Two regional events triggered my mind over the last weeks as I was getting my daily dose of news; one good, one bad! Allow me to start with the ‘bad news’. In the past weeks, newscasts the world over reported on the defection of General Jean Bosco Ntaganda from the DRC Army.
It was said that he was heading back to the bush which prompted all kind of thoughts on the consequences of such an action and a lot more questions about the “why” of such a decision.
Why, indeed, would the Congolese authorities want to take such a leap backward in time to the scenes of sheer horror and desolation of wars from the past?
Why would they run the risk of jeopardising the fragile but promising balance obtained by the integration of Gen. Ntaganda and the CNDP soldiers in the Congolese Army?
This balancing act which had proved to be to be fruitful in the long run is now hanging by a thread. It seems rather clear to me that the pressure of some western ‘lecturers’ has something if not everything to do with this current predicament; once again, a case of the west knows best and their one size fits all solutions.
In other words, we, the west, are telling you, the DRC, how to best solve you own problems.There has been, of recent, a recrudescence of calls to bring in Ntaganda to The Hague after Thomas Lubanga was convicted for war crimes.
Any right minded person could tell you that the atrocities committed in the DRC conflict could not be the work of two people alone, however these two might actually be.
Doesn’t it strike anyone as odd that none of the ‘friends of the DRC People’ ever consider the effectiveness of having the people of Congo to try and solve their problems of Justice by themselves? To capture the general and send him to the ICC would be to open Congo’s Pandora’s Box all over again.
Chances of the CNDP reorganizing an independent military force to take on the National Army are bigger than ever. This would have as an unfortunate consequence the regaining by the FDLR of some lost territory, notwithstanding other armed groups. The probability pulling other countries in the region back into a quagmire of violence is sadly very high. I hate to be a prophet of doom but this looks to me like Africa’s World War all over again!
Now unto the good news; the East African Law Assembly (EALA) just recently passed a resolution urging the EAC Council of Ministers to implore the ICC to transfer the case of the four accused Kenyans facing trial at The Hague to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ).
“With that, EALA has resolved that the Council of Ministers further submits the resolutions to the 10th Extra-Ordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State sitting on 28th April, 2012 to amend Article 27 of the EAC Treaty. Amendment of the Article shall provide jurisdiction to the EACJ giving it retrospective effect, the Assembly stated”, could be read in the news.
The resolution received overwhelming support during the debate on the floor of the House. Some argued that Partner States needed to be wary of the content of future agreements before ratifying them. At the same token, Rwanda was hailed for not appending its signature to the Rome Statute. The Community was urged to find home grown solutions for East African problems; the AU would be the next level to seek assistance in case the EAC couldn’t provide suitable solutions.
This was really good news, the vision of taking on our own problems for the sake of our people. We have a long way to go and one has to start somewhere, sometime. Let’s not wait for tomorrow ; today is the day to go back to the “lecturers” and ask for their support in building our capacity rather than them trying to solve our problems out of context.
So maybe this is an opportunity to remind them about their own loopholes in their lecture; it would be interesting to assess the performances and the deliveries of the different international judiciary institutions such as the ICTR, ICTY or the ICC. And the fact that some European countries remain a safe haven for renowned criminals is worrisome.
Why is it that those lecturers do not pressurize countries like France for hosting and supporting Callixte Mbarushimana who is until this very day one of the FDLR leaders? France is also a sanctuary for genocidaires such as Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, Agatha Habyarimana and many others.
Can our stand reverse this ethnocentric logic that the West remains the ultimate reference for the organization of Civil Society and State? Can we have the lecturers from donor countries understand that we need balanced interests for both sides of the counter?
That context needs to be taken in consideration when defining those interests and priorities? Can we remind them that the Alms Dealers are also the biggest Arm Dealers? Isn’t it time to amplify our voices and ask them: “why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, and do not you see the plank in your own eye?”
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