymore. Or at least you shouldn't by the standard of the Kagame government. They also have a law that straddles the two categories (which are, or course, intertwined like most arbitrary binary divisions) relating to something called "genocide ideology". Don't ask for a definition, people working in international law have been scrambling for one and haven't been able to find one. The arrest histories point to it being a law against anybody that speaks against the Kagame regime, though. Of course, with the name, there is the implicit invocation of the Tutsi genocide that inheres within the words themselves.
The repression itself is very much a generalized thing against those speaking out against Kagame, but when you look at the movement of everything, those Hutu/Tutsi lines still very much exist: Hutu resistance groups like the FDLR (some originating from the Hutu refugee camps at times), Kagame only seeming to support Tutsi groups within the DRC/Rwandan sphere. So it gets mixed around as the movement of politics progresses. There's never one thing, never one totalizing, objective category to anything, but ESPECIALLY in African politics.
2). Yes, even before the genocide, Hutus and Tutsis lived throughout that whole region. The fluidity question isn't something I'm fully equipped to answer (I'm not an ethnographer), but from what I do know, a lot of the fluidity comes from the refugee situations and Kagame's fear of Hutu rebels stationed in East DRC. There's also the whole situation with displaced Banyamulenge (a name for Congolese Tutsis, initially called Banyarwanda to separate them from the "indigenous" population of the area) that has it's own complex history...
3). Past interference in the Congo, yeah. Up until 2000, when they had their own little spat over land in the DRC during the Second Congo War. After 2003, it gets a bit murky, since you don't see a lot of Uganda movement, and instead see more of Kagame and Rwanda at the forefront. There has been suspicion that the Ugandan government has been funding the M23 rebels, but their "official" status has been as a site for a possible brokering of peace (a status I find deeply ironic considering the intra-area violence there, but that's another thing). Let's say that other than the last tidbit, I'm unsure on present Ugandan direct involvement.
Some of this might be inaccurate, since I'm just going off of what I know and am not an expert, so keep that in mind.
Techniec said:
For some background to the conflict in Congo and the wider Great Lakes Region of Africa that includes Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi,etc. You must go all the way back to colonial days when the Beligans were administrators of both the Congo and Rwanda.
In Rwanda, the Belgians used divide and conquer tactics to maintain power. They used id and rule, where they'd id one distinct group and give them dominion over other groups...basically consolidating power and ruling by proxy. This of course created tension among ethnic groups and tribes who have their own socio-political structure and are not used to be ruled or dominated by outsiders. In the case of Rwanda, the Tutsi were the group the Belgians annointed and gave privileges to.. and this of course created resentment from the Hutus who were marginalized from positions of power. Both groups of people are Bantu peoples genetically and linguistically. But the Belgians were able to create a divide by using the Hamitic theory (apparently the myth was that Tutsi's were Hamitic who came from North East Africa and that is the reason for their look) and emphasizing "racial differences" such as cranial and skull sizes, limb proportions, shape of the nose etc.
The nail in the coffin imo was in the 1930s when the Belgians (probably fearing the end of their rule) issued out identity cards and intensified the divide.
but to answer your questions:
1) a mix of both.
2) the tutsis in congo are not indigenous..this is just the facts. Tutsis and Hutus are found only in Burundi and Rwanda.
3) Uganda in my observation are not as involved in the Eastern congo as Rwanda. But as far as interference and exploitation of the Congo's vast natural resources I'd say they are on the same page with that objective.
TrueEpic08
Dum Shiny
Most of the Africans on here are specialists/experts on their particular countries and sub regions. Although were all "Africans" the continent is too large....it's hard to know and sometimes even care about what's going other parts of the continent that are so far away from yours. I do try to keep tabs tho but I understand if others are not interested in doing so. BTW, most of the Africans on here are from West Africa (Nigeria,Ghana,etc.) and Horn/East Africa (Ethiopia,Somalia,Eritrea,Kenya). I don't think we have many Central Africans on here.
Add to this the complexity of the situations (You need to be knowledgeable in at least 2 European colonial histories, and the histories of migration in Northwest Africa to understand the whole Morocco/Western Sahara/At-one-time Mauritania mess, for example, and the only reason I know anything about that is because I know a relative of the first post-colonial Mauritanian President), and there's no real comprehensive way to know about African politics. It's just too vast and messy.
I do wish the more knowledgeable would post more, however. They could go much more in depth into issues, with more accuracy, than my generalities.
Captain Crunch
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the next guy
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sticky this the arab one is.