When was the last time you saw a video of Wazalendo militiamen in eastern DR Congo killing a Tutsi civilian, then burning the body on a bed of charcoal and consuming parts of it? There was no getting used to the grisly spectacles, and every time you looked at the images in horror you wouldn’t be certain you were sleeping, and would wake up to find it all was a horrible nightmare. Now? Very thankfully that kind of thing is over. There are no more awful videos depicting the proclivities of Wazalendo cannibals to do unspeakable things to their victims in eastern DR Congo. Thankfully that sort of macabre evil has been replaced by normal, civilized human activity. With the M23/AFC movement having liberated the region not only from the Wazalendo, but other forces including the Congolese military (FARDC) whose behavior isn’t much better than the Wazalendo’s, as well as their FDLR genocidal allies, not forgetting Burundian troops which were sent to buttress for the Kinshasa coalition, calm is everywhere. The fear of armed bandits boastfully burning up fellow humans is becoming a thing of the past. A different image, one of a developmental kind, is emerging to define the Kivus. There are videos of earthmoving equipment breaking ground on construction of a new road. There are pictures of officials opening schools and hospitals. Traders and their goods, in Goma, in Bukavu and elsewhere in the Kivus, move freely, in stark contrast to the very recent past when government troops and militias terrorized, robbed, raped, and forced them to flee to refuge. Such are the sharp contrasts that define what it means to be under the rule of absentee, and very hostile, landlords in distant Kinshasa, and being under the control of a liberation movement made up of people from their homelands; their traditional lands of centuries or millennia, defending their communities, their families, their relatives. The government in Kinshasa, for long weirdly decided the people of the east of their country weren’t citizens but foreigners, in fact are the real foreigners (at least to the people of the Kivus). In any case, only in the Congo can the government claim its own citizens are foreigners, while sending actual foreigners – Burundians, FDLR Interahamwe, SADC forces, European mercenaries – to massacre them. The AFC/M23 are the sons and daughters of the soil and it shows in how they govern. AFC/M23 officials and fighters bring, and maintain law and order. They work hard to protect the sanctity of the lives of the people of the Kivus, as well as the security of their property. They bring development. On the other hand, the administration in Kinshasa sends – well, has been sending until they were stopped – genocidal militias, looters, rapists, and terrorists on the bizarre claim there are “fighting Rwandans”, or Rwanda. Under the control of Kinshasa, terror has been the order of the day. It’s the difference between light and day. And the people – the citizens of Goma, Bukavu, Minembwe, all areas under M23 control – now want absolutely nothing to do with the Kinshasa government. They hate it for all the crimes at the hands of those absentee landlords, and who can blame them? Who can blame them? Given the choice between someone that only brings murderous chaos, mayhem, and economic ruin, or a group that builds roads, rehabilitates schools, ensures twenty-four availability of electricity, locks up robbers and thieves, and whose soldiers are of the people, who would you choose? Currently, there are efforts to get Kinshasa to commit to peace. The US, Qatar, the African Union (behind the scenes) are mediating efforts to end conflict in DR Congo. It remains to be seen how committed the government of President Felix Tshisekedi will be, to hold its end of whatever treaties end up getting signed. But the populations under M23 already have tasted what it is to be under a normal, people-centered administration. One can be sure they want nothing else! It will take a lot to persuade them that the administration of Tshisekedi, which only stopped perpetrating genocide in their homelands after the M23 drove them out, will all of a sudden turn over a new leaf and agree to their full rights as Congolese. And that it will start enacting good governance practices. That seems as likely as the happenings in a fairy tale. Talk to anyone; any native of Goma that’s witnessed the governance of AFC/M23 for the over four months the group has been in control. Listen to any of the social media personalities there, who see what’s on ground. It’s like the people are living in a resurrected city; a place that rose from hell and is now breathing, as opposed to the suffocation of a bandit regime. No one with half a brain would imagine return to rule by Tshisekedi would be anything but a calamity. To them, M23 is the best bet to a peaceful and prosperous future.
