We’ve seen this movie very many times, and it doesn’t look about to end soon. This is the extensive use of hate speech in neighboring DR Congo, where it’s long been the policy of President Felix Tshisekedi’s government: part of a wider campaign to stigmatize the country’s nationals of Tutsi ethnicity, most especially the Banyamulenge community. ALSO READ: Commemoration period is here, and genocide deniers ratchet up the noise The hate speech involves labeling these people ‘foreigners’ (an assertion on which pro-government mobs base to shout they “go back where they came from”!), or demeaning the Tutsi communities with dehumanizing words like ‘cockroaches’, ‘rats’ and others. It’s the same playbook as used in Rwanda, by genocidal governments from the late 1950s, to 1994. ALSO READ: A message to those wishing ill on Rwandan society; you waste only your time Also, the widespread violent attacks, on the targeted communities, are the same. This is no wonder since one of Kinshasa’s main partners in the ethnic-cleansing campaign are none other than the (Rwandan) FDLR: remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, who have carried on the genocidal ideology. ALSO READ: Scholars, Genocide survivors alarmed by increasing hate speech in DR Congo It obviously is a very dangerous situation for everyone that’s of Tutsi ethnicity in DR Congo, especially given the context of Kinshasa’s ongoing conflict of choice against the AFC/M23 movement in the east. I use the phrase ‘conflict of choice’ because Kinshasa could end it quickly by fulfilling its part of peace agreements, starting with dismantling the FDLR militia. ALSO READ: Genocide ideology was allowed to grow in DR Congo AFC/M23 on the other hand never would have existed if Kinshasa were, broadly, to fulfil its obligations vis a vis the Tutsi communities; recognizing their rights as fellow Congolese nationals; and ending all kinds of discrimination against them. Kinshasa instead chose the xenophobic route, repeating the old canard that “all Tutsi” are foreigners. It was followed by widespread persecution, which gave the victims no choice but to defend themselves, through the AFC/M23 movement. These are things that should cause outrage in every decent human being. Other Africans should be up in arms about this state of affairs. The Banyamulenge’s only crime is their ethnic identity, and the fact they linguistically and culturally are close to Rwanda. For that, they’ve become expendable pawns in Tshisekedi’s war of choice. The questions the world should persistently be asking are: whose fault is it that these people, whose existence preceded the Congolese state, suddenly found themselves Congolese nationals? Also, how is one’s ethnic identity ever a justification to attack them violently, massacre them, rape them, and other acts of genocide? Why is the world not asking the Tshisekedi administration these questions? When African states gained independence, most of them made peace with the realities of their artificially drawn boundaries - in the interest of avoiding conflict, and to have a better shot of building cohesive nations. The government of Kenya, to give one example, never thought of stigmatizing or inciting hate speech against its citizens of Somali ethnicity, nor target them for extermination on claims they weren’t Kenyan’. Nairobi simply acknowledged it owned territory that was ancestral to Somalis, and it had citizens who happened to be Somali. DR Congo’s Tutsi people weren’t so lucky. They are Congolese because a European monarch carved up their territory to add it to his vast DR Congo colony. They never asked to be part of Belgium, at all. They were victims of circumstance. Yet they’ve been relentlessly targeted by their own government. There is audio and video evidence of hate speech by several big Kinshasa officials, most prominently the communication and media minister Patrick Muyaya, engaging in unfiltered hate speech. Like when a few years back on Tele 50, a Kinshasa broadcaster, Muyaya, talking about conflict in the east remarked, “This is a war we have been living for thirty years, where women have been particularly victims of the atrocities of the Tutsi!” The man was roiling up hate with this egregious falsehood, stigmatizing all the Tutsi with insinuations they had for three decades engaged in war atrocities including rape and others. He never said a thing about the FDLR militias; the true authors of the crimes he was describing. Of course, Muyaya also would never mention that FDLR, in perpetrating those atrocities, has been partnered by his government’s own military, FARDC. A big purpose of propaganda is to tarnish others with accusations of crimes committed by oneself. Beyond the propaganda, the Congolese state has been violating ceasefire agreements, and killing Banyamulenge civilians. The FARDC and its coalition launches drone and artillery strikes deliberately in heavily populated civilian areas across the Kivu provinces. They have carried out blind bombardment of Rubaya town, sowing terror. They have attacked civilian populations frequently in the Uvira area. They have killed multitudes of people, displaced many from their homes. They target livestock of the Banyamulenge, and raze down their property. All these amount to egregious crimes against humanity. But the world only looks on, and says next to nothing. You have to wonder what it will take for there to be real condemnation of the Kinshasa administration. The writer is a journalist and media consultant.
