BREAKING A VICIOUS PATTERN OF VIOLENCE IN AFRICA'S GREAT LAKES REGION

Foreign Affairs 101 Quiz 1: What do Paul Kagame, Yoweri Museveni, and Joseph Kabila have in common? They’re all former armed rebels turned statesmen and dictators! It is that vicious pattern of rebels turning into statesmen that must be terminated in the Great Lakes region and Central Africa! This is the most urgent public safety concern to be addressed.

Foreign Affairs 101 Quiz 2: What do M23 and other DRC rebel leaders seek? Answer: statesmanship.

Foreign Affairs 101 Quiz 3: What do Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and Uganda”s Yoweri Museveni seek through their DRC proxies, a.k.a rebels? Continue to plunder Congo’s natural resources (coltan, diamonds, gold, tin, coffee, tea, timber, etc.) and kill any Congolese who oppose them.

Foreign Affairs 101 Quiz 4: How about a power-sharing agreement between Joseph Kabila and M23? We’ve seen that before; it means bringing more criminals in uniform to Kinshasa remotely controlled by Rwanda and Uganda, a public safety issue! They would add to the existing bands of criminals, mostly thieves, already in Kinshasa!

On December 15, 2012, I wrote on this blog:

“Imagine telling the cops to walk their beats and not to intervene as long as the criminals do not endanger people's lives. This equates to giving the green light or carte blanche to criminals to commit all types of crimes and walk free as long as they do not cause any wound to the civilian population. It is like telling them that they can steal, loot, enslave, rape, and do all unimaginable atrocities provided they do not cause any wound to their victims! Unfortunately, this has been the mandate the United Nations gave to its largest mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo! In the DRC, those criminals are the Rwanda-and-Uganda backed rebels whose atrocities have been well documented and publicized enough in recent months throughout the world.

As a criminologist and law enforcement expert, I strongly believe that any United Nations military or paramilitary force must be tasked with enforcing international law through the use of all tools to force belligerent groups to comply with civilized codes of conduct. Therefore, I urge the United Nations to strengthen its 19,000 troops in the Congo so that they can respond with fire any time criminals in uniform, also known as rebels and their foreign backers, violate decent norms of conduct (…)"

Foreign Affairs 101 Quiz 5: What has the United Nations come up with on January 25, 2013?

Answer from Reuters: “U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will recommend to the U.N. Security Council that a peace enforcement unit be deployed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to take on the M23 rebels and other armed groups, a senior U.N. official said on Friday.

The intervention unit of a few thousand troops would aim to prevent armed groups from expanding territory in the resource-rich region by overpowering and disarming them. The unit would be contained within the existing U.N. force, known as MONUSCO.

"It is not simply peacekeeping, this is peace enforcement. It's a much more robust stance," said the official, who declined to be named. "It will be a deterrent against the armed groups..."

http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCABRE90O16I20130125?sp=true

NOW IT SEEMS THAT WORLD AFFAIRS KEY PLAYERS HAVE GOTTEN THE MESSAGE!

NOW LET'S TALK DICTATORS, REBELS, DEMOCRACY AND FOREIGN AID!

I have spent the last few months attacking the M23 rebels and their foreign sponsors and have contributed to  global awareness of the crisis in eastern Congo through this blog and on the Foreign Policy Magazine. I have not spared Joseph Kabila from criticism. For us Congolese, he still remains our headache because he bears part of the responsibility on the ongoing crisis. Put simply: if there is one thing dictators and rebels have in common, it is that both groups fit very well in the criminal category, be it in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, etc. It is that criminal element that must be eradicated in those countries and others, period.

For those who never passed Political Science 101, I need to remind them that the current leaders of the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda were armed rebels, i.e., criminals, and violated the laws of their own countries by promoting insurgency and participating in the killing of innocent people. Rebellion is a crime; any rebel is a criminal; any former rebel who becomes a statesman is still a criminal in Rwanda, Uganda, the DRC, etc. and must be prosecuted based on the laws he violated and not based on the laws he enacted to protect himself against prosecution. There is always a case départ !

As a democracy advocate and human rights activist, I urge those with power in world politics to use their influence and pressure to promote the cause of freedom and democracy  in the countries cited above and others across the globe and to starve to death every single dictator  and armed rebel group by freezing any direct and indirect foreign aid to dictators, their assets, and their associates' assets. Throughout the years, I have repeated this same message over and over again in meetings with Western diplomats and on the Internet. There is no other way to safeguard foreign taxpayers' money!

Much has been achieved in recent weeks in freezing the assets of the Rwanda-and-Uganda backed M23 rebels. Now is the time to focus on the foreign assets of the dictators of Africa's Great Lakes region and work towards the end of tyranny in this part of the world. This is a second test for the international community to help eliminate dictatorships and build democracies.

For those who still struggle with Foreign Policy 101, the reasoning is very simple: dictatorship, freedom, and rule of law cannot mix; they're like water and oil. No dictator can promote democracy and the only specie a dictator can turn into is that monstrous creature I once coined "dictocrat" at  the Foreign Policy Magazine. This is a weird specie that sheds its skin through fraudulent elections to camouflage its tyrannical origins and ends. Paul Kagame, Yoweri Museveni, Joseph Kabila, Paul Biya, Bozizé, etc. are just a few examples. Along the same lines, there is no such a thing as "benevolent dictator". I've heard some diplomats praise creatures such as Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni as benevolent dictators. They're wrong and must go back to school: these individuals and some of their peers are not only tyrants, but they also belong to what I've also coined a "new generation of African thieves". 

I am pleased that only a few countries still roll the red carpet for visiting dictators, and it is comforting that state dinners in presidential palaces to honor visiting dictators and tyrants have become a rare event  in today's world. I commend those leaders who refuse to physically associate, even on picture, with African dictators and tyrants. I urge them to move beyond  the symbolic state dinner ban and start playing a more active role towards the end of tyranny in Africa in general and in Africa's Great Lakes region in particular. A bon entendeur, salut!

WELCOME DRONES AND FOL BASE IN THE CONGO!

On November 27, 2012 and December 9, 2012, I published well-thought opinion-articles on the Foreign Policy magazine and on this blog urging the United Nations to take actions towards ending those Rwanda-fueled stupid, primitive, and stone-aged wars in eastern Congo. I also suggested, among many things, the implementation of an aerial interdiction program to fight contraband of some stolen goods from the Congo (diamonds, gold, etc.) that can easily be smuggled by air. Based on my experience in Latin America, I've  also advocated for the installation of a Forward-Location Base (FOL) to monitor eastern Congo and terminate those very stupid wars no real Mensch is pleased with!

Things have been moving in the right direction since my several political writings on this blog and on the Foreign  Policy Magazine (see my previous posts). I am pleased that the United Nations is now considering deploying drones in eastern Congo. In fact, the Boston Globe wrote on January 8, 2013, under the title UN wants to use surveillance drones in the Congo :

“(…) The diplomats said France, Britain, the U.S. and other Western countries back the deployment of drones in eastern Congo, saying it would enhance the ability of peacekeepers to track armed groups and help protect U.N. forces from ambushes. U.N. officials say drones could also be useful in other African conflicts and (…) The exploitation of Congo’s mineral resources continues to exacerbate conflict and instability on the ground.

The M23 rebel group is made up of hundreds of mainly Tutsi soldiers who deserted the Congolese army in April. A U.N. group of experts reported in November that M23 is backed by Rwanda, which has provided them with battalions of fighters and sophisticated arms, like night vision goggles (...)”

http://www.boston.com/news/world/united-nations/2013/01/08/wants-use-surveillance-drones-congo/jtDP9Vn1zHbHWJDcym6ErI/story.html

I have not been preaching in the desert, and I welcome this new move by the United Nations. We need drones and an FOL base in the Congo to fight extremists and their sponsors. It's one of the many steps that still must be taken in the right direction to protect the people of the Congo and hold accountable the suppliers (Rwanda) and recipients (M23) for their atrocities against the peaceful people of the Congo. 

Congo sits over hundreds of trillions of dollars in natural resources (see http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39986&Cr=democratic&Cr1=congo#.UO0IxxGFzkc), and we understand that undemocratic China has made huge progress securing contracts with the current government of the DRC and has made giant steps winning the hearts, minds, and souls of Congolese, building infrastructure here and there,  and engraving a new script in Congolese minds about the West and what the West stands for in the Congo. History repeating itself: winners (this time with excessive cash in hand) always rewrite history!

Now is time for Realpolitik, not a time for romanticism with an insignificant, unessential, and overcrowded piece of land perched, like a parasite, on a flank of giant Congo.  

We Congolese face our own challenges and long for and work towards a dictatorship-free Congo. Our most powerful weapon is the ability to communicate and convey a clear message to the entire world through all types of media. We do not believe in those primitive and childish wars sponsored by Rwanda in eastern Congo, and I will always applaud any initiative to eradicate those atrocities in eastern Congo and their sponsors. 

Again, I welcome the use of drones in eastern Congo to put an end to those stone-aged and stupid wars. The use of drones must be complemented with an FOL base.