Rwandan Leader Explains Congo Invasion
Rwandan leader explains invasion (United Press International)
Rwanda’s president has said a military action in the Democratic Republic of Congo will target Hutu rebels and not Congolese forces, the BBC reported Thursday. In a letter to Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo, who chairs the African Union, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said he expected his troops to finish their mission in two weeks.
U.N. observers Wednesday reported seeing 100 Rwandan soldiers inside the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Congolese government said 6,000 Rwandan troops had crossed the border and attacked villages. Thousands of civilians have been fleeing fighting in the area. Congolese authorities say they will send more than 6,000 troops to the border area within the next two weeks.
Rwanda has consistently warned that it is prepared to take military action because of the threat it says is posed by Hutu rebels who took part in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Going to war without France’s approval will certainly cause an uproar.
The phrase “Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo” never fails to remind me of the famous Will Farrell SNL skit of the second presidential debate in 2000.
Here’s an MP3 file of the Debate One skit from Political Humor.com.
I read Howard French’s “A Continent for the Taking” not long ago and his discussion of Rwanda’s role in the fall of Mobuto and rise of Laurent Kabila was an eye opener. Rwanda has been given carte blanche by the US and Europeans to do whatever it likes in the Congo as atonement over their inaction in the 94 genocide. This latest incursion by Kagame is nothing more than a power grab to stake out more economic claims to Congo’s resources given the weakness of the current Kinshasa regime.
I think that MP3 is the one of the first debate skit, not the second.