DR Congo: Random thoughts.

"Atrocity is recognized as such by victim and perpetrator alike, by all who learn about it at whatever remove. Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity. It is self-perpetuating upon itself---a barbarous form of incest. Whoever commits atrocity also commits those future atrocities thus bred. "
--- The Apocrypha of Muad'Dib
Frank Herbert

Rwanda: Just how stupid do they think we are ?

New Times ( Rwanda ) reports.

Q & A: My job is challenging but it’s worth it – Speaker Mukantabana

                                                          Rose Mukantabana

TNT: What about the achievements in your oversight function?
RM: We exercise oversight according to a constitutional provision, which requires the Prime Minister to appear at least once during each ordinary session to brief Parliament on the work of the Executive. This year the Prime Minister focused mainly on agriculture, education, health, and more recently, energy. These sectors constitute the wheels of our country’s development agenda.

It was very interesting and helpful for Parliament. First of all, we want to know what is going on in the Executive. And then, it helps us follow up at the grassroots.

But we also met with three ministers; the ministers of foreign affairs, finance, and defence, on this issue of the conflict in eastern DRC. The information they gave Parliament was very helpful.

After that consultative meeting, we set up a committee to investigate the sources of the false allegations that Rwanda backs the (M23) rebels in that country.
Interesting that she brought it up. DR Congo and Rwanda's support is well documented and yet she persists in trying to sell the lie. New Times is very much a propaganda tool of the Rwandan authorities.

TNT: In June, MPs from both Chambers condemned MONUSCO (UN Mission in the Congo) for similar allegations against Rwanda, and called on the UN to investigate whether the Mission was breaching its mandate by allegedly conniving with negative forces like the FDLR militias blamed for the Genocide against the Tutsi. What do you hope to achieve through the committee you have set up?
RM:  We expect an added value because as the ministers explained, this situation in DRC is not a situation created by Rwanda. It is not even a situation that will be solved by Rwanda. It is a DRC problem but we continue to ask ourselves why the international community blames the situation of DRC on Rwanda.
And the international community continues to point to all the evidence that catagorically proves Rwandan support for M23.


Even as our government has explained, and provided a thorough rebuttal with proof that Rwanda is not involved with the M23 rebellion, the international community continues to say that it is Rwanda [supporting the rebels]. We want to go deep, as Parliament, into the documentation, reports and so on, and make our own analysis of this situation and, thereafter, we will compile and analyse every related information – the documents and reports from the UN, other international organisations and the rebuttal by Rwanda to the UN, and then ascertain the real problem.

We are not challenging the explanations from the ministers, not at all. We want to make sure we have clarity on why the international community continues to harass Rwanda, as a country, over this situation in DRC.

The purpose of parliamentary democracy is of course for the parliament to scruitinise the actions of the executive, so one has to laugh at the assertion that the house ( parliament ) " is not challenging.... the ministers " but rather has adopted the role of a lap dog and denied the evidence of the international community.


TNT: One school of thought is that there are external (western) players who do not wish to see the DRC at peace because that would put their own interests in jeopardy. What is your take? Yes I have heard that school of thought articulated many times, I assume the western players refered to are the same western players that have suspended Rwandan aid for its support for M23.

RM: We want, particularly, to have a clear overview of this situation; digging deep will also help us, as parliamentarians, because through our parliamentary diplomacy we work with other parliaments and, maybe, other parliaments all over the world don’t even know what the real situation is or what is behind this situation.

Through parliamentary diplomacy, and using a report by the parliament, we can convince our counterparts in different forums, instead of using reports from other institutions. Now that is a novel idea, the parliament is going to dig deep and work with other parliaments to reveal to those parliaments what the situation is, whilst at the same time denying the reports of institutions like the UN Security Council. If that is orwellian enough for you, you have the even more comical situation that as of January 2013 Rwanda takes up the African seat on the Security Council, a body it clearly has no faith in but lobbied like hell to get elected to.  

We want to make our own analysis of the situation and then meet other legislators, we can talk and tell them what the situation is, but based on our own findings. That is the reason why we set up that committee.

I suspect other legislators will have no interest in meeting with the most accompished liars ( in their own view ) of East Africa. If you have nothing better to do like say watching the grass grow, go have a read.

Fairytale of New York

The best Christmas song ever.

Merry Christmas and the expat Congolese Conspiracy

The expat Congolese conspiracy ( NZ ) started as suspicion on my part but there was nothing tangible I had no empirical evidence, I couldn't weigh the problem as I had no bathroom scales but other disturbing indications were present.

My jeans seemed tighter around the waist my belt is one and sometimes two notches further out than usual. More recently I have had to unbutton the waist button on my jeans.

This clearly can't be put down to seasonal factors such as Christmas. There is something far deeper at play.

To all my readers and it would seem that about 250 to 300 of you manage to get here daily, thanks for taking the time to call by. This blog leans on other bloggers for support, ideas and inspiration I will thank you all separately before the curtain comes down on 2012.

To all of you have a happy safe Christmas and if you get a moment over the festive season please spare a thought for Louise Baseme.

Uganda: If you pass a stupid " fucking " law....

The Saturday Monitor ( Uganda ) reports

Magistrate’s court convicts Entebbe woman of defiling 16-year-old boy

                Sarah Nekesa (R) talks to a prison wardress. PHOTO by Martin Ssebuyira  

Defilement are some of cases that rank high up in the annual reports from different police stations in the country today.

Many reported cases are those of men defiling young girls and it is not often that a case is reported of a woman defiling a boy. This is why news of a woman, Sarah Nekesa defiling a 16-year-old boy caused ripples.

Nekesa was convicted by the Entebbe Chief Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. According to police, the 30-year-old self-employed woman, lured the boy into her house in Mutungo village near Kigo Prison in Makindye Division, Wakiso District and defiled him.

I very much doubt it would have require much luring. 16 might be some time in my past but losing my virginity was a fairly large consideration back then. 

The boy, who was not present in court, has not been going to school and was doing casual jobs to earn a living.

Some people who know the boy say Nekesa would send him to help her with a few odd jobs such as fetching water and would then give him some money, luring him to enter her house. “A few people who saw the boy entering Nekesa’s house called others and made an alarm and found the woman ‘In flagrante delicto’ (red-handed),” one of the witnesses said in a statement.

What total bastards. Breaking into someones house is a far worse crime, in New Zealand they would be charged with home invasion. The age of consent is 16 here and recognises that teenage hormones need a release. Incidentally "In flagrante delicto " is correct insofar as it means caught in the act of a sexual act but "red handed" refers to poaching literally being caught with red hands , the blood of the animal poached on the hands of the poacher. Maybe The Monitor should be charged with crimes against language.  

According to the charge sheet, Nekesa committed the offence on October 15. “You have not wasted court’s time by pleading guilty and you are a first offender. I hereby convict you on your own plea and will pass the sentence on Monday December 24,” Ms Joyce Kavuma, the Entebbe chief magistrate, said.

Discharge without conviction would have been a better decision. Maybe some sort of community service sentence would be appropriate that is certainly the way I view the actual so called " crime ". 

The new revised Penal Code Act 2007, section 129(i), states that any person who performs a sexual act with another person below 18 years commits a felony known as defilement and on conviction, the person is liable to life imprisonment.

If you pass stupid fucking ( literally in this case ) laws they will be broken.

During the proceedings, Nekesa pleaded for a lenient sentence, saying she did not intend to lure a minor into sexual intercourse, and had children to look after.

I believe her totally. As I said teenage hormones are quite irrational.

DR Congo: More M23 fun and games in Goma - Not

Press TV reports. This sort of got neglected by me in the Christmas rush and events and as consequence this is more for the record as I suspect events will have moved on some what.

The governor of North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) says that March 23 (M23) movement rebels are trying to terrorize the people of the provincial capital Goma.

"The M23 wants to keep the population of Goma on edge to put pressure on Kampala" in Uganda, where delegates from the Congolese government and the M23 rebel group are negotiating, AFP quoted Julien Paluku as saying on Monday. 

Paluku noted that the rebels were maintaining "pressure to show that at any moment, if this or that isn't done in Kampala, they will take Goma." 

On Monday, the spokesperson for the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), Kieran Dwyer, said that UN peacekeepers in the DRC had received reports of M23 rebels moving into some positions around Goma.

Paluku also said that inmates of Goma's prison who escaped during the chaos last month had become a major security threat. 

"We face two main challenges: the more than 1,170 inmates -- including more than 700 soldiers -- who escaped from prison during the capture of Goma, and disguised M23 members who want to make life unbearable to show that the city is badly governed," the governor said. 

There have been reports that many Goma residents are leaving the city and heading toward Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province. However, Paluku has denied the reports.

The rebels seized Goma on November 20 after UN peacekeepers gave up the battle for the frontier city of one million people. The rebels withdrew from the city on December 1 under a ceasefire accord. 

The M23 rebels defected from the Congolese army in April in protest over alleged mistreatment in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC). They had previously been integrated into the Congolese army under a peace deal signed in 2009. 

Since early May, over 900,000 people have fled their homes in the eastern Congo. Most of them have resettled inside Congo, but tens of thousands have crossed into neighboring Rwanda and Uganda. 

Congo has faced numerous problems over the past few decades, such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east of the country that has dragged on for over a decade and left over 5.5 million people dead. 

Zimbabwe: Harare Hilarity

Zimbo Reports

How’s Robert Mugabe Doing, You May Be . He’s Fine, Just Fine

Ted Obvious writes from Harare: In case you’re wondering how President Robert Mugabe is doing these days, I can tell you that he’s doing just fine. (The latest joke going around Harare is that Madonna has been over here recently, finding out whether she can adopt an 88-year-old boy called Robert, but was refused on the grounds that he would need a much bigger home.)

Yes, Robert turned 88 last February, but he has no plans of stepping down. Despite malicious rumours that he was looking for a successor he has no immediate plans to leave the job he has grown to love and enjoy. The important thing is that Bob the Croc, as he is lovingly known among his friends, feels that the international community has taken his advice to shove its demands to introduce democratic change in Zimbabwe up its collective you-know-what. Have you heard anyone saying anything about the lack of democracy and freedom in Zimbabwe? Exactly, no one’s interested anymore. It’s all about Syria these days.

" Bob the Croc, as he is lovingly known " Hilarious

Mr Mugabe was supposed to stand in the presidential election last year, but decided not to bother. Even though he was going to win it anyway, thanks to the way politics work in Harare. Meanwhile, his boys continue to put serious pressure on the opposition, making sure that if a snap poll takes place at some point, the current Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, Robert’s main political partner/opponent, would not stand a chance.

Morgan, if you are not aware of it, has been supposedly ‘sharing power’ with Robert for the past 4 years, all thanks to the deal they had struck, supposedly under pressure from the democracy loving West. According to the arrangement, Robert retained control over all the country’s money and mineral wealth, not to mention security forces and the army, and Morgan was put in charge of running his office and pretty much nothing else. But everyone pretended that it was a great deal and that democracy was once again knocking on Zimbabwe’s door.

Mind you, President Mugabe has been on record saying that he was fed up with the power sharing arrangement and would get rid of it before the next elections.

The election he now intends to fight like a like a wounded animal 

What a guy, eh? And what dress sense.

Say what you will, but Mr Mugabe looks great for his age: smooth-skinned, with not a wrinkle on his face, very articulate, strong physically, if you consider the way he held on to power for more than 30 years, despite all attempts to unseat him. I was informed by his office that he keeps in shape by counting his money every day and watching TV programmes about his greatness. The word is that Robert is possibly one of the richest men in Africa, if not the whole world, and intends to stay that way.

I wonder if he counts the money in his accounts that the west has frozen over the last decade or so.

But the most important thing is that the people of Zimbabwe love and respect their leader. You should have seen the birthday party they laid out for him this year. Thousands of young people descended on the capital, to rejoice and tell their President what wonderful lives they were leading, despite the occasional pang of hunger and a beating by the cops and the war veterans. No one remembers which war that was, but the veterans are still held in high regard in Zimbabwe and are allowed to take any plot of land they fancy or anybody’s possessions.

I daresay there is truth to the reports of boltholes in South Africa but exile or death are the only options left to Mugabe. Will death catch him before his people turn on him is the question and if they turn on him expect a Gaddafi solution.

I’ve also been informed that most African leaders continue to send their high fives to Mr Mugabe, at every opportunity, and President Obama – every time he is asked about Zimbabwe – tends to say something like: ‘It’s all up to the Zimbabwean people.’ Not to mention that other Western leaders are too busy sorting out their financial crises and grabbing oil from other countries. Zimbabwe, so that you know, has no oil. Just saying it to clear up things.

Short of sanctions there is little the west can do. Unfortunately African leaders do support him. I laughed at " Bob the Croc " regular readers will be aware that I have been referring to the leaders of Africa for some time as The Crocodiles 

It just goes to show that the Croc commands huge respect, not only within his own country, but in the world generally. And that’s not a bad thing, if you look at it from the point of view of the Zimbabwean generals, top cops and the war veterans who are sharing the spoils of his success.

He is despised by all but his generals top cops and so called war veterans.