Thread by @NoelKambanda

1) Who brought back genocidal forces in East DRC and how Masisi, Walikale, and Rutshuru became FDLR bastion?

The presence of FDLR in DRC is maintained by FARDC, its long-time ally

THREAD
#DRCKillingItself

2) Following the Campaign to Stop the Genocide by RPA, the genocidal forces fled to DRC and were not disarmed. They lived in refugee camps located just in 2km from the Rwandan border..they started to infiltrate Rwanda and killed survivors and those suspected as RPF collaborators

3) Young Congolese activists should know what happened between Aug-Oct 1996.

i) South Kivu Deputy Governor Lwasi Ngabo Lwabanji gave Tutsi/Banyamulenge of South Kivu seven days to leave Zaire and go back to Rwanda.

Interahamwe had already started killing Tutsi in both Kivus

4) The biggest mistake that (maybe) President Mobutu regretted:

On Tuesday 29, October 1996 Zairean troops spent the morning hours shelling Rwandan territory in Cyangugu.

The following day Rwanda's Vice President & Minister of Defence Maj Gen Paul Kagame gave a message ....

5) The Zairians shelling didn't go unanswered: In the afternoon RPA troops opened fire on the Zairian troops using heavy artillery as explained during the interview of the then Division Commander Col Cesar Kayizari with Radio Rwanda the same day

6) Provocation by Zairian troops, attacks on Zairian Tutsi by Rwandan genocidal forces...Banyamulenge self-defence .....led to the creation of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Zaire (AFDL) supported by RPA.

7) The refugee camps, located just in 2km distance from Rwandan border which were harboring the armed genocidal forces were dismantled and over one million of Rwandans were repatriated. They were received and welcomed at Rubavu border by the then President Bizimungu

8) The dismantling of the Rwandan refugee/military camps happened at that time, genocidal forces were preparing operation “Insecticide” where a mass force made by Ex FAR soldiers and militias were planning a mass attack to Rwanda and kill all Tutsi (cockroaches).

9) The RPA intervention in East DRC was very successful because it disrupted the plans for an imminent invasion of Rwanda and it repatriated the refugee population and brought to justice many genocide fugitives. 👌

10) However many militias refused the return to Rwanda and headed to the rainforests with tens of thousands of refugees. As AFDL/RPA advanced & took Kinshasa, the genocidal leadership was evacuated to Congo-Brazzaville, Cameroun, Central Africa Republic, Kenya, Zambia and Malawi

11) Even if tens of thousands of ExFAR and Interahamwe fled towards Zaire borders...however not all gave up. Some from Mugunga & Katale Camps under the orders of Lt Col Leonard Nkundiye & Paul Rwarakabije broke into smaller groups & hid in the forests around Masisi in North Kivu

12) Masisi became the nucleus of the rebirth of Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALiR) by genocidal forces which later became FDLR.
The genocidal forces in Masisi managed to reorganize using the Radio-equipment stolen from NGOs under command of Lt Col Nkundiye & Rwarakabije

13) Today Congolese officials are saying that they don't see FDLR as a threat to Rwanda because they are a new generation....They are repeating what President LD Kabila told RPA Commanders in DRC when they planned a major attack on ALiR in Masisi in 1998

Source: This book

14) President Laurent Desire Kabila President opened channels to finance and support ALiR.....Anti Tutsi and anti Rwandan rhetoric by Congolose around President Kabila helped the ALiR/FDLR to grow.

15) The origins of the honeymoon between FARDC and FDLR:

When the 2nd Congo war erupted in 1998 following the creation of RCD, President LD Kabila met in person with Gen Augustin Bizimungu who was Chief of Defence Staff of Rwandan Armed Forces during the Genocide against Tutsi

16) It was after Kabila-Bizimana meeting when several Congolese embassies confirmed to ALiR cells across in Africa&Europe that Kinshasa regime wanted to build a military partnership with the Ex FAR Interahamwe.

Paul Rwarakabije told Pjilip Roessier&Harry Verhoeven in this book

17) Immediately more than 20,000 fighters made by Ex FAR and Interahamwe hiding in Congo-Brazaville, Central Africa Republic and Sudan traveled back to eastern province to fight RPA using the logistics provided by President Kabila.

18) The Congolese on social media should know this key event in the history of their country: RPA/AFDL pushed genocidal forces out of DRC and President Laurent Desire Kabila arranged the logistics to bring them back to DRC

19) Apart from serving directly on the front, ExFAR under Kabila trained Mai Mai and helped him re-establish an army after the implosion of Congolese armed forces. Hundreds of Rwandans from Tanzania refugee camps started joining ALiR. Kabila explored alliance with genocidaires

20) "Maj Gen" Celestin Kifwa who became Chief of Defence Staff of Congolese Armed Forces after the departure of Rwandan troops was appointed just because he was a relative to President Kabila ....the ExFAR were the real army of President Kabila

20) By appointing Senior Ex FAR soldiers and most wanted genocide fugitives like Gen Augustin Bizimungu, Maj Protais Mpiranya, Laurent Desire Kabila wanted to bring war to Rwanda...like today's rhetoric by congolese on social media...what happend to Pepa and Pweto? another Day

21) Back to AFDL, when Laurent Desire Kabila learned that Kinshasa has been liberated, he immediately self-appointed President of new Zaire, the Democratic Republic of Congo without consulting his comrades who started AFDL. Deogratias Bugera called it the biggest mistake

22) Dear Congolese

Since 1999 agreements have been signed from Lusaka, Pretoria.....to track down and disarmament of ex-FAR and Interahamwe forces in the territory of the DRC.

To date (2022) 23 years later, it has not been possible

23) After Ex FAR fought for Kabila, following the pressure of the International Community/ICTR for integrating genocidal forces in DRC army, the new President Joseph Kabila sent Gen Bizimungu in Angola to be arrested from there and Maj Mpiranya in Zimbabwe to be died from there

24) At the time RCD was signing peace agreements with Kabila Government, EX FAR who were better equipped by DRC Army started to concentrate in Masisi, Rutshuru and Walikale. Some RCD soldiers refused to go to Kinshasa while their parents are being killed by FDLR
Origins of CNDP

25) In all the years of its presence in both Kivu, FDLR has transformed itself into a successful economic enterprise based on illicit trade and the imposition of taxes on the Congolese civilian population with the complicit of Congolese (army/civilian) officials
#DRCKillingItself

26) Other important economic activities are poaching (including illegal fishing), the gold trade and the exploitation of timber and hemp. But the most important source of income for FDLR is taxation imposed on the population.

MONUSCO and FARDC are beneficiaries

27) FDLR does business because FDLR has developed a network of complex relationships and complicities with local and provincial authorities, other armed groups, the business community on all sides of the borders and with key commanders of FARDC #DRCKillingItself

28) Dependent family members of FDLR senior Commanders live in luxury in Europe, America or Australia and money transfer operations happen in Goma, Bukavu or Butembo.

#DRCKillingItself

29) FDLR President Maj Gen Gaston Iyamuremye is believed to have villas in Kinshasa and Congo Brazaville. Is he hiding?

NO

In June 2014, MONUSCO sent him a helicopter to fly him to Kinshasa, from where he would depart to Italy for a Sant’Egidio meeting.

30) Remember that FDLR President was on the travel ban and Rwanda as a member of the UNSC that time objected to this ...the special Kinshasa guest was flown back to Est DRC "jungles"

Here he ( with purple tie) is with UN delegates in his fief

31) Today’s collaboration between FARDC and FDLR is not new but what is weird is that the UN forces are in coalition with genocidal forces which is a violation of its own mandate.

Have a good day!!!
#DRCKillingItself