Written by Observer Staff
Tuesday, 05 June 2012 14:19
According to a Human Rights Watch statement issued on June 4th, 2012, which was titled: “DR Congo: Rwanda Should Stop Aiding War Crimes Suspect,” it was alleged that after a field research conducted by the rights group in March, evidence was uncovered which showed that “Rwandan army officials have provided weapons, ammunition, and an estimated 200 to 300 recruits to support” the army mutiny led by elements of the defunct National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), a Rwandan-backed former rebel group which was incorporated into the ranks of the Congolese National Army as part of an earlier peace agreement.
However, apparently feeling disaffected, elements of the former rebel group, led by General Bosco Ntaganda—aka The Terminator—who is also wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC), have revolted and apparently returned to the bushes.
This is not the first time that the Tutsi-led government of Paul Kagame, which shares not just common borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo, but also ethnic affiliations, has been accused of supporting rebel forces dominated by their ethnic kin across the border in DR Congo; inflaming that country’s long-standing civil conflict.
But what is markedly different this time, however, is that General Ntaganda is an indicted war criminal facing charges of arming children and committing various other forms of heinous crimes of war. This has therefore amplified the international protestations being heaped on Rwanda for its alleged support of the mutineers, in no small measure because of the fact that General Ntaganda is an international fugitive facing charges of war crimes in the Hague.
It was only in March of this year, in what was described as a landmark case, that the ICC convicted a former Congolese warlord, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, “for his responsibility for the war crimes of enlisting and conscripting children and using them to participate actively in hostilities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2002 and 2003.” Like Dyilo, Ntaganda has been facing similar charges, but has since been able to evade arrest.
And now with this latest mutiny, Ntaganda’s case has come to the forefront, placing seemingly greater pressure on Rwanda to withdraw their reported support for Ntaganda or suffer accusations of complicity in aiding and abetting an alleged war criminal’s flight from justice and worse yet, also enabling his continued commission of heinous crimes of war.
In light of the recent conviction and 50-year sentencing of Liberia’s former President, Charles Taylor for “aiding and abetting” the commission of war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone, it is hard not to draw comparisons between Human Rights Watch’s accusation leveled against Kagame’s government and Taylor’s own support for Foday Sankor’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which landed him in hot water with the international criminal justice system.
We therefore call on Kagame to take notice and be warned that after the judicial precedence set in Taylor’s trial, one cannot hide behind the helm of the Presidency, when it comes to ultimately suffering penalties for complicity, especially that of “aiding and abetting” a bloody civil crisis in a neighboring country.
The crimes that Ntaganda has been accused of are despicable and he deserves his day in court to clear his name or suffer the consequences for his crimes. Kagame should therefore beware that even though there are times when Tides of Justice can sometimes seem low and innocuous, there are also times when it becomes high and rises inexorably to the point where it sweeps injustice from its path.
