re posted from APARECO
Open Letter to the political leaders of Central Africa, Southern Africa, and the Great Lakes regions
By Honoré Ngbanda-Nzambo Ko Atumba
President of the APARECO
- A third International War on the doorsteps of the Democratic Republic of Congo
- The United States of America make a change of “sheriff” in Central Africa and the Great lakes regions
Excellences, Distinguished Presidents,
Whenever the great Western powers fight each other over the distribution of the wealth under our soil and subsoil, the children of Africa, our children, are turned into cannon fodder on this land that has been bequeathed to them by their ancestors for thousands of years. Since the end of the Second World War, the Western armies don’t fight any more on the African ground, but it is the African armies euphemistically or disingenuously called “allies” of the antagonist Western powers, who are killing each other over conflicts that are not their own and often without knowing the true source of the dispute!
Whenever the United States of America, either with or without the tacit or proven complicity of NATO, decide “sovereignly” to replace their “sheriff”, or “servant”, or even “gendarme” (you may choose your most suitable expression) in our African regions, it is at the high cost of the blood of our African people!
For 21 years, the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been drowned in that spiral and are paying the price of that cynical and cruel political strategy.
Excellences, Distinguished Presidents,
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1988, adding the collapse of the Soviet empire, the Clinton administration decided at its sole discretion to terminate the fixed-term contract of the “gendarme” of the United States of America operating in both Southern and Central Africa at that time: Mobutu Sese Seko.Shamelessly, president Bill Clinton revealed the identity of the “new strong man”, the new “sheriff” of the United States. The name of the person who had taken that responsibility was Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. He had been requested to guide his “adjunct”, the Rwandan Paul Kagame. The latter was asked, as a first assignment, to overthrow Juvénal Habyarimana in Rwanda, which he did through the genocide of 1994, causing the death of close to a million Tutsis and Hutus.
As a reward, he received a blank check to achieve an ethnic cleansing and establish one of the cruellest and bloodiest regime in Africa.The African blood, as we know, ran profusely through the Land of A Thousand Hills!
Two years following the tragedy in Rwanda, the new “sheriff” of the United States, the Ugandan Yoweri Museveni and his “adjunct” Paul Kagame, triggered and led, under the aegis of the United States and their Western allies, an international war against the Zaïre of Mobutu in 1996. No less than six regular armies of African countries, all members of the UN and the African Union including Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Angola, Chad and Eritrea were enlisted and sent to the battle, with the technical and logistical support of the United States.
This first international war of invasion of Zaïre aimed to chase away Mobutu, only to replace him by a hand puppet, Laurent Désiré Kabila, “sovereignly” chosen by the aggressors of Zaïre.This war caused, according to various experts’ reports, more than a million of both Congolese and Hutus victims!
In 1998, only a year after, when Laurent Désiré Kabila, the chosen “servant” under certain conditions, wanted to move forward and gain more freedom by any means, including rescind the one billion contract signed with the American Mineral Field (AMFI) of Jean-Raymond Boull for the exploitation of the vast mining deposits of the Gécamines to benefit a South-African firm, the second international war was then triggered to chase away Laurent Désiré Kabila. Once more, the Africans rushed in the arena fighting against one another.
That war opposed the aggressors’ armies, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Eritrea supported by the United States versus the armies of Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South-Africa who came to the rescue of president Laurent Désiré Kabila. The war lasted until the assassination of LD Kabila in 2001. And once more a lot of blood was shed during those many years of war.
After deterring LD Kabila’s moves toward emancipation, the conquerors intended to secure the complete control over the mineral deposits and stronghold over the “scandalous” wealth of the DRC. Therefore, they“sovereignly” decided to impose at the head of the institutions of the DRC a Rwandan army officer, Hyppolite Kanambe, whom under those circumstances, used the Congolese identity of “Joseph Kabila”, with the approval of the international community.As for Africa, it remained submissively silent.
To their detriment, a few years later, the impostor they placed at the head of institutions in DRC, developed a taste for power and money. He also intended to move toward emancipation and set himself free from his “creators”. Like LD Kabila, he broke the rules and did an inexcusable mistake: selling the mineral deposits of Katanga, “exclusive properties” of the Western multinationals, to their Chinese, Korean, Iranian, and Russian competitors. Therefore, the international community led by the United States, suddenly remembered the existence of a constitution in the DRC, that limits the terms and power of the Head of the State. But they “forgot” that back in 2011, when they “sovereignly” imposed on the Congolese people a Rwandan army officer at the head of the DRC, the same constitution was already existent, laying down eligibility conditions to the supreme office in the state!
When it comes to Africa, the law of the jungle approach is the only suitable one in the mind of the international community. The DRC’s constitution is only appropriate when its application leads to the best interests of the great powers. Therefore, they decided that “Kabila” must abide by the constitution and leave office. And the Congolese are applauding and thanking the Western “decision-makers”!
But all tend to forget that “Kabila” also stands for the interests of his Tutsis brothers of Rwanda and Uganda, who have assigned him, as a Trojan Horse in DRC to remain in power with their unconditional support.The situation led to a conflict of interests and the two “sheriffs” of the United States therefore became inconvenient.
Once more, Washington decides “sovereignly” to replace the “sheriff” in Central Africa and the Great Lakes regions.
This time, Angola is the chosen one. The same Angola that was armed by the American administrations, during more than 20 years, from 1970 to 1990, with the help and complicity of their former “sheriff” at the time, Mobutu Sese Seko.
A part of the Angolan people rose against other Angolan people who were armed by the former Soviet Union, joined by Cuban troops, “unconditional allies” of the Kremlin.In this war, once more, Africans blood was profusely shed.
Today, as the new “sheriff”, Washington chose a retired African general, the current minister of defence of Angola and designated successor of president Eduardo Dos Santos: General Joao Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, 63 years old and born in Lobito, Angola.His last trip to the United States rang the bell of a formal investiture ceremony as the new “gendarme” of the United States of America in Central Africa, Southern Africa and the Great Lakes regions.
As usual, the US did not hide the partnership accompanied by a protocol, signed by both countries, aiming to“help Angola restore order” in the troubled region of Central Africa, specifically in the Great Lakes region. The official press agency of Angola (Angop) released a statement made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Angola, announcing that the meeting in Washington was dedicated to the political analysis of the situation in DRC and Burundi. Confirming its new leading role under the aegis of the United-States in the Great Lakes region this year 2017, the Angolan Minister of Defence added: “This year in December, we will contribute to find a lasting peace in all these countries”. But the Angolan Minister did not tell us how they intend to impose the agreement made with the US in the three targeted countries: The Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and the Central African Republic. Considering that the crisis these three countries are going through originates from various sources and are different in nature.Those who started the fire in 1996, are coming across as the firefighters intending to extinguish the fire!
In addition to the agreements signed in Washington “Joseph Kabila” sent two missions in Luanda, a formal one through his Minister of Foreign Affairs, She Okitundu, who stayed from Friday 19th of May to Saturday 20th of May, and another secret one including exclusively his chief of staff, Néhémie Mwilanya “guided” by Bizima Karaha. These two assignments ended in failure. The 21st of May the international press reported that the infantry of the Angolan army made a move along the western border of the DRC with Angola, along with tanks and heavy artillery. Another move of the Angolan troops had also been reported in the northeast of Angola.
The next day, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, made the move to put an end to this new synergy dangerously threatening the balance of forces and interests of Rwanda in the occupied DRC by Kigali, and controlled by various multinationals around the world.
During the night many battalions of the Rwandanarmy deplaned from the military transport aircraft at in the international airport of Ndjili with heavy weapons. They were immediately taken to the military base of Kitona, located in Bas-Congo province, towards the border with Angola.
Excellences, Distinguished Presidents,
Allow me to draw some conclusions from the sombre picture Africa is facing, specifically the Congolese people:
- Africa along with the rest of the world are helplessly standing by, watching the setting up of the scene for a 3rdinternational war on the Democratic Republic of Congo’s soil. It will be its 3rdinternational war in less than 20 years, a world record! According to the UN experts’ various reports, the successive wars made more than 12 millions of victims! The words used by the leader of the British Labour Party on the subject to condemn the depth of the monstrosity are very telling. Mr Jeremy Corbyn publicly stated that the successive wars in the DRC made more victims than during the 2nd World War!Whereas the Apostolic Nuncio in Kinshasa, Mgr Luis Mariano Montemayor, when facing the atrocities while visiting Beni, in the east of DRC, at the end of the month of august 2016, did not hesitate to name the“Congolese genocide”. But in the face of the magnitude of the tragedy, the African leaders are turning a deaf ear and a blind eye! Probably thinking it its only happens to others…
- You may have noted, as I did, a common and unique factor to all these wars: neither of the Congolese people, their political class, their army, have ever been requested as part taker of these war process. They are missing from the conception phase to the implementation or final decision to go to war. The Democratic Republic of Congo is considered by the international community, and sadly by African countries, as a common property, a “terra nullius”decreed back to 1885 by the same powers controlling her today!
- The two previous international wars, as the third one under consideration, in DRC, are not African wars decided by the Africans for African interests. All these wars led by Africans regular armies are proxy wars, each and every one of them, without a single exception. They are conceived, planned and financed by hidden prominent lobbies of the western countries to secure their best interests on our African soil. Sadly, African leaders became “proxies” skilfully handled by western countries to fight all kinds of wars for the purpose of precious materials and limited resources. But these wars are hiding behind“ethnic wars” or “tribal wars”which the African people, refractory to “democracy” are taking responsibility for. In the face of this factitious picture, the victims became the executioners, and the executioners became the “saviours”, the “judges”, the “benefactors”!
- The African leaders “elected” by the western capital cities, as the “gendarme” naively enjoy being the chosen ones. Forgetting that tomorrow when they will be no longer needed, their western mentors will use their current victims to be their executioners. It is then compelling for the African leaders to learn from the mistakes made in the past and put an end to this vicious circle, categorically refuse to be used as a sword in the gloved hand of the masked powers, to shed the blood of their African brothers.
- Therefore, it is time for the Africans to write their own History. Which implies the willingness of the African leaders to fearlessly own Africa’s destiny in their hands, and refuse imposed wars, so called peace conceived, and unilaterally decided by foreign powers.
Excellences, Distinguished Presidents,
It is with great concern, love, and severity that I make an urgent appeal, to you who have the destiny of Africa in your hands. I am very well aware of the weight your responsibilities.
Experience, in my humble opinion, is not solely the result of great achievements in the past, but it is also attributable to the lessons we learn from a long string of failures along the way. Let us bounce back from the mistakes of our fathers, our elders, as well our own mistakes. Let us learn the lesson to fix our path and lead Africa to its own sustainable development! Let us break the vicious circle, beat the fate of mediocrity and inferiority, and end the downward spiral of our people.
Gone are the days when we were powerless, pointing the fingers to our past settlers with tears in our eyes. If our former executioners are still manipulating us, turning us against each other to secure their interests, we can only have ourselves to blame. More than 60 years after obtaining our independences, we clearly reached political maturity. Therefore, we shall fully undertake our responsibilities, the destiny of African people and the generations to come.
For it is true that if yesterday they controlled us not only due to their power, but more for our ignorance, as rightly stated by Simon Bolivar, it is true that today they still control us, over and again, not by our ignorance this time, but by the selfishness, unconsciousness, cowardice, of our African leaders.
Each and every one of us, without exception, must rethink things over. We must bravely look into the past, disregarding our current and future political standards. If we fail to do it today, History might never be written by Africans, as prophesied by Patrice Emery Lumumba, but it will be written by its conquerors. And they will teach us and our children, the famous words of Brennos to the Romans: “VAE VICTIS” (“woe to the vanquished”)!
Excellences, Distinguished Presidents,
Today, the African youth is reaching out to you, to all of us carrying the weight of their destiny. They are shouting out their anger, and love along with a message of hope in their distressed call. Let us not disappoint them!
Paris, 10th of June 2017
Honoré Ngbanda Nzambo Ko-Atumba
President of the APARECO
Source: https://www.info-apareco.com/2017/06/14/open-letter-to-the-political-leaders-of-central-africa-southern-africa-and-the-great-lakes-regions/