Links to Rwanda fuel discrimination

The notorious rebel group M23 is wreaking havoc in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, taking the two largest cities in the region in a mortal uprising that has forced hundreds of thousands to flee from their homes.

The center of your campaign is the statement that ethnic tutsis living in DR Congo are being persecuted.

Excavating in the state of Tutsis in Dr Congo, and how it relates to the M23 uprising, is a complex and sensitive matter that goes to the heart of who is considered Congolese.

To begin with, many world authorities argue that in their alleged fight against discrimination, the rebels have committed unjustifiable atrocities. He A and us, for example, we have sanctioned the leaders m23 About accusations of war crimes, such as sexual violence and the murder of civilians.

Secondly, some regional analysts say that, instead of seeking to defend the Tutsis, the M23, and Rwanda, which supports the rebel group, it is mainly looking to exploit the vast mineral wealth of Dr. Eastern Congo.

It is also worth noting that it is believed that there are hundreds of thousands of tutsis in Dr Congo, there is no official estimate, and many do not support the actions that are carried out in their name.

That said, experts and organizations such as the UN have documented decades of discrimination against Congolese tutsis and Banyamulenge, a Tutsi subgroup concentrated in the province of southern Kivu.

This covers from ethnic murders, to discrimination in the workplace, to hate speech by politicians.

At the root of this discrimination, the Association of Tutsis with neighboring Rwand the violent rebellions backed by Rwanda against governments. Dr. Congo.

The perception that Congolese tutsis are “foreigners” can have mortal consequences.

Bukuru Muhizi, researcher and economist of the Mwenga territory in southern Kivu, told the BBC that the people of several generations of his family had been killed due to their identities of Banyamulge and Tutsi.

He said that in the last six years, his Congolese and combatant soldiers of the militia killed his open uncle and the son of uncle grandfather. The Congolese armed forces have not responded to the request for comments of the BBC on this accusation.

Muhizi said his family has lived in the current Dr Congo for centuries and that “the world wanted to know” that his community was experiencing what he called a “silent genocide.”

Muragwa Cheez Welcome, a Banyamulenge activist, said he was once attacked by airport staff in the city of Bukavu.

“They stopped me, they told me that it seemed (president of Rwanda) Kagame and made me pay around $ 150 (£ 120) to save myself from being imprisoned,” he told the BBC, and added that he supports the cause of M23.

Before colonization, part of the territory that is now Dr Congo was subject to the Rwanda monarchy, which is Tutsi. For a long time he had been fighting expansionist wars, extending the kingdom to include more and more in East Africa.

Tutsis, Hutus and other ethnic groups lived in the Rwanda Kingdom and had done so since at least the nineteenth century. But when the colonial powers caused arbitrary borders in Africa, the kingdom was divided between the current DR Congo and Rwanda.

Subsequently, other tutsis have migrated to DR Congo in waves. In the mid -twentieth century, the Belgian colonialists brought the workers of their plantations to the current Rwanda workers, while others came for their own life in search of a better life.

Meanwhile, Tutsi refugees began to reach Dr. Congo, fleeing waves of ethnic violence in Rwanda and Burundi. Both countries have long been dominated by their Tutsi minorities, which leads to tensions with most Hutu.

It is believed that many more arrived in 1994 during the Rwanda genocide, in which some 800,000 people, mostly tutsis, were sacrificed. But when a government led by Tutsi took power and ended the massacres, some returned, especially after some of those responsible for the genocide fled to Dr. Congo.

As the Tutsi and Banyamulge communities of Dr. Congo grew, the Congolese authorities “alternately empowered and undermined them,” Jason K Stearns, an analyst from Dr. Congo, wrote in his book the war that does not say his name.

In the early 1970s, then President Mobutu Sese Seko granted citizens to anyone who has originated in Rwanda or Burundi, provided they were present in the Congolese territory before 1960.

But in 1981, Parliament sent these rights and many tutsis, Banyamulenge and people from other minority groups “derived from their nationality and were apatrides”, a Postponement noted.

In the 1990s, Tutsis and Banyamulenge were subject to multiple massacres in Dr. Congo. For example, a UN report says that the Congolese army helped armed groups to kill almost 300 civilians from Banyamulenge in the city of Baraka in 1996.

He also establishes that “many” Tutsis and Banyamulenge lost their jobs and suffered discrimination and threats.

Today, the Constitution considers that the Tutsi and Banyamulenge groups are Congolese and some people from these communities occupy military and government positions. In fact, the Pacifique Masunzu of the Lieutenant General, the man who leads the fight against M23 as a commander of a key area in eastern Dr Congo, is from the Banyamulenge community.

But there is still significant evidence of discrimination. In 2024, experts who work for the UN said that in southern Kivu, Banyamulenge is commonly considered harmful to its neighboring communities. This speech encourages “hate, discrimination, hostility and violence,” experts said.

There have also been recent TUTSI reports and Banyamulenge soldiers in the murdered Congolese army. According Human Rights ClockA mafia killed a military officer from Banyameng in 2023 “in an apparent case of ethnic hate.”

Politicians, past and present, have also pressed discriminatory feeling.

Anti-Tutsi feelings seem to increase during M23 rebellions, they say experts in Dr. Congo such as Mr. Stearns.

He told the BBC that he had seen publications of “quite scary” social networks in recent weeks: “A phenomenon of people in other parts of the country that express doubts about a certain person, often an army officer or police officers .. .

Although some Congolese tutsis can support the current survey of the M23, Stearns says that “many of them feel uncomfortable with the consequences that this will have for them as a community, because once again, this means that they will be portrayed as rebels trying.”

The Congolese government has somehow recognizing discrimination against tutsis. For example, earlier this year, President Félix Tshisekedi said he had “had enough” of anti-Banyameng speech and claimed that such comments gave Rwanda the pretext to invade Dr. Congo.

However, the authorities have also made accusations of generalized persecution. The government spokesman, Patrick Mujah, told the BBC: “We have 450 tribes and there is conflict between some of them in many parts of the country … the position of the government is against any type of discrimination or hate speech against each community “.

However, welcome, on the other hand, he told the BBC that “strongly” he believes that his ethnic group is discriminated against, giving the example that his sister was fired after they told him that “it looked like a spy Rwanda.”

This despite the fact that his family lives in the same area for centuries.

“Banyamulenge has been here since Congo was Congo!” He said, exasperated.

Additional reports from Emery Makumeno in Kinshasa