Satellite Imagery Proves Catastrophic Failure of Joint Rwanda/Congo Military Exercises

Seeing is believing. For the past ten months, human rights organizations, political sources, eyewitness reports, and secret communiqués from remnants of Laurent Nkunda loyalists have reported that joint military operations between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have been a catastrophic failure. Now DigitalGlobe and GeoEye satellite photos provided by The American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) are irrefutable proof of atrocities perpetrated by the regular Congolese Army (FARDC) and Rwandan Rebels (FDLR) against innocent villagers. Satellite imagery of the Busurungi area in North Kivu clearly shows burned villages.

The statistics are overwhelming and hopefully these startling images from the heavens will galvanize the world to act. For every rebel combatant disarmed during the operation, one civilian has been killed, seven women and girls have been raped, six houses burned and destroyed, and 900 people have been forced to flee their homes.

Up to six million souls have lost their lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1998. 800,000 to one million people have been displaced from their homes in eastern Congo since this January, when The United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUC) ostensibly partnered with Congolese and Rwandan military forces to drive out Ugandan, rebel Rwandan forces, and other militias from the Kivu Provinces.

"To allow these troops to be led by commanders like Bosco Ntaganda, with a known track record of horrific abuse, creates a climate in which atrocities flourish," Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch said in July to deaf ears. MONUC has backed the Congolese army in the Kimia II operation since March, after Rwanda abandoned its commitment to Operation "Umoja Wetu," and after the ouster of rebel leader Laurent Nkunda of the CNDP.

Rwanda engaged in a secret agreement with the Congolese president Joseph Kabila to depose CNDP (National Congress for the Defense of the People) rebel General Laurent Nkunda and install Ntaganda in January. Why? For approximately four years Nkunda had erected a wall of protection for ethnic minorities and had also made significant military gains in territory and weapon seizures from the FARDC. Kabila was rapidly losing territory and support and turned to Rwanda to neutralize Nkunda. Rwanda was happy to oblige, since the rebel Tutsi leader had become too popular and too independent.

Now, HRW reports that FDLR militia are deliberately targeting civilians and burning their villages as punishment for the Congolese government's decision to launch military operations. Congolese government soldiers have also persecuted civilians through killings and widespread rape, looting, forced labor, and arbitrary arrests.

But it gets worse.

Sexual violence has grown even more brutal in areas affected by the Kimia II operation. "We're seeing more cases of mutilation, extreme violence, and torture in sexual violence cases against women and girls, and many more of the victims are children," said Immaculée Birhaheka of Promotion et Appui aux Initiatives Féminines (PAIF).

Some previously displaced people in the Kivus have returned home to areas that have become relatively secure. But the ongoing military operations have caused new displacement of civilians in Masisi, Rutshuru, Lubero, Walikale, Kabare, Kalehe, Walungu, Shabunda, and Uvira territories of North and South Kivu, as well as in southern Maniema and northern Katanga provinces. Many civilians who have recently left displacement camps around Goma and elsewhere have moved on to secondary displacement sites since they fear returning home.

The United Nations provided backing for the failed and incompetent Kimia II operation, including tactical expertise, transport and aviation support, as well as food rations, fuel, and medical support to Congolese army soldiers, at an estimated cost of well over $6 million.

"With an investment this big, the UN has clout and should not remain silent when abuses occur," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The UN needs to make it clear that if the Congolese government wants its continued military support, the army should remove abusive soldiers from command positions and its soldiers should stop attacking civilians."

Reprisal attacks against unarmed populations by the FDLR militia have made the task of protecting civilians increasingly complicated for the Congolese government and UN peacekeepers. Yet the 3,000 additional UN peacekeepers authorized by the UN Security Council in November 2008 are only just arriving in eastern Congo, and the helicopters and intelligence support requested by UN officials have still not materialized, HRW reports.

The numbers do not add up if you are a civilian in DRC.

1,071 FDLR combatants were repatriated and 1,143 civilians were killed, including at least 10 local chiefs. An estimated 250-300 FDLR were combatants killed and 7,000 women and girls raped, the majority by the FDLR and FARDC soldiers deployed on military operations. 1,632 FDLR dependents have returned to Rwanda. Nearly 900,000 civilians were forced to flee their homes since January 2009 in North and South Kivu.

Image: IDP Camp (Georgianne Nienaber)

10,949 Rwandan refugees have returned to Rwanda, and 6,037 homes were burned (by both the FDLR and FARDC). There is new recruitment of children by the FDLR; armed groups are still not integrated, are maintaining parallel command structures, or are threatening to abandon the integration process.

We have been writing since January about the corruption, embezzlement, rapes, murders, burnings, misappropriation of soldiers' salaries and other uncountable and unimaginable atrocities. The Huffington Post has been steadfast in its support for innocent Congolese citizens, but more is needed. What are required are outrage and an international force of will to end this madness.

Until then we are all trapped in the belly of Satan, whether we want to open our eyes or not. So far, the United States has been dumping money and not American blood into this cesspool. Will this change when SOS Hillary Clinton's AFRICOM puts boots on the ground?

 

 

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Comments

[sweetiebird]

Thank you Georgianne for your continued efforts to bring this terrible humanitarian tragedy to the attention of the public and to policy makers in Washington. It is up to President Obama to show that his selection as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for the hope that he has brought people is warrented by having Secretary of State Clinton and her staff bring pressure to bear on all of the interested parties to end the struggle among the waring factions in the Congo and restore peace to the country, and aid the innocent victims of these wars to re-build their lives.

Please continue your efforts to apply pressure to bring this tragedy to an end by speaking out in your articles in the Huff Post.

[doefred]

Dear Georginne,
Thank you again for your concern and commitment to speak till end for humanity. I am sorry because my english is few but the help I was talking about was, I was crying to people in power, rulers... if at any chance these writings here comes to the eyes of people like the SOS, President Obama... legislators... to come with a hearts of WILL to help us. Can villagers liberate themselves from a proxy war? What is remaining to us other than coming to our knees asking in crying, saying please help us. Use now your good will and remove this loads on the rest of the population of Congo. We can no just fight such a big power.
It was in that angle I was asking for help. You just dont know Georginne how much I appreciate your help by make our cries sound out.

[Ellafred]

Cher/e Doefred,

Mmon francais n'est pas bon. Mais je voudrais vous dire que j'ai honte de l'absence de l'humanite et la volonte du monde pour le Congo.

Je suis vraiment desole de votre souffrance.

The situation is so complicated, and yet so simple: people are dying because others do not care sufficiently to learn what is going on, to try to understand, and then to help.

The Huffington Post is to be commended for airing the articles by Georgianne Nienaber.

[doefred]

Cher/e Ellefred,
Vous ne pouvez pas imaginez nos souffrance depuis des années mon frère ou ma sœur. C’est horrible. Depuis Léopold II, la main de fer n’a jamais quittée le Congo.J’ai resolu demandé pardon à Dieu pour le pays.
Merci pour se tenir avec nous pendant les moment difficile mon ami(e) nous en sommes reconnaisssant.
Que le monde ait pitié pour la population du Congo.

[rolfmn]

Thanks for the timely story. Seems like its time for the U.S. and E.U. to increase diplomatic pressure on Rwanda and DRC to resolve this crisis .

[Ellafred]

Thank you for writing about this. So important.
And what is the way forward?

There is now much literature now on how UN peacekeeping operations so often bring with them increase in prostitution, exploitation of young women, corruption, etc etc.

And the more I learn of Kivu and intersections of miltia, the DRC army, the UN forces and local and international business interests, the more I wonder what the answers are. From what I know, the above groups literally divide up territory and make deals about how to work, including access to minerals, trade deals etc...

Everything seem so corrupt and so not in the interests of the people, and they suffer so.

[doefred]

Thank you Georgianne,
Please for God's sake dont close your ears to our suffering. If you know that power and authorities has been given to you by God to serv people, I beg you, give ears to Congolese. Put an end to this, and it can only work if operations are not to create jobs.
We were forced to leave Nyankunde Bunia in 2000 and living as refugees in Uganda in teri conditions. My wife have no idea of the whereabout of her sister's family who were in Lubero. She thought they were among the group who came in to Kisoro recently but nothing. My sister and family in Kyangwali refugee camp in Uganda looking after 5 kids alone because her huby became mentaly sick after been beaten by militias...Please help us Congolese. Call in upon your will to assist us.
doe

[Georgianne Nienaber - Huffpost Blogger]

Dear Doefred,

I will write and speak about this until I have no voice. I am only a writer and have no political power, but there are many of us who are trying our best to witness the horrible suffering the Congolese endure. I am so sorry for what your family is going through. A friend of mine who was a Mwami died in exile in a camp in Uganda. I knew he was ill, but I was powerless to help. I will be thinking of you.