Did you know that there has never been a single Tutsi armed group in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo before 1995? In this article, we will delve into the historical context of the Banyarwanda speaking people, especially the Batutsi in the Eastern DR Congo, why they have never formed an armed group before 1995 and how the conflict between them and those who believed to be indigenous people arose. Born in Birambizo, Rutshuru Province, from a refugee family known as “Batutsi”, I spent my childhood in a refugee camp in Bibwe, Masisi and I spent more than 10 years in Goma, the Capital of North Kivu. In all these years, I never heard of a single Batutsi rebel group in DR Congo. Before 1995, the ethnic groups that colonialism described as indigenous people of Masisi and Rutshuru and who ended up believing to be truly indigenous than their compatriots of Batutsi had armed groups. The Batutsi refugees were constantly afraid that one day, they were going to be eliminated by the said indigenous. Note that here we had the Congolese Batutsi from Rutshuru and Masisi and the Batutsi who were refugees of the first Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi of 1959. Even the group of the Congolese Batutsi were considered by their Congolese compatriots as Rwandans. Due to constant fear, both the Batutsi refugees and the Congolese Batutsi were never able to form a single armed group in defense of their rights to life. Before colonial era, the entire region of North Kivu was inhabited, according to different sources, including the United States Embassy records, by 85 to 90 percent of the Banyarwanda (Bahutu and Batutsi), living with the Bahunde and the Banyanga in symbiosis. These Banyarwanda lived there before the reign of King Kigeli IV Rwabugiri in Rwanda and no one can tell you exactly when they got there. For the people who know the region well, traveling from Bibwe to Goma, you could pass through hundreds of villages, inhabited by the Banyarwanda, even the names of large villages of the Masisi region, named before the colonial era bore Kinyarwanda names. Places like Nyange, Mpati, Kivuye, Muhanga, Mukoto also known as ku Gisheke, Kalinga, Gatale, Kibabi, Gatoyi, Gasenyi, Nyamitaba, Nyakariba and Kanyatsi were populated by Banyarwanda, who were there before colonial era. Do not be surprised to learn here that the language of instruction in P1 and P2 in almost all these areas was Kinyarwanda. Kanyatsi Hill, the headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church was the residence of Chief Ntwari, son of Rugesimanza, who was a Mututsi Chief there, before the colonial era. Let's leave Masisi and go to Rutshuru, where the name of Nshizirungu is still revered in Bwisha. He was a Mututsi Chief of Bwisha, serving the King of Rwanda. He comes from the Rwandan family of Abaha. The name Ruharamanzi is well known in Byahi, near Goma. He came from the Rwandan family of Abagunga and he was a Tutsi Chief serving the King of Rwanda. Another group of Banyarwanda who lived in Masisi and Rutshuru before 1959 is that of Banyarwanda who were sent there by the Belgian administration during the reign of King Mutara III Rudahigwa in 1936. They met other Banyarwanda there and lived together with the Bahunde, the Banyanga and the Bahutu without any problem. Then came the Banyarwanda who went there in 1959, fleeing the first Rwandan genocide perpetrated against the Batutsi in 1959. Until then, there was no conflict between the Banyarwanda, both Bahutu and Batutsi, with other ethnic groups, notably the Bahunde and the Banyanga. Before 1959, the Belgian colonisers had governed the country through the iron hand of the Congolese Force Publique, which in order to gain respect, used torture, murder and rape, under the supervision of Belgian officers, leading to the death of millions of Congolese. It is in July 1960, just after the independence of the DR Congo that the first rebel groups were heard with a military mutiny that triggered a series of events that pushed the country into civil war, and Katanga, supported by Belgian troops, seceded on July 11. Then, Prime Minister Patrice Emery Lumumba was deposed, arrested and assassinated. And in March 1977, rebels based in neighbouring Angola crossed the border of Katanga Province to fight the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko. At this time, the rebels successfully took the town of Kolwezi from the Zairian Armed Forces (FAZ). However, Mobutu managed to defeat these uprisings. Then comes the year 1990, where violence begins in the North Kivu, between armed groups of the Bahunde and Banyanga against the Bahutu. The Bahunde and the Banyanga considered themselves more indigenous than the Bahutu. In 1993, the Bahunde and the Banyanga formed a militia group called Mai-Mai or Bangirima which launched attacks against the Bahutu. The attacks reportedly lasted six months, according to some NGOs, left around 6,000 people dead and 250,000 people displaced. It was Mobutu's government that sent troops to stop the fighting and that restored peace. In 1994, after the liberation of Rwanda by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), the entry of Rwandan refugees, mostly Bahutu into North Kivu, fueled inter-ethnic tensions in the region. Everyone knows that Rwandan refugees arrived in Zaire well armed. They immediately made alliances with the Congolese Bahutu, the Bahunde and the Banyanga. They also managed to convince the Banande to join their cause, because as bantu, their common enemy was the Tutsi, in other words, the nilotics. Due to this coalition of Bahunde, Banyanga, Banande, Congolese Bahutu and Ex-Far/Interahamwe, thousands of Tutsis from Zaire fled to Rwanda and others to Uganda, just a few months after the entry of the ex-Far and Interahamwe into Zaire. Zaire government officials supported them with their evil plan to “exterminate” the Batutsi. It was then that we had for the first time the Batutsi rebel groups in Zaire, who stood against their extermination. They were inspired by the fight of the Rwandan Patriotic Army struggle, in which some of them took part. These Tutsi rebel groups in the Eastern DR Congo were born from the refusal of being led to the slaughterhouse like sheep, but determined to fight for their survival in the land of their ancestors.
