The former United States Under-Secretary for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, while appearing on the Aljazeera TV on Sunday questioned the credibility of a report by a group of UN experts accusing Rwanda and Uganda of backing a rebellion in DRC.

Is she trying to convince the whole World that when the United States did not display the body of Osama Bin Laden to the whole World, he is still alive? What more evidence does she want as substantial to clear what she calls the cloud?

The former Senior American diplomat in the George Bush Administration said “I don’t even know who these experts are…there is this cloud of anonymity about who these experts are and what agenda they are pushing.” Is she aware that her country has already acknowledged the UN Expert Report as credible with overwhelming evidence?

It is unfortunate that the former American Diplomat is behaving in the manner that is likely to cost more human lives in Congo. This vast nation has lost so far 6 Million people in the war since 1996. It is on record that no single day has the Rwandan government accepted responsibility; it has on a number of occasions denied repeatedly that it has invaded her neighbor. Is Madam Frazer denying that Rwanda has not been in Congo because no single person came to point a finger to Kagame and his government?

Is Madam Frazer saying that the British government and of course her own government acted out of blue to freeze the Rwandan aid? The basis for the British government’s decision to freeze 21 million pounds (about Rwf21 billion) in aid to Rwanda, was the UN Expert Report. Frazer now a professor at Carnegie Mellon University argued that the donor community should instead continue pump in the taxpayer’s money to Rwanda and support the efforts by the 12-nation member International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), to help end endemic conflicts that have dogged DRC for decades.

Madam Frazer is deliberately closing her eyes on the causes of the conflict in Congo. The creation of M23 by the Kagame regime is a long plan that cannot be solved by what she calls the 12 member nation conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR). Frazer should appreciate that the biggest part of the aid is channeled to M23 and other crimes by Kagame to eliminate those people he perceives to be political enemies.

Is Madam Frazer forgetting the speech of her colleague Susan Rice when she was in Rwanda where she said that, many people in Rwanda are harassed , receive anonymous calls, murdered on daily basis? Is she aware of our country men and women who are languishing in jail simply because they have announced that they have different political views with Kagame?

She further argues that US has not done much in terms of donating money to Rwanda “We (the United States) have not done much for most of that region and the majority of it (support) is in health. You want us to stop providing (even the little) assistance to the population of Rwanda addressing AIDS, women mortality from childbirth; is that the prescription for solving the crisis in Congo?” she questioned the journalist. But Madam Frazer should also acknowledge that many children and women in Congo have the same needs as Rwandans. Any human life is invaluable whether it’s Congolese, any other person on the Continent, black, white or Asian, in a nut shell, regardless of any description.
While Rwanda praises the UN and other world powers when they label the FDLR, as a terrorist organisation, but when the same UN Report appears to implicate Rwanda in any conflict they start to question the credibility of the report, what a paradox of events? FDLR on Sunday launched an attack in Musanze District, killing a game ranger, following another attack early on two villages in Rubavu District last week in which one civilian died and three others injured, according to the Rwandan officials, why then Frazer doesn’t advise the Rwandan government to talk to these groups so that they stop fighting?

Frazer and Tony Blair both have personal friendship with president Kagame, the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said “the proper thing is to sort out that issue (Congo crisis) through the ICGLR and the international community, and to continue to support the progress of Rwanda in the lives of the people,” the statement released by the Blair Office reads in part. For those who don’t know Blair, he is one of the advisors of president Kagame who can close his eyes even when the Congolese children are recruited in the ranks of M23 rebels and women are raped on the daily basis by the proxies of Kagame since 1996.

The so called friends of Rwanda are in fact friends of Kagame who just help the Rwandan dictator to consolidate power by killing and intimidating all his opponents, extend his brutality to his neighbors, therefore, the friends of Rwanda should advise Kagame to open the political space in Rwanda, stop the war against his neighbors, otherwise the so called development that some people mistakenly confuse with political stability is not sustainable.

Jacqueline Umurungi
Brussels.