In his 1998 remarks in Kigali the former American President Bill Clinton pledged to “strengthen ability to prevent, and if necessary to stop, genocide.” “Never again,” he declared, “must we be shy in the face of evidence.

The whole world should speak with one voice and tell Kagame to immediately halt all support to M23 rebels or face sanctions. In the ongoing negotiations between the Congo government and M23 rebels, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Congo produced overwhelming evidence on how M23 rebels are responsible for widespread war crimes, including summary executions, rapes, and forced recruitment children.

Rwanda and Kagame in particular should be reminded that the continued support to M23 rebels constitutes complicit in war crimes under international law. Whereas a mere indirect support may constitute the above crime under international law, Rwandan Military officials have gone a further step in completing the crime by deploying its troops to eastern Congo to directly support the M23 rebels in military operations.
According to Anneke Van Woundenberg of Human Rights Watch, “The M23 rebels are committing a horrific trail of new atrocities in eastern Congo.”

“M23 commanders should be held accountable for these crimes, and the Rwandan officials supporting these abusive commanders could face justice for aiding and abetting the crimes.” This human rights body which is highly respected for its research in human rights issues based its findings on interviews with 190 Congolese and Rwandan victims, family members, witnesses, local authorities, and current or former M23 fighters between May and September. This is corresponds with other researchers especially the UN Report of Experts which also arrived to the same conclusions.
Why is the World silent especially the United States when all the reports of experts arrive on the same conclusions that Rwanda and Kagame continues to destabilize Congo? Indeed, it is widely known that the M23 rebels consist of soldiers who have a well-known history of serious abuses against civilians. In June the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, identified five of the M23’s leaders as “among the worst perpetrators of human rights violations in the DRC, or in the world.” They include Gen. Bosco Ntaganda who is wanted on two arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ituri district, and Col. Sultani Makenga, who is implicated in the recruitment of children and several massacres in eastern Congo.
However the pressure of American law makers might change the rules of the game in Congo. A number of U.S. lawmakers are calling on the Obama administration to take tougher action on Rwanda for supporting the M23 rebels who are terrorizing civilians in the eastern Congo. The US under Secretary on African Affairs was put to task to explain the inaction of Obama Administration in Congo conflict by the Africa, Global Health and Human Rights Subcommittee held on Tuesday on the ongoing Crisis in the eastern Congo. Ambassador Carson admitted that “The security and humanitarian situation in the Congo is the most volatile in Africa today.”

The American top diplomat told the law makers that five million people have died in inter-ethnic violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1997. Carson said there is a credible body of evidence from the United Nations and other sources that the Rwandan government is aiding the M23 rebels, and called on Rwanda to cease any such support. But is this enough for a country that is a champion of democracy, human rights and the most powerful on Earth?
Political analysts across the global and some American law makers like Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, believe that continued silence on the crimes of Kagame by the U.S. successive administrations are, due to U.S. regret about not stopping the genocide there in 1994. “We must overcome our regret over what happened 18 years ago. As an NGO letter to President Obama points out, the United States is not out of step with our European allies, who have cut aid to Rwanda because of their interference in the DRC,” Smith said.
His Republican colleague, Congressman Tom Marino of Pennsylvania, was even more forceful in his criticism, asking Carson how long the Obama administration was going to try to negotiate with the leaders of Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda while civilians continue to be killed.

“How many people have to die before you stop the negotiations and get serious about this?,” Marino said.

Ambassador Carson said that the U.S. government has to be patient and to continue to press the involved governments to see reason and to put an end to the violence. He stressed that the United States has taken action.

“We cut off our foreign military financing to the Rwandan government, one of the first such public acts by any government,” Carsons said. It is unfortunate that the US is still in the same talk shows that President Clinton was talking about in the above statement which cost almost one million lives in Rwandan genocide against the Tutsis; the Ambassador admits that 5 Million people have died in the D.R.Congo at the hands of President Kagame, is there any more evidence does the United States need to impose tougher sanctions against the murderous regime of Kagame and possibly indicting him for the war crimes, crimes against humanity in the same way, US supported the ICC indictment to President Omar Bashir of Sudan and Charles Taylor?

Jacqueline Umurungi
Brussels.