The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, hosted presidents Paul Kagame and Félix Tshisekedi in Doha, on March 18. Their joint statement welcomed the Luanda and Nairobi peace processes, plus the EAC-SADC summit held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on February 8. They reaffirmed the commitment of all parties to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire as agreed during the EAC-SADC summit. Qatar basically said, ‘Hey DR Congo, can you finally honour the ceasefire you agreed to, last month, with EAC-SADC and stop burning your own people in South Kivu? Oh, and quit telling your people to join the army and attack Rwanda when you just said you want peace and not war.’ Interestingly, on March 17, Belgium’s foreign minister Maxime Prévot posted on X, alleging that Rwanda “prefers not to engage in dialogue” when disagreed with, followed by, “our only compass will remain human rights.” I wonder, what part of sanctioning Rwanda protects the Banyamulenge community in eastern DR Congo’s South Kivu Province who continue to be attacked by DR Congo-backed Wazalendo and FDLR genocidal militia as well as bombed by attack dron and Sukhoi fighter jets guided by MONUSCO intelligence? ALSO READ: DR Congo crisis: Unarmed Banyamulenge civilians ‘still waking up under bomb explosions’ Does punishing Rwandans, who’ve got nothing to do with this, save the innocent Congolese that are forced to fight for their own human rights through Alliance fleuve Congo, against their own state? I wonder why Belgium is silent on the genocide tearing through Kinyarwanda-speaking communities at the hands of Rwandan genocidal militia [FDLR] that are integrated into the Congolese army. Is this their so-called’ compass for human rights’? I am genuinely perplexed about how undermining African-led solutions, instead of amplifying them, like Qatar is doing, respects Africa’s rights to self-governance. So, I would like ask, Mr Prévot, since your sanctions are not saving the Banyamulenge, who do they save? I am convinced there are no other beneficiaries except for Antwerp’s diamond capital and the West’s neo-colonial ego. That is exactly why Rwanda slapped a restraining order on our abusive ex-coloniser – Belgium’s colonial dishonesty parading as diplomacy. Your Made in Belgium political policies for Africa remain divide and destroy. You have consistently fuelled division in Rwanda and DR Congo, and backed extremists and mass murderers during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Abandoning Africans to die as a result of your selfish wicked policies has always been your mission objective. That is why your silence on FDLR is intentional. Your actions speak louder than words and we have heard enough from you. Western democracy is saying: sanctions for Africans, silence about Western-preserved génocidaires. Western democracy is drowning out the victims the Congolese government’s endless persecution in South Kivu. What could we possibly have left to dialogue with you about human rights? We are done letting toxic ex-colonisers speak. We prefer their silence; since they ignore our graves all the same, now they no longer get to rewrite them away.
