QUICK EVENING UPDATE: M23 UNDER ATTACK

Things can turn quite quickly around Goma if FARDC are to achieve Joseph Kabila's belligerant plans. We knew that FARDC were holding meetings with their friends FDLR even yesterday late into the evening. Interestingly, it's FARDC heading the new assault, which to my last information, includes also helicopters, shelling away M23 positions. I found some illustrative Map: http://nanojv.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/guerre-du-kivu-mutaho/. The question is not that FARDC is attacking M23, this has been Kabila's plan all along. The question is what the United Nations guys are going to do in all this. MONUSCO is supposedly still a neutral force. We'd expect that, despite Basse' pretentious declarations, he has not forgotten that MONUSCO is not the same thing as the so-called Rapid Intervention Brigade. The latter seems to be, up to now, a little bit toothless. I am not the only one thinking that. You can see how SADC countries are trying a different move to get involved from another front: the diplomatic one!!! http://dailynews.co.tz/index.php/local-news/19879-sadc-asks-us-for-inclusion-in-dr-congo-peace-talks. Why, why would SADC be included in the Kampala talks? I can't believe that this is Kikwete again!!! The UN and all vultures agreed in November last year that CIGLR was to facilitate talks in Kampala, SADC tried hard helping Kabila to make those talks impossible, now the same day that FARDC are given the go ahead to attack M23, SADC guys want to be part of negociations? The same ones who have already pledged troupes to fight M23? Surely, only Kabila's allies can think this backwards. They wanted a battle, there they have it. I just hope that no CIGLR state is going to tell Makenga to pull out again, because they have despised his willingness to support the talks in Kampala. Let's watch and see what happens. I can only wish the freedom fighters a clean win.

Don't be surprised when you see Congolese media and their social network giving you the opposite side of this story. They will tell you that M23 attacked them to distract you from understanding when FDLR and the UN will enter the battle to help FARDC. Freedom shall prevail.

As I write this, I am told M23 resistance has produced the usual effect on FARDC, helicopters are going back to the airport and rumors from Kabila's ranks will soon start accusing neighboring countries and you know which ones. In the meantime, while I wondered what the UN guys will be doing, this is what someone has just sent me: http://www.innercitypress.com/trayvon1sanfordun071413.html. Ban Ki Moon is actually in Paris with no less than the infamous Ladsous, boss of the UN "peace-un-keeping" missions, and the French defense minister:http://www.un.org/sg/offthecuff/index.asp?nid=2895. Could they be cooking up a carnage in the Great Lakes again? This time, even if they invest so much in the lies-propaganda of the media, no one will ever say that we did not see this being plotted. I said some time back that we cannot beat them at their own game, but we cannot afford not to try to find our own way. catch up later, when more update get in; it seems that the battle is now around Muja.

OF TERRORISM AND TERRORISTS

The great friend of Joseph Kabila, a.k.a Colette Braeckman, in a bid to force a greater US involvement in the war against M23, has just told the world that she suspects Al Shabab members close to M23, immediately after affirming the same thing of ADF-NALU. Like all of us, she knows that wherever or whenever Al Shabab is mentionned, Obama Boys already on the ground under the disguise of  the new found career of international public servants meaning ordinary NGO employees, who also happen to play spies, start agitating for american weapons to slaughter innocent populations. I have no issues with Braeckman trying to bring american soldiers to the Western side of the Rift Valley. I have a big problem with her when she wants to equate M23 to ADF-NALU.

It is such a bad joke to bring the Al Shabab discourse to Kivu. But it is even worse to try equating M23 to ADF-NALU. That is the same thing Jakaya Kikwete did when in June he suggested that Uganda negotiates with this group and Rwanda does the same with FDLR. Braeckman's choice to be one of Kabila's  failed governance defender is her right, in a world where journalism is mostly opportunistic, in search of money and power rather than interest in the truth. However, deep down, she might never acknowledge it, but she knows very well that M23 is not just another militia. It is a movement fighting in the name of a province whose rights have been denied for so long; a province whose fair share and participation in the public life of the country has been trampled upon for so long; a province for which even daily, ordinary life has been made a real nightmare by the absence of the state, the violence of rwandan génocidaires, the gigantic greed of foreign corporations and local "nouveaux riches", the neo-colonial NGO system, the UN "gangrène" and the FARDC brutality coupled with its unstoppable weakness. The force of M23 is that it makes these claims with historical facts, political and moral responsibility. That is why it is so difficult for Kabila to sit and discuss these claims. He has nothing to say because of the truth they carry. 

And that is the same reason why Kikwete's remarks in June sounded so silly apart from being quite ignorant and aberrant. And that is why South African, Tanzanian and Malawian move to put together a UN brigade to fight M23 is bound to fail. The apparent calm on the ground today is only a telling sign. The UN brigade tested, using FARDC and FDLR, to see how M23 would respond. The response surprisingly was Monusco's. The situation should lead people like Braeckman to just keep quiet and wait until they have something really serious to say. She could have told us, for example, what else South Africa is doing beside sending its troupes to Brazil to train its military forces on how fight in the Amazonian jungles (http://nanojv.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/afrique-du-sud-bresil-cooperation-militaire/). Is this why the members of the Brigade have pushed their position from Sake towards Bweramana? To wait for the SANDF units trained in the Amazonian forest to be back and face it off with M23 on the same footing? Doubtful. Since when did the brave people of South Africa who fought the oppressive Apartheid, decide to use their advanced development to embrace the Western imperialism and impose it on black people? On aura tout vu!

KABILA BOARD OF MILITARY ADVISORS

At this stage even the vultures must be a little bit confused about the situation in the Eastern part of the DRC. The mixed clashes that happened yesterday show clearly that the many conflicting interests that the foreign powers are protecting via the UN are bound to increase the confusion. Indeed who'd have ever said that Monusco would defend M23? That happened. Who would have said that FDLR acclaimed as the FARDC subsitute army would try to break through M23 zone in a bid to both spark fights with M23 and cross over the boarder? But you can trust the Civil society in Goma to say that those were young men from Goma who have decided to defend the country against M23, simply laughable. 

In all matters laughable, it could be good to mention here the interview sensation spread around by RFI and the Kin media: you got it, it's the one of Sir Patrick Karegeya, who seems to have revealed the biggest secret. A friend of mine has just given me an interesting interpretation of the interview in these terms: "Saying, in the 21st century, that crocodiles live in the water is no discovery". Sorry for the literal translation. Interesting to see someone like Karegeya still equating M23 to AFDL or RCD. If he'd mentioned CNDP only, we would understand. Anyway, that isn't a problem.

The problem is that it has become notoriously known that this gentleman with his fellow exiled, have become Joseph Kabila's military advisers. Maybe that isn't a problem really. It could be a solution for Kabila if their interests and his do not collide. It is also convenient for exiled people to have a steady source of income, if what it takes is just go out there and emulate Ngbanda, Ruzibiza and Charles Onana. The aim is to please all powers seeking to sink our people into the ditch for ever. However, if I could sit face to face with this gentleman, this is what I'd tell him: the people of the DRC have a peace to build and then a kind of development that is long overdue. That's the issue for M23 and for any Congolese who still has an once of self-respect. That is why people like René Abandi are stuck in Kampala, to try as hard as possible to force the way to peace, peacefully. That is why Makenga through his spokesman had to warn Monusco about yesterday's attack. But René is not stuck in Kampala alone, even the DRC government still has about 5 officials waiting there. For once, can't the International community see and understand that the time for war is over? If they don't want to bring Kabila to that conclusion, then get ready...

Oh, I was about to forget. It seems that there is a military reshuffle in Kabila's army: something that might complicate the already useless military bureaucracy. It seems that to the existing military regions, we will have military zones depending on the three major cities, Kinshasa, Kisangani and Lubumbashi. To that effect, the rais has promoted a number of guys on his side. Would he be trying to lure them so that they do not factions inside his depleted army? Anyway he can always count on his newly acquired advisers as well as his usual foot soldiers the FDLR who might be of use to the UN brigade of rapid intervention.

QUICK MORNING UPDATE

Now we know why Tshibanda and Malu Malu persisted in asking an impossibility from M23 in Kampala this week. Kabila obstinate determination not to negotiate the peace meant only one thing, the only option he has been using since 2004: war. However it's a road he should not try treading because he gets lost in it. It does not matter whether he inflates his army by including in it FDLR, Mai Mai of all kinds, or Tanzanian and South African Mercenaries, his military option is meant to fail. No political problem can be solved only through war, even the American economic wars are failing because they do not solve politically the political problems they create. Just look at John Kerry blindness in the Middle-East, the Syrian issue or look at the Arab spring that Hillary Clinton boasted about so much: I wonder how proud she is of the situation of the Egyptian people today.

Here is what I got to know this morning: at 11 pm last night, FDLR attacked M23 position in Busanza, that's Rutshuru territory. They looted livestock there, about 100 cows from a peaceful population. There has been some casualties: the FDLR commandant who goes by the nickname of SOKI has died and 7 of his men.  The good thing for M23 in this episode is that they have been able to seize the weapons and ammunition left behind by these assailants. It seems that the coalition of FARDC, Mai Mai and FDLR are now launching more attacks around Goma starting from Kanyarucinya. I suppose that Makenga will be or has already ordered his forces to repeal the enemy.

What do we make of the fake diplomatic move in Kampala this week and the attacks this morning? I can only speculate making use of the declarations made by the French representative as you saw on the link I posted yesterday: France must have a deal with both Kabila and FDLR for their historical ties and their common unfinished business as we know. The declarations only are a veiled show off in terms of the support that both Kabila and FDLR enjoy on the part of not only the French government but the entire International Community. Which makes of the three a common front against the peace in DRC and in the Region. So fight on M23, as I often told Nkunda in the past, you could be the last bastion on the road to recovering the dignity of our people . 

UPDATE INSIDE AN UPDATE

I am told that MONUSCO's contingent based in Kanyarucinya has responded to the FDLR's attack on M23. The question is why did they do that? We know that officials from M23 have already congratulated them for this. But the question persists? We know that the M23 army' spokesman was the first to inform Monusco about the attack. Always in a bid to have them as witnesses of who provokes who, to make all  potential accusations from the international community and Kinshasa against M23 completely baseless. Two possible reasons: 1) The indians of Monusco know there is no winning against M23, besides, their mandate is still neutral; 2) The brigade of intervention has come in with a different mandate, which is to wage war, so Monusco has to keep its own mandate, continue its business (even mineral trafficking???), without antagonising M23 or allowing any sparks for war.  You tell me what you think made them stop FDLR attacks, when we know, on the other hand, that they are also their allies when it comes to please Kinshasa. Are any dynamics changing here?

VULTURES' INTERPRETATION !!!

It is so simple for mainstream media, social or otherwise, to saw confusion. But this like this reveals which interests are behind such assertions. 

RUMORS FROM KAMPALA

Kinshasa does not know how to do things quietly even when that is Kabila's intention! This is what seems to have happened. Kabila's top diplomat, not Tshibanda, but none other than Malu Malu has come and left Kampala in the space of few hours. I call him the top diplomat, but maybe I shouldn't since he was with Raymond Tshibanda, on paper the foreign affairs minister. So how shall consider Malu Malu the trusted man for the Rais. The indispensable head of the electoral body, the one who supposedly was coming to Kampala with the hummer to finish off the M23. For the congolese people, it should be important to understand why Tshibanda cannot negotiate the peace in Kivu, and it has to be Malu Malu, in the other life we will know. 

At the moment, let's try follow the sequence of events plus the rumor. Not long ago, the GoE Un report came out. When we thought we have finished dealing with that, a few Western media are still singing that one key data revealed was that M23 and FDLR are weakened militias, which Kinshasa and FARDC officers believed to the letter. You want the proof of that? They immediately attacked M23 so sure they'd defeat it in one go. Interesting move because the M23 is in full alert since November last year, there is no let up. Could FARDC really like suicide moves? No, they run back to hide at Monusco barracks near Monigi at outset of the Goma airport. This is what prompted Kinshasa' sick or fake diplomacy to go to Kampala. May be Kabila thought that such provocation from FARDC would bring a full assault by M23 onto Goma. But if this was the case, how could he send his emissaries to Kampala with the sole purpose of asking his M23 counter-part to dissolve its army? Is he really in a  position to demand that? Malu Malu remembers very well what happened with the "brassage" and "mixage" of sad memory. It is out of question to suggest, whether you are a diplomat, a Kabila top dog or whatever, that M23 army should dissolve itself, or accept to be redeployed elsewhere than the territory it controls and/or holds in sight.

So once again the UN experts have cheated the FARDC and Kabila's diplomats have shown their usually zero innovation in diplomatic ideas, leave alone workable solutions. May be the Western gurus have also failed Kabila because they cannot advise him to repeat failed proposals when they know that last week's "escarmouche" was stopped only because General Makenga, graciously called his guys back, since he is interested in a political solution to this political problem. There is one more fact showing that the UN report lied when it said that M23 can't even control their own territory. In that, actually the UN experts are just like Radio Okapi's journalists. Remember when they said that Makenga was dead or was in hospital in Kampala? That Lt Col Seco Mihigo was killed in Kalengera while he was in Rumangabo? That Col Kaina was dead when he is actually overseeing operations from Kibumba? To be more precise they are all in charge: from Butembo Lt Col Birinda is in Mabenga, from Ishasha Lt Col G. Musana is in Rutobogo, from Tongo, Lt Col Mugabo has blocked the enemy's way to Kalengera and Rumangabo, and at the "gate" of Goma, you have Col Mboneza, Makoma and Gipanga. Everyone is ready for anything be it from FARDC or from Tanzanian and South Africa Mercenaries. You can see that Kabila has reasons to fear for Goma, but he does not seem to want a political solution at all, since according to rumors Malu Malu came to Kampala to demand from M23 an impossibility. It would be nice to ask Kabila who has leverage between him and the guys who are in Kanyarucinya, Mutaho and Muja with Goma so close in sight, and the way to Sake as well.

You can read here more lies from a French representative at the UN: http://nanojv.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/araud-rwanda-prusse/. You will also remember that when Obama was around he promised not to interfere with internal politics of our countries, but warned foreign governments to leave the DRC in peace. Was he also speaking for South Africa and Tanzania, countries that he actually visited and had meetings with their heads of State, whom we know have sinister interests in DRC and are getting ready to wipe out our people, that's sheer double talk, isn't it? Let me go to class, we shall continue watching what happens next.

THE GUY REPLACING ROGER MEECE

Like Koko Swing, and the others, Roger Meece has to leave his position at the helm of MONUSCO in the DRC. Very difficult to know what he achieved. Maybe he's done the same thing that activists are saying of his replacement coming in from Iraq. Mr. Martin Kobler, a German diplomat with experience in the new frontiers of 21st imperialism: he was in Iraq as the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for that country. Prior to that, he was in Afganistan. He has among other things worked in the Balkan Task Force in 1997-1998. Those of you who follow world transformations will remember what was happening in that part of the world in those years, etc... enough to reveal the specialization of the man: chaos! Assistance of foreign power in conflict zone has become simply "perpetuating chaos". Just trace the diplomatic itinerary of this guy. 

What is Ban Ki Moon expecting to achieve in the DRC with this new appointment? One of the articles that pops up when you google Mr. Martin Kobler can tell you a bit about what to expect: http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/iran-world/13983-iraqis-hail-removal-of-un-s-martin-kobler.html. If what he was doing in Irak is to legitimize the government oppression imposed on the people, this is a guy who might be coming in to supervise the UN warmongering mission to be carried out by the brigade of intervention heavily made up of soldiers from no less warmongering Tanzania and South Africa. We have all the ingredients for an explosive cocktail meant to set fire on the specific area of the Great Lakes Region from the Tanganyika to the lake Albert. Why are African State watching this war machine being set in motion without denouncing it?

Is there no specific political agenda to develop our own people? Is the so called international community only interested in trying to organise another genocide under the guise of a UN mission? In the name of what or who? With which specific purpose, in the short or the long term? And in Kinshasa, it's small talk around national consultations? On what pray, tell us? Or is it that it's Kabila distracting the national opinion again. The failure of the CNS should be a good lesson, but does Kabila even know what mde it fail? In the meantime, prepare to receive another corrupt UN official, if we are to believe what is said about Martin Kobler, who is to be calling the shots with this sinister brigade of intervention. You can read also this article explaining whom he was working for in Iraq. Why is the DRC so stuck with corrupt UN officials? http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27751:uk-mps-demand-ban-ki-moon-sack-martin-kobler-after-bogus-presentation&catid=4:iran-general&Itemid=26

UN BRIN DE RECAP HISTORIQUE

Après 53 ans, si ce n'est que le M23 qui lutte pour la liberté, il faudra conclure que bon nombre de rd-congolais se rejouissent de croupir dans la misère et le leadership se sent confortable de transformer le pays en protectorat perpétuel. Mawa!

http://www.virunganews.com/content/view/2300/1/

Et le diagnostic de ce membre de l'UDPS est correct. Je ne suis jamais d'accord avec son parti, mais je crois que les trois points qu'il signale comme objectifs des concertations, nouveau slogan de Joseph Kabila, sont quand même précis. Il aurait fallu qu'il ajoute que quelqu'un a probablement payé Kabila pour le convaincre d'adopter ce langage. Qui est-il? On ne le saurait. S'il y avait un vrai journalisme d'investigation en RDC, nous le saurions un jour.

http://www.congoindependant.com/article.php?articleid=8103

Digital Congo qui publie le Potentiel se félicite du Cahier des Charges de Russ Feingold qui viendrait sauver la RDC des "griffes" du Rwanda. Ce cahier contiendrait-il une potion magique pour reveiller le congolais tapis dans son sempiternel espoir d'être libéré par les amérloques assoifés de leur capacité de controler tout le monde. C'est quand même triste que le jour de l'anniversaire de la soi-disante indépendance du pays, le journal du pouvoir clame avec emphase la soif d'être dominé par les nouveaux colonialistes, soif qui anime les congolais. Que peut faire Feingold qu'il n'a pas réussi à faire du temps de Koko Swing? Seulement une chose: forcer Kabila à négocier avec le M23. Il n'a pas, ni lui ni son pays, aucune autorité morale pour défendre les intérêts des génocidaires avant les intérêts des congolais.

http://www.digitalcongo.net/article/92992

WHEN UN EXPERT REPORTS ON DRC ARE LEAKED

When the UN decides to leak its GoE (group of experts) reports, you know it is making a move to sink the DRC into more trouble and, at the same time, create more jobs for themselves. Sinking the DRC into more trouble on the part of Western powers via UN, NGOs or hungry and ruthless corporatism is a long term process meant to dismantle the country. They work at it tirelessly, and then use the phony GoE reports to blame any local effort to free the country from their jaws. It is in this sinister logic that you need to read their accusations by which they insist for example that M23 is trying to create a state within a state. That's not M23 agenda, it's the vultures agenda.

What has prompted the new leaked report? Some are convinced that it is leaked just on time for UN meetings to push further for the UN Intervention Brigade starting its lethal mission in the Kivu. If you read some of the materials, you can see how the report actually is meant to prepare a terrain for a UN intervention because the whole documentation incriminates M23, the Ugandan and the Rwandan Governments. But going through the details you will have a hard time finding substance and or evidence of all and each allegations(http://www.innercitypress.com/DRCgoe0613annexicp.pdf). In fact the usual line of of the UN GoE does not change at all. You will find nothing new.

Reuters, which is the recipient of the leaks, is writing anti-M23, anti-Uganda, and anti-Rwanda headlines. And of course pro-FDLR, which is the same thing as MONUSCO. For example, an entire Reuters articles quotes the report extensively about Ntaganda escape. You'd think we'll find anything new. After saying how he escaped, the article insists that, without Ntaganda, M23 is a crippled outfit!!! But to reach that conclusion, it seems that the report has a confusion about how, for example Rwanda supported Ntaganda and Makenga against each other. So clear that the only thing that matters for the UN is to always accuse Rwanda in a perennial bid to avoid dealing with the DRC problems, and more so to avoid acknowledging M23 as a force to reckon with if the DRC is to be fixed, at least in its Eastern part. In the same vein of showing how weak M23 has become after Ntaganda, the report concludes that the communities have stopped supporting Makenga, so he is broke and has no more military personnel. Laughable!

Another article of Reuters on the same says that according to the GoE, military commanders in DRC and in Rwanda are fueling the violence in Eastern DRC. However, it omits to say that FARDC, together with FDLR are cooperating with Monusco in mining deals, while at the same time, they are working with the new Brigade commanders assisted by French Experts in Goma on how to use the M23 pretext to create ideal conditions for destabilizing Rwanda and Uganda.The GoE seems to suggest that though M23 is weakened, it is still a threat to Kinshasa. The problem is that rather than M23, it is the UN itself that poses a threat not only to Kinshasa, but also to the region. In fact, at the moment, M23 must prepare to defend itself, the people and the region against both the corrupt government in Kinshasa and the no less corrupt UN and its brigade, in Goma and New York. Actually I wonder whether this is not the time for the governments in the region to support M23 and defeat this double enemy. 

With this panorama in mind, now we know why last week, the accusation of recruiting children came out. The UN is convinced that M23 has no support locally, but this is simply blindness. They don't need to recruit children, they have young men joining them because the cause to fight for is ever clearer and clearer. It is easy to write phony reports from comfortable offices in New York or comfortable hotels in Goma, from where those pseudo experts are actually afraid to move. If they'd go meet Makenga or any of his officers, they'd see whom he has been recruiting. Anyway, at the moment they cannot provide any evidence of the children he recruited. However, he can show the children he freed. And by the way he is alive and kicking. Kabila knows it, that's why these last two days he seems to be retreating into a consultations mode. Who will believe him again after his cronies have snubbed Kampala? I told you before that whoever holds Goma on the line, holds the sway of the DRC peace process. Certainly, it is not the UN GoE.

JOSEPH KABILA'S WAR ON THE PEOPLE OF KIVU

President Barack Obama is in Africa, making one point forcefully: he wants African governments to promote gay rights, oh, the ever expanding spectrum of human rights, expanded by an immorally insane market that subversively is corrupting everything. We could write entire books about why Obama's policy is so keen in institutionalizing immorality, but one stands out: corrupt the youth of a nation, and you will control it for ever. We must resist this attack on our integrity.

However the most urgent attack to be resisted is the unending war Joseph Kabila is waging against the Kivu. The international community keep supporting the destruction this president has inflicted on a country devoid of a proper state and a proper nation. We know that this same international community is after the regime in Kigali because it has stopped them in their genocide tracks, there. So the attack is double: against the Kivu and the Great Lakes region, mainly Rwanda and Uganda.

If you think I am exaggerating, then check out the line up of battalions on the Eastern boarder from Goma, 1 battalion is ready in Muja. For those who don't know, Muja is only 5 km from Goma. The interesting data is that those are not FARDC battalions, they are FDLR battalions.  More FDLR are in Kalengera and Tongo: that's respectively 50 and more or less 70 km from Goma. Add to this, around 12,000 FARDC inside Goma and about 2100 UN brigade men, and you have a war on your hands. The Malawian still not decided to show up.War against the populations and against the neighboring countries, very specifically the town of Gisenyi.

Since things are in this state, you understand why MONUSCO is playing at distracting the opinion by spreading false rumors that M23 is recruiting children and has killed people in Jomba. Only people who don't know the country can believe that: how can M23 kill its own people? Jomba is their home. I myself saw children running after their cars chanting M23 oyeee, on the road to Jomba, very recently. Monusco is just looking for a pretext to distract people from the major attack Kabila and his allies are readying, at this very moment. If things go bad in a few days, you will know who started.

WE CANNOT BEAT THEM ON THEIR OWN TERMS

With globalism, the world stronger economies have imposed on us useless wars, sophisticated models of slavery, and we have let them do that to us. There is nothing as disheartening as seeing how Congolese expect their nation to be saved and built by anonymous foreign powers under the disguise of the name "International Community". This same international community tells us that its aim is democracy, but we know that theirs is a constant battle for markets, for resources, for our resources, denying us a future. As David Chiweza of Zimbabwe puts it: "we cannot beat them on their own rules". We have to find our own tactics, ever mindful of how much they have and can still hurt us. Only our determination can lead us to overcome so many forces, attacking the continent on so many fronts. While in the 60s, there was a revival that has been fueled by great minds of what in school we were taught as "littérature negro-africaine" with its proud figures such as Aimé Césaire following in the footsteps of W. Bughaert du Bois, today we have no such voices. We only have the voices of those who sing to the tune of the new colonialist gang. If anything, that is the reason why I do support what M23 is trying to do, even though I'd prefer that its protest does not involve having recourse to war. But is there any other choice when the war is being imposed by Joseph Kabila, the pawn in the game of Western sharks and vultures?

With all the negative press that M23 receives, it is difficult to know more about those who make it up but do not appear in the news. By that, one could mean all the foot soldiers keeping watch and getting ready to face the immediate ennemy in the form of FDLR, Kabila and Intenational community's protégés. I say this because FARDC are not true ennemies of M23, they were part of the same army. FARDC loyalist to Kabila prefer to endure his injustice and corruption while M23 fights both. There are more heros in and around M23 who do not make headlines. I mean the mothers of those young men and women who have chosen to take the struggle for freedom seriously and personally; their brothers and sisters who while missing them, struggle to support them, even though others might be afraid and secretely might want them back. I am interested in those mothers are as heroic as and more than their sons and daughters if one could count all it took the m to bring their children up and to make sure they grew up with sufficient love for the others that they could commit themselves to defending values that the DRC as a nation has lost from the time it ceased to be a nation through corrupt leadership. 

So let’s make room to talk about the women in and around M23. A couple of days ago, I saw an article on Fanette Rwagati, explaining what a combattant she is, working close to Gen. Makenga. http://congodrcnews.com/2013/06/24/major-fanette-rwagati-une-combattante-de-la-liberte/. 

I thought about Makenga who is known to his people and foes to be everything except corrupt and I couldn't help but wish that this Fanette Rwagati should be absolutely un-corrupt and un-corruptible. The closest collaborators of this general should be people of the old military style, men and women of honor and probity, above reproach. This is a tall order in an era where immorality and irresponsibility have become the norm of the day. If there is anything women must bring to M23 and to the cause of peace and development in the DRC it is the restoration of probity, hard work, sense of honor and dignity. If Fanette reads this, I'd like her to check herself and her sisters in and outside M23 jeshi on these values. If not, the cause could be compromised sooner or later.

Alongside with Fanette Rwagati, I'd have loved to see an article on Jeanne d'Arc Mihigo, who went too soon in that fatal accident of Hewa Bora in Kisangani. Jeanne d'Arc loved this cause and worked tirelessly for it. Above all she loved Bunia, her home, the way I love Mushaki may be! I met Jeanne d'Arc and shared with her the dream of peaceful Eastern DRC. We used to talk about the potential of creating and maintaining local manufacturing and processing plants to add value to export. She knew very well le Grand Nord, I know very well le Petit Nord. We worried about the financial strain of maintaining the Jeshi as long as the struggle lasted and we worried about what could happen if army officials got corrupt, which materialized when Ntaganda bitrayed Nkunda, etc... She soldiered on until her untimely death. 

I had not had the chance to meet other women around M23 such as Maitre Eugénie Mubake and Mama Zaituni. I don't know anything about the former, but about the latter, I know she is a mother of 9 children, has worked with General Nkunda in Bwiza, and could still be active in the immigration office at Bunagana. These and so many others we don't know are all champions of this great cause of freedom we are engaged in. There is no dictatorship that has survived the people's push for freedom, we keep our hopes and our heads high, for the future generations.