kagame blairInconsistent and Controversial Tony Blair the former British Prime Minister has defended the Rwanda’s role in the DR Congo conflict which has cost hundreds of thousands of innocent women and children. How on earth could Tony Blair justify the Rwandan role in the conflict in the country that his friend Kagame has logistically and financially supported using foreign aid to cause mayhem for innocent civilians for almost two (2) decades?

While answering questions from the BBC, he told the reporter that the causes of Congo conflict were complex and Kigali should not be singled out for blame.  Does he mean that if other players are involved in the conflict then Rwanda should be exonerated? Why now there is calm in DR Congo after Rwanda was singled out as the main founder and backer of these rebels? Is Tony knowledgeable on Congo conflict or is simply indifferent to many Congolese women who are raped almost on daily basis and many children who don’t go school and instead are recruited in the rebel ranks of M23 and other Militias supported by his friend Kagame?

Is he aware that withholding and suspending aid to Rwanda has calmed down the once arrogant dictator who has not only killed the Congolese but also his own people? Rwanda has as usual continued denials of a UN accusation that it has been backing the Congolese M23 rebel group. But on whose orders did the M23 withdraw from the captured DR Congo Eastern provincial Capital of Goma?

As already mentioned above, it is estimated that apart from thousands of hundreds of killed people, over 800,000 people have been displaced in fighting since May 2012 when the rebels launched a rebellion against the DR Congo government. Why should then the former British Prime Minister dispute the  UN report by the UN Security Council’s Group of Experts which said that M23 leaders “receive direct military orders” from Rwanda’s chief of defence staff, Gen Charles Kayonga, “who in turn acts on instructions from the minister of defence”, Gen James Kabarebe?

“If you read, and I have read, both the UN report and the very detailed rebuttal of those claims by the Rwandan government, you’ve got to say there’s a dispute over the facts,” Mr Blair told the BBC’s Focus on Africa TV programme. Dispute what facts?  Has Rwanda ever accepted that it is in Congo?   Why should then Tony support Kagame when he personally condemned the former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor who was supporting the   Sierra Leone RUF rebels of Foday Sankoh?

Indeed, the United Kingdom military intervention in Sierra Leone in May 2000 which in fact stabilised Sierra Leone was a culmination of the RUF rebels advance on the Capital Freetown, why then should the same man who sent troops to stop rebels is now supporting a country that is not only supporting rebels but has sent its own troops on the soil of another sovereign country in the name of complex issues of Congo as Tony tries to justify his Rwandan Friend’s involvement in Congo.    As Tony Blair is indeed an advisor to the most repressive regime in the region, why can’t he have a word of wisdom and tell the Rwandan dictator to stop supporting M23 and other rebels which have destabilised the Eastern Congo and also give political space, freedom of expression, free the press and allow Rwandans the same basics his countrymen in UK enjoy?

Furthermore, does Tony Blair remember that the British operation against RUF rebels coupled with economic sanctions on the government of Charles Taylor which supported RUF rebels in exchange for conflict diamonds forced the RUF rebels to disarm?  Why is Tony now opportunistically or indifferently support rebels and their financier?  Tony Blair has reminded me of Robert Bob Astles   the former advisor and an associate of presidents Milton Obote and Idi Amin of Uganda.  Astles prominence came to spot light in 1975 when he joined Amin’s service, becoming the head of the anti-corruption squad and advising the president on British affairs, while running a pineapple farm. He also presided over an aviation service that transported members of the government. Astles later said “I kept my eyes shut, I said nothing about what I saw, which is what they liked”. What Astles did or did not do during Amin’s reign is a matter of conjecture. Some considered him to be a malignant influence on the dictator; others thought he was a moderating presence. He came to be known as “Major” Bob (the title of Major was given to him by Amin) or “the White Rat”.

While the government of Idi Amin was expelling the Asians and the British, killing his own people, muzzling free press and other violations of Human Rights, Astles sat on the right hand of the Uganda Dictator as an advisor.   Is Tony saying what he is saying because that’s what the Rwandan Dicator wants to hear? Or there is more that is beyond our eyes?  Dear Tony if you love Rwanda and Rwandans as you claim please tell Mr Kagame that the continuation of muzzling the free press, killing or incarcerating his political opponents  will not sustain the so called developments Mr. Blair is using to justify the brutal behaviour of the Rwandan dictator.

 

Jacqueline Umurungi

Brussels.