With friends like this…The Price of Kimya II
If you ask me my top 3 levers to move towards a solution for Congo, everyone who knows me knows one item that would make the list: Deal with the FDLR (Forces for the Democratic Liberation of Rwanda, otherwise known since the Rwandan genocide as the Interahamwe, or Those Who Kill Together). So you would think when the government of Congo launched a major offensive to eliminate the FDLR, I would be behind the effort.
Not so.
First, every policy person I’ve talked to has said Kimya I and Kimya II were recipes for disaster from the beginning. In effect, likely to provoke reprisal attacks, and the cost to the civilian population is just too high. All true. I’m no policy expert, but I saw this unfold through the eyes of my friend Eric, who you will read about in my upcoming book, A Thousand Sisters. Eric is Congolese conservationist, who has doggedly devoted himself to engaging his local community in conservation projects at the gates of the World Heritage Site, the Kahuzi Biega Park. He’s worked straight through the past 18 years, at great personal cost to himself and his family.
He wrote me in the spring. An email with distant photos of Rwandan soldiers camping next to his environmentally themed school. CNDP, the militia led by Laurent Nkunda, integrated into the Congolese Army following their leader’s arrest. While technically now Congolese army, Eric didn’t see it that way. Foreign soldiers camped on their land. They threw the children out of Eric’s primary school and took over the buildings for shelter. When the grandson of a local park ranger disappeared, all the children were too afraid to return to school. Following a week of searching, the little boy was found dead in the forest. Last night, when Eric told me this, I asked, “Why would they kill a three year old???”
In his warmest fashion, flashing an almost sympathetic look at my naiveté, he shrugged. “Why…”
I guess at some point, it’s a question you just stop asking.
Alain, another of Eric’s students and recent graduate of Eric’s high school, wanted to become a conservationist like Eric did at his age. Alain was driving through town. He was stopped by former CNDP and robbed. Then they shot him to death.
In a final turn, as Kimya II was wrapping up, they broke into the home of Eric’s parents. They shot and beat several people. One was shot to death. Eric’s mother was shot in the thigh and hand. Four months later, she is still in the hospital. I hope to visit her soon.
Who needs reprisal attacks when those who are supposed to protect you behave like this???
No, I’m no expert. But I’m not sure I need to be to get the obvious: every guy with a gun in the Kivus seems to use the FDLR as their excuse for abominable behavior. For this alone, the FDLR are a top priority- but a DIPLOMATIC solution is key.
As for ill planned, ill executed government offensives, the scathing critiques of Kimya II by my policy wonk buddies seem painfully clear- and hit very close to home.