Annual message from
Héritiers de la Justice |
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Héritiers de la Justice |
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Cher partenaire,
En signe de la reprise normale et régulière des ses activités de reportage sur les détails des atrocités
et abus qui se commettent contre les populations rurales du Sud-Kivu, le Site Internet de Héritiers de
la Justice vous adresse en l’occasion du nouveau siècle, marqué dans la zone de Mwenga par un
enterrement des personnes vivantes par les forces du
RCD, le message suivant : (version anglaise)
IT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE IN A DIFFERENT WAY AND PEOPLE’S LIVES COULD HAVE BEEN
SPARED: Message of the end of the 20th century from “Heritiers de la
Justice”.
Right from the start, it appears that all the international politics relating to the Congolese
people have resulted in causing suffering, while the aimed objectives could have been reached in a
different way and people's lives could have been spared.
The Congolese people appear never to have been at the centre of any compassion. As Edmund Morel shows in his
famous book entitled "Red rubber…" , the early years of colonialism (1885-1908) were characterised by the
unprecedented slaughter of more than 8 million people by Leopold II's plunder of the Congo. The
International Association in the Congo, representing international interest involved in the Congo at that
time, failed to stop the killing.
Following independence in the 1960s, a wave of rebellions, obviously masterminded again by
international politics, erupted, claiming the lives of more than half a million Congolese people in less than
eight years. (Verhaeghen, 1969). Among the victims of these cruel and uncaring international policies was
Emery Patrice Lumumba, brutally murdered and whose
body's whereabouts remains one of the biggest mysteries of Congolese history.
Mobutu took power in November 1965 promising to the long traumatised Congolese people hope, dignity and
prosperity, which unfortunately never came. Very early Mobutu became a cornerstone chosen under the same
international politics, for which the Congolese people have always meant less if anything at
all, fighting the expansion of communism in Africa.(see Marek in http://www.marekinc.com). Regardless of mass
murder, practice of torture, extra-judicial executions, failure to provide his people with basic needs
(clothing, food, and shelter), Mobutu was maintained to power for 32 years. He continued to be favoured by
the twin institutions of the Bretonwoods, namely the
IMF and the World Bank, which provided him with "loans" that always ended in his own bank accounts,
while hundreds of thousands of people perished for lack of medicine and food.
In the early 1990s, Mobutu was diagnosed with prostate cancer. By the end of the first half of the 1990s, his
doctors had leaked a report revealing that his days were numbered. Far from being cynical, to the over 50
million Congolese people languishing in extreme
poverty and brutality, Mobutu's death would have come as a liberation, a beginning of a new era and a hope
for that long-awaited smile. This unfortunately was not to be the case, because in July 1994 a
neighbouring brutal Rwandese government had murdered more than half a million of its people without the
international community doing anything.
Assuring security to the survivors of the of the Rwandese genocide had became the only way the
international politics, which had started feeling guilty for not having prevented what happened in
Rwanda in 1994, could try to repent. And for doing so, the Hutu militias, which are well known for their
murderous attacks on innocent civilians inside Rwanda
and whose bases were said to be located inside Congo, had to be hunted down. However, as African
says, when elephants are battling, the vegetation and fragile parts of the forest always pay the highest
price. The poor Congolese people are again paying the price of international politics with the guilty conscience
about what happened in Rwanda. More than 6,000 have lost their lives so far (see the latest report of the
UN Specail Rapporteur, Mr. Garreton) and alleviating the suffering of the civilians of the eastern parts of
the Congo looks not likely to be given much attention as long as one single Hutu militia is said to exist on
Congolese soil. Our web site continues to stand by the intentionally forgotten peoples of the Congolese
villages, thousands are murdered every week. Thanks to the information technology we continue to publicise
the countless reports of decapitated people, women raped before being brutally killed, babies snatched
and the millions of people now in their 26th month of homelessness (refugees and internally displaced) (see
various lists posted on our Internet Site http://members.tripod.com/heritiersjus or
http://www.heritiers.org )
Some visitors to our site have told us that the reporting is not good enough. We totally agree with
that view and believe that more is required than the counting of dead bodies and descriptions of the way
people are being murdered. But at least we are trying to break the conspiracy of silence that is intended
over the murder of civilian people paying the price of international politics in the Great Lakes Region.
HERITIERS DE LA JUSTICE has always sympathised with the victims of the Rwandese genocide of 1994. It also
believes those responsible for these murders should be brought to justice. However, HERITIERS DE LA JUSTICE,
does not believe that the achievement of these goals is incompatible with the preservation of innocent
lives in Congo. We believe both the security of the survivors of the Genocide of 1994 and the reign of
peace in the eastern part of the Congo can be achieved by non-violent means.
This is not to say that with this annual message, HERITIERS DE LA JUSTICE is calling for the
identification of those who are to blame in the Congolese conflict?
Instead, we are addressing this message to everyone who acknowledges having taken or
is taking part in the design, adoption, authorisation, or in any way, of any of the policies outlined above,
which continue to claim countless lives of innocent people. For all of them, the message is that IT IS
NEVER LATE TO CHANGE OR TO DO BETTER. Congolese people are crying for help. They are desperately calling for
an end to their endless suffering.
HERITIERS DE LA JUSTICE believes all policies consisting of building upon people’ suffering for
whatever international purpose are wrong and evil.
HERITIERS DE LS JUSTICE believes that Leopold II could have put his hand on Congolese resources without
having to murder millions of people. The same could have been done by Mobutu without having to sacrifice
so many innocent people. And the security of the neighbouring countries to Congo can be achieved
without having to massacre people, raping and killing women or plunging the region into an vicious cycle of
violence.
HERITIERS DE LA JUSTICE believes that the current passing into a new century is a time for everyone to
think about the far reaching effects of their acts.
For all, a happy New Century.
Héritiers de la Justice
Programme of International Campaign. |
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