On 8th November, Mende told us it will be a simple declaration. In no uncertain terms, he insisted it was out of question to sign any agreement with a self-dissolved rebellion, entirely and definitively defeated by government forces. We know it was not the government forces and we know there was no defeat but a withdrawal. The loquacious Mende took the chance he had with so many microphones to assert that Kinshasa never went to Kampala to sign any agreement of any sort. He even took his tiny revenge on journalists reminding them that he told them so all along and they did not take him seriously. Now they should see that M23 is a defunct entity and, for goodness sake, who would ever sign an agreement with a non existent entity.
On that same day, we had governor Paluku introducing in this expectation moment another bit of confusion. His was about the number of M23 fighters in Uganda. After doing his maths, certainly with Kobler ' boys help, he says the Ugandan government spokesman has lied about the number of M23 fighters in Uganda. According to the governor calculations, only 100 or 150 M23 should be in Uganda. With this he is directly accusing the Ugandan government of inflating numbers, you can guess the reason he's giving for that.
However these were not the only declarations given by Congolese officials on the 8th November. We also had Raymond Tshibanda speaking from Paris and announcing that his government will be signing, guess what???? An agreement with who??? M23 in Kampala. I wonder what Mende has to say about this declaration, will he retract, will he confirm his colleague's take? It would be nice to hear him before tomorrow.
So going by what these gentlemen say, we cannot possibly know what will be signed, if ever. But we know that the vultures have never been keener on their pray now. Since they cannot hit at Rwanda as they have been used to do, and they cannot deny Uganda's efforts since November 2012, we have to watch out and see how they are planning to save their Kabila. An indication of what he is able to do to please them can be found here. I usually don't agree a lot with the author of this article, but he often dares to bring to consideration things other Congolese prefer not to touch: http://www.congoindependant.com/article.php?articleid=8438. The only thing we can conclude is that the vultures are once again going to determine in which direction the DRC has to go. It is frustrating that they had all these months going around the political problems that cause the crisis in the East DRC, and they can still step on them to promote their own interests. I don't know the inside story, but I see their stand in the way they really want to deprive CIGLR of its own means to help solve local problems. I'm no fan of Kagame or Museveni, but I have to objectively ackowledge that they should be joined by other East African heads of state in a bid to solve the DRC crisis. They have legitimate security concerns in area, no matter what their detractors see or say. I do not see why the UN, EU, or USA and France should have more security concerns than they do in this part of the world. Let's hope what ever is in the agreement can offer an opportunity for our people to claim their space under the sun.
In all this confusing mess, it is unbelievable not to hear the voice of the rais in Kinshasa. He sleeps tight knowing the father of his business manager in TZ, Kikwete, is watching and fighting for him, so is Zuma and now, Jack Rosen with Gecamines.
What we are witnessing in North Kivu now is that the so called "victory" of FARDC has established a de facto and de iure (Addis agreement + res 2098) UN protectorate in the area previously under the control of M23. The meaning of this protectorate is none other than the exploitation of so much of local energy resources, mining and agricultural potential under the guise of a peace mission and a brigade of intervention. Tanzanian and South-African forces were joined recently by Belgian Para-troupers and all this is being nicely orchestrated by French army men and French UN diplomats who started this mess way back with the former president of Rwanda under the UN supervision and Mobutu's complicity. The UN bias in this has a long history as you can see. It is the same bias that has created the narrative that tends to blame Rwanda and Uganda for everything that goes wrong in the DRC. The time of this narrative, despite all the International community has invested in it, is coming to an end. When the immoral exploitation of people reaches this extent, even empires come down by themselves. So my people, patience, the near bankrupt US has its years counted. We should not fear it. We should fear our weariness and frustration because they will affect our determination to fight.
While the geopolitical and resource interests in the DRC have mobilised the Western powers against any local voice to claim our right to survive, we should be driven by the determination to assert our heritage and not allow ourselves to mortgage our future generations. The moral weight of such determination is lacking in our enemies. It has even disappeared in most Congolese people: we must keep it alive. No matter what is signed in Kampala tomorrow, the struggle goes on. Let Kabila vuvuzelas contradict themselves. Their contradictions only tell you they are being paid by different pockets!!!
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