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Lokuta eyaka na ascenseur, kasi vérité eyei na escalier mpe ekomi.
Lies come up in the elevator; the truth takes the stairs but gets here eventually.
~ Koffi Olomide, Congolese poet and songwriter
I don’t know that Olomide’s right, but at least insomuch as it might relate to Susan Rice it seems to be true. Once Barack Obama indicated that he might nominate Susan Rice to fill the departing SoS Clinton’s job, Rice’s ghosts of truth seem to be coming back to haunt her. A few journalists are starting to dig a bit further into her role as Bill Clinton’s African expert at State under Madeleine Albright, and now as central to the US failure to stop Rawanda and Uganda from funding and advising, and perhaps staffing, the M23 group’s eight months of insurgency and mineral theft and trafficking in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Two weeks ago they took Goma with ease, ‘humiliating Kabila’s army’. From Nov. 18:
When mafr first mentioned a couple weeks ago that the militia group named for the failed March 23 peace accords had just taken over Goma, I began paying more attention to the few headlines I’d seen. I took a crash course to learn what I could over the past five days, and still probably know less than you do. Any errors I make will be mafr’s fault totally; let’s be clear about that, okay? ;o) The truth is often elusive, and there seem to be many opinions on this one; there are enough charges and countercharges of brutality, corruption and revenge on both sides…all sides, really, to make us despair that peace will ever inhabit Congo.
It’s been called the most mineral wealthy nation on the planet, including large reserves of tin, diamonds, gold, and oil; it holds an estimated 80% of the planet’s cobalt, crucial to the manufacture of cell phones, computers and modern weaponry. A great portion of the mineral wealth lies in the Great Lakes eastern region of the DRC, under the shadow of the Nyiragongo Volcano, which oddly enough massively erupted about a year ago. Goma, population one million, is situated there near a large heavily wooded area that has been the refuge of many people fleeing war over the last two decades, and is rife with various militia groups and illegal mineral trafficking, and of course many weapons.
There have been over 17,000 UN Peacekeepers in Congo over the past year, plus an unknown number of US Special Forces, and when M23 first began their incursion numbered a mere 3000 soldiers . The Peacekeepers seem to have been singularly ineffective in stopping M23, and one has to wonder why that is. Clearly, if the Obama administration wanted to stop the ‘rebels’, it could and would. The UN Forces say their only mandate is to protect civilians; what is the Special Forces mandate?
According to M23, they formed due to the failure of Congo’s military to integrate them into the state military, FARDC, the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo, which was the core provision of the March 23 peace agreement between the government and the CNDP (National Congress for the Defense of the People) after Second Congo War (1998-2002). The soldiers were paid poorly, the military is corrupt and weak, and they have many other complaints against Kinshasa rule that you can read here; Judith Verweijen at indepthafrica.com also offers her plan for comprehensive negotiations. Many of the complaints sound like genuine grievances, but most of what I’ve read seems to boil down to ‘Dirty Hands v. Filthy Hands’.
This piece at the New York Times seemed to be impressed with the soldiers’ new uniforms and cool burgeoning popularity, mentioned criticism of Rice and her current actions, but at least contained this:
The advance of the M23 has uprooted around 60,000 civilians, say UN humanitarian officials. There have been reports of summary executions, the widespread recruitment and use of children, unconfirmed cases of sexual violence, and other serious human rights abuses. According to Human Rights Watch, some of the M23′s senior commanders have committed massacres, mass rapes and recruited child soldiers in the past decade as they moved from one armed group to another. An M23 leader, Bosco Ntaganda, nicknamed the Terminator, has been indicted by the international criminal court for crimes allegedly committed while he was helping to command another rebel group. At least five of the M23 leaders are on a UN blacklist of people with whom the UN would not collaborate due to their human rights records.
The author left out the long history of the conflict that between 1996 (some say 1994) and 2002 which left 5.4 million Congolese dead by murder, starvation and disease, and that Susan Rice was central to of all of it. We know that her admitted ‘failure to stop the genocide’ in Rwanda was a big part of her passionate advocacy for R2P in Libya, but now more folks are digging deeper into the truth of her part, both then and now.
Glen Ford castigates her bitterly for her failures to call out the early genocide in Congo, and is furious that her Democratic defenders, and especially the black political class, are defending her. He writes in ‘A Second Wave of Genocide Looms in Congo, with Susan Rice on Point’:
Susan Rice has abetted the Congo genocide for much of her political career. Appointed to President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council in 1993, at age 28, she rose to assistant secretary of state for African affairs in 1997 as Rwanda and Uganda were swarming across the eastern Congo, seizing control of mineral resources amid a sea of blood. She is known to be personally close to Rwanda’s minority Tutsi leadership, including President Paul Kagame, a ruthless soldier trained at the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and mentored by Ugandan strongman (and Reagan administration favorite) Yoweri Museveni, who is believed to have pioneered the use of child soldiers in modern African conflicts.
The Atlantic is calling Rice’s African policy ‘controversial’ (my bolds throughout):
Things are not quite as amicable at U.N. headquarters. As the conflict in the Eastern DRC escalated, and as two U.N. reports provided extensive evidence of official Rwandan and Ugandan support for the M23 rebel group, Rice’s delegation blocked any mention of the conflict’s most important state actors in a Security Council statement. And in June, the U.S. attempted to delay the release of a UN Group of Experts report alleging ties between Rwanda and M23.
Peter Rosenblum, a respected human rights lawyer and professor at Columbia Law School, says that the U.S.’s reticence in singling out state actors is significant, especially at the U.N. “It shows [Rice] is willing to expend political capital to cast something of a shield over Rwanda and Uganda,” he says. “These are the things that in diplomatic settings, they are remarked upon. People see that the U.S. is still there defending the leaders of these countries at a time when many of their other closest allies have just grown sort of increasingly weary and dismayed.”
The author traces Clinton’s African policy and engagement back to Madeleine Albright’s full pivot to Africa, and what that meant in terms of treating former bad players as equals participating as non-exploited nations becoming self-sufficient and all that may have implied. It’s just one take on the policy, but as Rosenblum reminds us, Clinton, Albright and Rice were all in together, for good or…sadly mainly bad, he writes, in the end. The Rwandan President was a ‘good friend’ to the US, and continues to be, all the while some Congolese and Rwandan activists have been demanding that Kagame be tried for his key role in the Rwandan genocide. Shamus Cooke writing at Counterpunch tells a bit more of the first Congo war, the Clinton ‘green lighting’ Kagame invading Congo, then speaks to Obomba’s silence as M23, under the auspices of Rwanda, invades….again (this is the follow-the-wealth part):
Kabila later distanced himself from U.S. puppets Rwanda and Uganda, not to mention the U.S. dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. The IMF, for example, warned Kabila against a strategic infrastructural and development aid package with China, but Kabila shrugged them off. The Economist explains:
“…[The Congo] appears to have gained the upper hand in a row with foreign donors over a mining and infrastructure package worth $9 billion that was agreed a year ago with China. The IMF objected to it, on the ground that it would saddle Congo with a massive new debt, so [the IMF] is delaying forgiveness of most of the $10 billion-plus that Congo already owes.”
This act instantly transformed Kabila from an unreliable friend to an enemy. The U.S. and China have been madly scrambling for Africa’s immense wealth of raw materials, and Kabila’s new alliance with China was too much for the U.S. to bear. Kabila further inflamed his former allies by demanding that the international corporations exploiting the Congo’s precious metals have their super-profit contracts re-negotiated, so that the country might actually receive some benefit from its riches.
Uganda has apparently brokered an agreement wherein M23 will move 40 miles north to one of their staging areas, and negotiations will begin with Kinshasa. It’s in no way clear what might happen next. But they don’t seem to be too worried about the relocation. From the LA Times:
“Leaving Goma is not a problem. We will be just 20 kilometers away, so taking over Goma again is not a problem for us,” said Seraphin Mirindi Murhula, the commander.
About 40 miles to the north of Goma in Rutshuru, the main rebel base, a senior M23 leader echoed that view. “We are pulling out but we can come back anytime. We have thousands of tons of ammunition,” said Benjamin Mbonimpa, the regional administrator of Rutshuru.
A hundred and eighty degrees away, Georgianne Nienaber at HuffPo believes that the atrocity stories about M23 and its leaders are pure propaganda. She’s pissed because the US is blaming M23, and that the Congolese are beginning to get that security lies in their direction. She pointed to Victoria Nuland condemning the violence on the State Department’s website. She claims that there never was a report from the UN Group of Experts, but she seems to be wrong. She’s claiming that Kinshasa refuses to negotiate, which clearly seems to be… not so.
When the Congolese government on Monday refused to accept an ultimatum from the Congolese Revolutionary Army (M23) to open negotiations and accept a buffer zone, Kinshasa opened the door for the fall of the provincial capital of Goma and with it the potential collapse of the government. In spite of a dire narrative of a possible bloodbath at the hands of M23 fighters promoted by international media and human rights groups, the M23 were welcomed “like war heroes,” according to an Al Jazeera report posted on YouTube. “There was no armed conflict and the United Nations retreated peacefully.”
WTF?
Nienaber featured this video at Al Jazeera as good reporting. By my lights, Nazanine Moshiri has an agenda. ‘Here’s what M23 needs to convince the people about…’ stuff.
Weigh in and educate me/us at will. Obomba’s African policy will be increasingly in the news, as AFRICOM gets juiced up and involved in more nations’ business. Do at least send Ms. Rice a Thought Candygram in hope that she won’t live to regret another genocide in the area, regardless of what you believe should come next for Congo. This is a diary that has been agony; my eyes have been permanently crossed from all the reading, varied opinions, Bad Guys, Worse Guys, and criss-crossing wars that Americans like to pretend are regional battles and can safely be ignored.
Think peace when you can. Dare to dream large.
76 Comments
More than a simple primer for an African affairs illiterate who had no clue where to even begin understanding this. Thanks wendydavis, for straining this soup, I wish I knew enough to contribute or correct.
Recommended
Excellent synopis, wendydavis.
Start with this:
If the US is now scrambling, that means they’ve noticed that while the US was preoccupied with Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Middle East, China has been negotiating deals in areas formerly called the Third World–Africa and Latin America.
The US policy on the Congo has been screwed up since the first day of its independence from Belgium. Consider the case of its first leader, Patrice Lumumba:
Rice was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs when she was 34. Anything she did during that period reflected the mentoring of Madeleine Albright and her past experience at McKinsey.
So where does that put us. Pretty much in a continuity of 50 years of US policy.
But it is not just nation-states and national clandestine services that are players in the Eastern Congo. All of the relevant major mineral companies are direct players as well and have been ever since Union Miniere set up Moise Tschombe as the leader of the breakaway province of Katanga while Lumumba was head of state.
Are Rwanda and Uganda meddling. You betcha. Payback for the meddling that Mobutu did during the Rwanda genocide.
As for Uganda:
This is not an area for optimism even if there were no US involvement stirring the pot. Without the development of substantial infrastructure, the land area of the Congo is large and the political fault lines so numerous as to be ungovernable.
There’s a sense that any group that seizes power in Kinshasa has to do it in the same way the previous group did so the history reads “New boss. Just like the old boss.”
One area that I would like not to be tasked with developing a US policy for just because of its complexity.
Mahalo, wendy, for spotlighting this long standing, blatant Genocide, sponsored, all the while, by our MOTUs…! 8-(
…This is not an area for optimism even if there were no US involvement stirring the pot. Without the development of substantial infrastructure, the land area of the Congo is large and the political fault lines so numerous as to be ungovernable.
There’s a sense that any group that seizes power in Kinshasa has to do it in the same way the previous group did so the history reads “New boss. Just like the old boss.”
How very true, tarheel, tis a shame that the old Western Colonialist policy of ‘Divide and Conquer’, still holds true…! 8-(
Welcome, nonquixote; I wish I hadn’t had to start at almost zero to write it at all. But it seems to be an important story, if somewhat hopeless…for now.
It’s a fine kettle of fish, and reading the tit for tat history of leaders deposed, leaders assassinated…bogus elections, and silence from the US and western powers until after the fact bodes ill for the future.
Yes, multinationals’ agendas coupled with IMF v. Chinese loans and guarantees coupled with the vast mineral resources bodes a poor future in store for the Congolese. The Chinese do prefer purchasing rights and developing them, but in many ways their buying land and water, damming rivers all over Africa in advance of the worst devastations of climate change will devastate Africa as well, just more slowly. Same for the West’s REDD plans. Just killing the planet in the name of bogus Greenwashing.
You’d mentioned recently that it was policy not personality that determined how a cabinet or agency official would proceed/perform, and I had meant to include a link to this video; it’s theme was exactly how very personal all this can get (especially Rice and Robert Mugabe, for instance).
I may have more comments or Q’s; I’m wearing my fingers out. ;o) Thanks, THD.
Interesting, though some of your sources tell different stories than the ones I’ve heard on NPR and the BBC. Plus, I saw “Hotel Rwanda,” a very personal look at the Rwandan genocide, in which the majority Hutus, or a faction thereof, slaughtered a whole bunch of Tutsis. Kagame came to power when the Tutsis took power back, and to the best of my knowledge he did not retaliate against the Hutus in like manner.
My understanding is that the Hutus and Tutsis were really the same ethnic group. The Belgians created the divide by phrenology and other popular 19th Century racist pseudo-scientific methods in order to form a native group of compradors, the Tutsis, to do their imperial bidding in that colony. Naturally, deep resentments were created as well.
Rice may well feel guilty about the non-response of the Clinton Administration during the Rwandan genocide. It could have easily been stopped by the Americans and Europeans, but who cared about Africans chopping each other up with machetes? Certainly not Bill Clinton at the time. Or the Belgians or the French or anyone else back then.
It is a fact that Kagame’s government has been meddling in eastern Congo for years. At first, it seemed to be an effort to keep the Hutu genocidal maniacs who had fled there from Rwanda in check, though it may well be something else by now. I’m not that familiar with these MF23 guys, but they definitely have some connection with Kagame if the folks interviewed on NPR and BBC are accurate at all.
Those same folks said that the UN Peacekeepers DID fire on the “rebels” as they approached Goma, but stood down once the Congolese Army, which is horrifically underpaid and undersupplied, evaporated in the face of a slightly more organized rebel assault out of fear of harming civilians. I do not know if that is true.
There are definitely a few American Special Forces operating in the neighborhood, but my understanding is that their main focus is on trying to eliminate the truly abominable Lord’s Resistance Army that has been terrorizing the region, and especially Uganda, for years. The LRA is the poster-organization for abducting male children and turning them into murderous and rapacious gangs or “rebels” of he worst sort. As far as I know, and that ain’t much, the American military in that part of Africa is not involved in the shenanigans in the Congo. If anyone else here knows differently, please say so.
I speculate that Kagame has used his personal American connections to insinuate himself into the Obama Administration’s good graces, and has probably also helped at least a little in the hunt for the LRA, which has both the Ugandans and Kenyans screaming for help. If he’s using those connections to advance his country’s, or at least his own personal, interests, that’s nothing new in Africa.
As for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it’s a huge country with hundreds of ethnic groups speaking hundreds of different languages that was a creation out of whole cloth by Belgian imperialism. It’s been rife with factionalism, civil war, and both domestic and foreign opportunism since its independence in 1960. In short, it’s a mess which I don’t pretend to understand, and I seriously doubt the American government really understands it, either. Neither do the Chinese, but both want access to its rich resources.
As do other foreign powers. What a mess. What a human tragedy; mostly caused by the old vices of greed and lust for power.
And you tried to figure this out, Wendy? No wonder your head hurts. Thanks for trying. Recc’d.
I’m not smart enough to read this tonight, let alone make coherent comments about it. But I do thank you, because this has been among the things I felt like I needed to know . . . that I don’t. I generally don’t care for Susan Rice and I don’t even know why; perhaps this will help me sort it out. I know that the positioning of the opposition to her as “racism” has made me very suspicious. I am sure there is plenty of racism, but I am also sure there is much more to this story.
They’re only inconsequential dark-skinned people, here…black, not brown. All this reminds me so much of First American tribal councils: so many of the ‘leaders’ installed by the BIA learned all the worst lessons from…the BIA. Thanks, Tuttle.
Good point on Koney, and if it’s true that Special Forces are there for him, no one in the 39 links I have on the word document for this said so. ;o)
As far as Tutsi v. Hutus, there were/are a lot of conflicting opinions as to who was responsible for cross-border incursions. You know a sight more than I, and I’ll read this again later when my eyes uncross a li’l bit.
One comment quoted by one of the diplomats involved in the Clinton area was quoted as loving Kagame because: “He even knows about the markets and stuff!” Go to school in the West, get a degree, wear cool tailored suits, and speak the Queen’s English. Become a Friend of the US.
Thanks, Barbarian. Y’all will help my understanding. ;o)
I’m embarrassed to say that before PW’s post on racism being at the core of objections to her (shhhhhh….) I hadn’t realized she was black; she just looked like any number of racial/ethnic mixes. Thanks for thinking you might read it; the comments seem guaranteed to be illuminating. ;o)
*heh* A whole bunch of sheer fuckery to negotiate, OB…! ;-)
Please do not attack other members of MyFDL. -MyFDL Editor
So glad to see you doing God’s work again, Kelly Canfield! Always enjoy it.
Please do not attack other members of MyFDL. -MyFDL Editor
…is equally execrable to me…
Wtf, over…? Kelly, who died and left ya in charge…? 8-(
Like I can’t have an opinion?
So you’re in charge of what I think?
I think not. Wendy continually scabs the FDL site. Lotsa places. I think she’s a hypocrite.
Cope with that.
You need to find a different hobby than stalking me, Kelly Canfield. The rewards you crave by smacking me…never seem to fill you up. But thank you for the good thoughts.
Please do not use MyFDL to air personal attacks or grievances. -MyFDL Editor
Like I can’t have an opinion?
Yes you can, Kelly, but, is such acrimonious bile necessary in making your ‘opinion’ well known…? 8-(
*wow* Get a Grip, Dood…! 8-(
Sorry it’s not exactly responsive, but it’s interesting:
from “Alms Dealers” (Philip Gourevitch)
“Do doped-up maniacs really go a-maiming in order to increase their country’s appeal in the eyes of international aid donors? Does the modern humanitarian-aid industry help create the kind of misery it is supposed to redress?”
Thank you, Tuttle. Sorry his loathing bleeds all over others here. It might be a good thread if we can manage to overlook it. At least I hope so.
It is interesting, AitchD. Where did you get the quote? I read quickly, but didn’t see it. I’ll find the answer tomorrow; it time to sleep and uncross mine eyes. ;o)
Of course you are stalking her. There’s no other word for it.
It’s on page two of the linked NYer article. Same article is reprinted here at one of the article’s mentioned journalist’s blog.
Another fine diary, wendydavis. A lot of stuff I didn’t know. In fact I’m gonna have to read it again to get a handle on it.
Please do not attack other members of MyFDL. -MyFDL Editor
…WendyDavis is beyond and above examination and criticism. Of course…
Huh…? 8-(
Recommended.
wendydavis is one of FDL’s best writers and thinkers.
M23 is a group of Genocidal monsters paid and armed by Obama’s African invasion force.
Susan Rice was involved in the previous Rwanda Genocide too: http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/41216 and http://hiphopandpolitics.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/glen-ford-susan-rices-political-legacy-genocide-in-africa-on-her-watch/
The Bullying Commenter brings me down.
Oh, dear. It took forever to load, and I even looked for a second page, and missed it. The theme you named seemed to be a shift, so I’ll read it soon. When I heard this fine song again this week, it started me thinking about what the US used to give to the world, or at least…what we were taught we gave to the world in extended hands-up.
I wrote a post once after Oxfam did their report on the NGOs operating in Afghanistan, and it was quite a damning expose of waste, corruption and ineffectiveness. Hearts and minds be damned; advertising is all.
Jeez, timesthree; guess I’ll have to read it, too, then, or you’ll know more than I do. ;o) Thanks for the help.
Tuttle and normanb, too. Most of us learn that such intense hatred is corrosive, and eventually starts eating the hater. Sad to see.
.
Probably all American brand weapons, given to M23 by Rwanda/Kagami, part of the hundreds of millions of dollars of aid given to Rwanda/Kagami by the USA.
As soon as that aid was cut just the other day, they got out.
Everywhere there are soldiers fighting, there’s something worth stealing.
Thanks Wendydavis.
Great link, normnab. Can we stand to watch the video? Later, mebbe. I’d read some of those quotes, and this one is another I didn’t include, partially cuz I didn’t like the brackets. Mine eyes get confused by too much punctuation:
From Howard French:
Any time. It is unfortunate that some people seem to enjoy being hostile and abusive.
As to your diary, take the complexity of what has happened and is happening, and mix it with my before now ignorance of the subject and it will probably take me three readings get straight all the actors and their associated motives and allegiances. Make that FOUR.
The one thing that is clear is the US’s role and the violence and duplicity it entails.
I hadn’t read that the US had cut aid; I know the UK did. ‘Everywhere there are soldiers fighting, there’s something worth stealing.’
Whoosh.
Welcome mafr, but wot? No chuckles over ‘all errors are down to mafr’?
Come on, it’s a new day. We even got four drops of rain an hour ago; hope it’s the start of something…wetter.
On my word.doc I have a link explaining the different groups and militias operating out of the Great Lakes region, but they seem to be malleable as new alliances form over perceived potential gains. Some of the commentators remarked that M23 has been trying to recast themselves as interested in a better civil society, not just the military, ergo, changing their name to ‘the Congolese Revolutionary Army’ apparently. One said that Kibala had ‘played his Rwanda card’ but it had failed. It wasn’t clear what he or she meant unless that Rwanda wasn’t named in the UN Resolution, but referred to ‘any outside influences’ or something close instead. His father Laurent sounded like another Bad Guy, and was assassinated, iirc.
Right or wrong, I took it as gospel that Obomba’s silence tacitly provided a green light to M23, as did Clinton’s silence in the first Tutsi genocide. Hotel Rwanda. I never got the courage to watch more than fifteen minutes of it.
Hi, sorry, still trying to wake up, too early to laugh.
A book I am about to read:
“Africa’s world war : Congo, the Rwandan genocide, and the making of a continental catastrophe / Gérard Prunier.
Publisher’s weekly review:
“The bloodiest modern conflict you’ve never heard of gets a searching appraisal in this exhaustive history. Africanist Prunier (The Rwanda Crisis) follows the 1996-2002 war in the Democratic Republic of Congo through many bewildering twists and turns. Sparked by a Rwandan army incursion to clear out Hutu-dominated refugee camps on the border between the two countries, the conflict dragged in the armies of eight surrounding countries and an alphabet soup of Congolese guerrilla movements and tribal militias; millions died in the fighting and attendant massacres, starvation and disease.
Prunier discerns many layers to the upheaval; a conventional struggle for political control of what had been called Zaire, it was also a multisided act of piracy aimed at looting the country’s mineral wealth, an outbreak of generations-long ethnic hatreds and a ghastly symptom of Africa’s ongoing crisis of weak and illegitimate governments. The author carefully untangles these complexities while offering unsparing assessments of the participants, including a vigorous indictment of Rwanda’s Tutsi leaders for using the 1994 genocide as an excuse for their own atrocities. Lucid, meticulously researched and incisive,
Prunier’s will likely become the standard account of this under-reported tragedy. ”
I am looking forward to becoming more informed.
I also appreciate you’re bringing your talents to this subject, I am unable to understand why African misery is ignored in the Western world.
good site for African news is
http://allafrica.com
By his friends, you will know him
“A “visionary leader,” said Tony Blair; “one of the greatest leaders of our time,” echoed Bill Clinton. Such hero worship is usually reserved for South Africa’s Nelson Mandela. But Blair and Clinton were describing the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/25/paul-kagame-rwanda-us-britain
article about tony blair and Kagami, interesting.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/8885987/Tony-Blair-trips-to-Africa-and-an-intriguing-friendship.html
“When André Kagwa Rwisereka’s body was finally found near a river in southern Rwanda, his head was almost completely severed from his neck.
His attackers had repeatedly hacked at him with a machete which had been left at the scene. While the Rwandan police force suggested at the time that robbery may have been the motive, human rights campaigners suspected Mr Rwisereka, vice-president of an opposition party in this densely populated state smack in the heart of Africa, was actually the victim of a state-orchestrated execution.
Three weeks earlier, Jean Léonard Rugambage, a journalist who had ignored advice to flee Rwanda, was shot in the face and killed outside his house. Mr Rugambage had been investigating the attempted assassination of a dissident Rwandan general living in exile in South Africa.
The finger of blame for the killings has been widely pointed in the direction of the all-powerful Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), led by autocratic president Paul Kagame.
Good on you for bring the Prunier title, mafr. One of the Shamus Cooke piece quotes I used was his, iirc. And when I realized I should link to his book, I simply couldn’t remember which link contained it (if I had a memory I’d be dangerous).
Cooke wound his piece up with:
And yes: those Saville Row suits (Mugabe’s is better than Blairs, imo) and some of the Queen’s English, a Western education, and they can relate to them pretty darned well. Class distinctions, I reckon.
The Telegraph piece has a lot of new to me, but unsurprising info. But Mr. Philanthropy, Mr. So Polite; oh my.
At those levels of power and wealth, it’s all just so incestuous. I’ll read the others soon; thank you. And for the allafrica link as well. Heads swivel. I’m glad you’re up on this, my friend. Toast Time.
It’s not hard to get personal about Robert Mugabe. I’m not surprised with Rice doing that.
Same goes with Benjamin Netanyahu. Don’t think that the US-Israeli relations haven’t gotten personal with the racist attacks on President Obama by Israeli leaders, and the toleration of racism (IDF Social Media head in blackface imitating Obama), or the coddling of Mitt Romney. I suspect that before too long Netanyahu will experience a US response. And if not, the conflict will simmer.
That said, personality doesn’t drive policy as much as most folks believe. And even with changing parties, US foreign policy is pretty continuous. The US policy was against Mugabe from the moment he took power in Zimbabwe because of his redistributionist policies (in the early days he was facing the Reagan administration after all) and non-alignment in the Cold War. In that respect it was no different from policy relative to Angola or to Nyerere’s Tanzania. BTW Nyerere and Mugabe are the same generation of independence leaders.
Copy that on the IDF and Bibi; I’ve seen a few of the videos. ((shiver)).
But I may be misreading you. The Congolese in the video were making the point that Rice’s friendly relationship with Mugabe *did* skew US foreign policy enough that silence or obfuscating the truth was de facto green lighting. See Blair, et.al.’s history with him (Telegraph link at mafr’s #39).
I didn’t know about Reagan’s relationship with him; back then we had no teevee available, and only local papers, thus: loads of events are relatively unknown to me, so thanks for that history as well. Still haven’t had time to read your #2 again to ask questions, etc. Loads of chores today, but I’ll try to do so in between them. ;o)
What sort of response do you imagine Obomba giving Bibi? Come to think of it, I’ve been so immersed in all this, I haven’t checked what’s going on in Egypt. (hoping for the best)
More later: I’d meant to clip this piece from Mendick’s article at the Telegraph, a bit counter to what you knew or remembered (wish I could rent a fourth of yer memory):
Another informative diary Wendy, one small addition is that Coltan is the mineral used in our electronics while Cobalt is used in batteries.
Ooopsie (remember: it’s mafr’s fault). So although they hold 80% of the world’s cobalt, it’s coltan needed for electronics. Thank you, I’ll update the post in a few minutes.
Thanks for that, and for reading, wayoutwest. I just tried to create a framework we could work from; hadn’t a clue there was so much to learn I could scarcely create even *that*.
This is indeed one of the areas on which I am totally ignorant, though I worked at a greenhouse which supplied many African plants as being adaptable to our high mountain arid landscapes. I have obviously neglected a very important element in the landscape of predatory shock doctrine tactics, and I thank you enormously, wendydavis, for bringing this heart of the Congo matter to our attention. It’s going to take lots of rereading this thread for me to assimilate even the chinks of light that presently escape the dense canopy of corruption, but I do see that it must be done.
And as I similarly have posted, I think on Phoenix Woman’s thread, I too did not know that Susan Rice was black, being mostly a reader and not privy to videos or cable. I hadn’t even realized her connection to the Rwanda genocide but was indeed curious about the Benghazi scenario – more to that than meets the eye.
Recommended highly.
When did you become such a hater, Kelly? Whatever happened to smiling, chef Kelly who was a delight to have at lln and other threads – we want that Kelly back.
hope this doesn’t derail
william shakespeare, richard the third ( I read it not too long ago)
has some of these people covered
““And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With odd, old ends stol’n out of holy writ,
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil”
“Why, I can smile and murder whiles I smile,
And cry ‘content’ to that which grieves my heart,
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
And frame my face for all occasions”
Five hundred years or so hasn’t changed much.
Seriously, thank mafr (who by the by owes me $1.99 for it), without whose arrow-pointing I wouldn’t have poked about. As some authors have complained, ‘most Americans and news agencies just blew by it, reckoning it was just another local tribal squabble’ or close to that. Coupled with that and my ignorance, my head swiveled right on by the (rather tame) early headlines.
There was quite a theme abroad in the run-up to R2P in Libya that she, Clinton and (beats me) were hell-bent on ‘helping’ because of their past guilt, yada yada…, so I had read a lot of that history. ‘Humanitarianism’ isn’t always what we…envision. Shoot, that reminds me, I haven’t finished HiDef’s New Yorker piece.
I’d seen Rice enough, I just didn’t recognize that she was black; there are so many blends of people any more, and how wonderful is that? ;o)
Thanks for reading and commenting, dear juliania. It’s a slog of a read with links. Not to mention the good ones in the comments.
Nice, pasta.
‘stol’n out of holy writ’ is going the extra mile of castigation, isn’t it. What does this mean:
‘And cry ‘content’ to that which grieves my heart’
Actively ignoring the guilt of murdering? Stifling any lingering cognitive dissonance maybe?
Yes, it goes on…and on.
Thank you, also, mafr – I haven’t even got to your original posts, just going backwards up through comments at present, and the Telegraph article you have put here in a link is extremely helpful as background. Given the aspects you highlight, I was taken aback to see in the final paragraph this:
” Mr Blair was quick to bring Gaddafi in from the cold, only to see the tyrant revert to type and massacre his own people.”
To me it seems out of sync with the rest of the article, which is very informative – and I had been noticing a ‘related article’ which gave Gaddafi a similar six Blair visits to those to Rwanda, so definitely something to chew on as uprisings become rather suspiciously linked to subversion, which I gather is the entire ball o’wax here. Still, even our most illustrious authors had definitely to mind their p’s and q’s, so I won’t fault the writer of this particular article. It may have been something he had to say.
Not that there aren’t always genuine do-gooders caught up in the mix. My own father-in-law, may he rest in peace, had some responsibilities when Ethiopia overthrew their emperor, simply in having helped establish a university in which minds were honed for the task. He wasn’t after loot; just wanting to spread the gospel of education. Others, though, seem in this case to be wallowing in the largesse, which can’t be good.
Indeed, no wonder it has given wendydavis a headache.
Mugabe’s position in the conflict between Rwanda-Uganda and DRC was tilted toward the DRC. I’m not sure how reliable Mugabe would be to a US “redlighting” of a policy. Therefore it might be a stretch to say that the US greenlighted one of Mugabe’s policies. And in diplomacy silence does not mean approval nor does criticism mean disapproval; both are public postures. What seems to be happening is that politically active folks in Africa are beginning to be concerned about Rice’s appointment as Secretary of State. Seems she has made enemies in CIA, in Congress, in the GOP, in Africa. Interesting mixture.
Great minds think alike ;/ Was already doing so before I read your reply. And yes, this is going to be an education, but isn’t that good? Saw a PBS show on centenarians in the past – they get there by keeping on educating themselves. This will fit right in with my Russian studies (heh).
Thank you, THL. Food for thought, and another point of view is always welcome. You have a wide range of understanding that I don’t, so I value your opinions even when occasionally I don’t exactly subscribe to all of them. ;o)
Hope you’re doing well.
Golly, that is unpredictable. But it will somehow deal with Bibi’s using the extension of settlements to show contempt for Obama.
About Kigame. He’s a politician in Africa. It’s a tough neighborhood because (1) they really can’t deliver on promises of development, (2) the main jobs programs are the military, and (3) a good fraction of the officer corps see themselves as president. So most go for economically advancing their own families. Which is expected in kinship societies that never really have developed a strong sense of nationality for the geography that 19th century imperalists imposed on them. And given that all external sources of investment have their own agendas, it’s not hard to have corrupted leaders.
May the gods spare from living that long, but you made me laugh. At some point yesterday I was *still* chopping and pasting and rewriting…and I told Mr. wd that perhaps I was *really* doing it to challenge my brain to a duel (I mean engage it, sharpen it, foil it). ;o) With all my functional losses, this shit takes me forever. I see what DD, who must have a photographic memory like EW’s, can write better in just one day. My stars.
Hmm…kinship and providing more for their families. Reminds me of the Navajo, as you may well remember. ‘What’s yours is all of ours’.
And yes, you’re so right about the Generals (and there are hordes who call themselves so, even in the militias), seem overly eager to be Presidents. Nice analysis of the continuing problems. It was part of why I slogged through Judith Verweijen’s piece, hoping some of I might absorb through osmosis, lol!
Bibi: did he choose Jerusalem as the site for the 6,000 houses because it’s the most sensitive area, thus the sharpest stick with which to poke?
yes
“About Kigame. He’s a politician in Africa. It’s a tough neighborhood”
That doesn’t mean we have to help corrupt people does it?
I mean there is an apparently widely known tariff of bribes for any foreign investment in Africa.
and A pays it cause it A doesn’t, B will. Meanwhile none of the proceeds go to the people.
look to Nigeria for an example. Look to the American company that got nailed in Nigeria for bribery a year or two ago.
It’s way too easy to say things are tough there. Just an excuse for corruption.
I just noticed that some comments had been moderated. Thanks, mods, I guess, although I haven’t flagged a comment but once here (though I’ve sure imagined deleting a few, lol). I’d reckoned kelly was just awkward about asking me directly for a date or something. ;o)
These are the days of lasers in the jungle,
Lasers in the jungle somewhere . . .
Great diary, wendydavis. This is a perfect example of writing that goes deep, no matter how much it hurts.
Your reckoning so means a lot to me, Isaiah. And thank you for reminding us of the Paul Simon. And with Ladysmith, and in Zimbabwe no less; one of the best albums ever written and recorded. You leave me heartened.
Play it loud, peeps, and be amazed, be thrilled by the beauty. Next stage comin’:
Thank you, mi amigo.
Yes. And I’ve been thinking more about the IMF and World Bank, and how they operate, especially as per the Economist’s quotes from the Shamus Cooke bits above. Again, the battles with China and not only pulling the promised carrots, but also advancing neoliberal strictures and defaults with the carrots. It could all be so very different.
‘When the Bad Guys don’t get ya…the Good Guys do.’ Where are the Good Guys? Helping each other, and trying to rebuild the world anew.
From a foreign policy standpoint, it depends on what you consider in the national interest (or whose domestic interests get nationalized in foreign policy).
From a personal standpoint, until we are allowed to apportion our taxes by conscience, it’s essentially irrelevant.
If you’re the leader of one of these countries, saying it’s tough is not an excuse for corruption. It’s a call to not make things tougher by taking the all too easy route of corruption. And your example of Nigeria is a case in point. One could just as easily have pointed to Mexico or Louisiana.
IMO about US policy, we would do better to stop supporting other countries with military aid or economic development aid meant to influence the leadership of the country.
Now, you should set aside the bong.
That’s just an absurd comment.
Oh, Wendy, Oh.
Settle. You have a good voice, well different voices, but the one that get’s silly ugly probably shouldn’t be shared with the world.
Goodness, demi; I would think the very least I’m due after all that is being silly about it.
The Wikipedia entry on Susan Rice has this standalone sentence:
“Despite sharing the same surname, Susan Rice is not related to Condoleezza Rice.[3][4}"
Her being a former three-sport athlete, you'd think they'd mention instead her not being related to the far more famous Hall of Famer Jim Rice, whose rookie card must be worth a lot. ;o)
I don’t know what you’re due. It wouldn’t be my place to say it here anyways.
So, if you’re not taking this seriously, I’ll not waste my time.
Well, son; you can rewrite a bit of her Wiki entry, now can’t you? She should be proud to be in the same sentence as Jim Rice. I know you would. ;o) When I played ball as a kid (my father wanted boys), my father dear called me Rocky Colavito. I loved it, but…he’d come to my games and razz the hell outta me. Trying to pitch with a flaming face; oh dear.
Bugger. I’d better go finish the New Yorker piece. I’m so behind on this thread (but I AM gaining on my chores). ;o)
Moi, in the same sentence as a D-Aitch? Pfui on that change. Why don’t the AL teams just also change the hit-by-pitch rule, instead of the batter taking his (or her) base, why not let him (or her) get a free swipe, tossing the ball up and hitting it fungo-like?
Five pages might have come with a warning, AitchD. I do see why I missed the extra pale grey next page messages. That post could make a cynic out of you pretty fast, but a lot of what Polman says is believable, if tragic. A few things pop out; first:
The UN stats saying that 90% of the victims of war are civilians was startling. Aid workers accepting all of the credit, none of the blame. The Hutu extorting the aid workers to fill their war chests. Cripes; rough stuff.
But this Somali poem showing that some of the recipients hold the view that the workers give aid for their own glory or something just can’t be right:
I know it happens, especially among those who wear their philanthropy like fine clothes, but I have to hope it’s not widespread. That said, I do understand how giving aid can be to cover the shame of colonialism and the refusal to admit our Original Sins, slavery and First American genocide, and other similar deeds in other countries. We read of Latte Liberals and causes a lot, providing the one fish, but not creating conditions to teach fishing skills. Goodness, my friend.
Okay; you convinced me, Mr. Designated. New Rulez!
Sorry about that, Chief. It’s not like ya had to sit thru Le chagrin et la pitié again, Rocky. ;o) I ask for mercy, for in response to your query @ 24, I offered @ 26 a link to a reprint of the same article without the buttons and graphic distractions. Plus, an open thread can unravel like a Shetland cardigan.
Was that the film they watched so often in Annie Hall? Subtitles? Never.
Okay, only for Ibsen. Just ran into Zeffirelli’s autobiography reshelving books today.
I’m glad, at any rate, to have read the Big Piece. Consider us unraveled.
Rocky
Well, looks like the party got going after my bedtime. The MyFDL Editor intervened before I could read Kelly’s delightful responses. Probably just as well. Hat tip to the Editor, looks like he/she did his or her job.
Anyway, good comments, especially from Tarheel Dem and AitchD. And once again, you respond more graciously than this old barbarian would have done, Wendy Davis. Good thread. Thanks to you all.