Letter to the Members of the UN Security Council in New York,

Letter to the Members of the UN Security Council in New York,

Copies to:

• Alan Doss, Special Representative of the Secretary General in the RDC,
  
• Ms. Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive, Oxfam, Great Britain,
  
• Amnesty International, GB
  
• Human Rights Watch in New York
  
• President of European Commission
  
• The Advocacy Project in Washington, DC
  
• The Friends of the Congo in Washington, DC
  
• The Congo Global Action in Washington, DC
  
• The Ambassador of the RDC in Washington, DC
  
• The Permanent Representative of the DRC at the UN in New York,
  
• The Shirika la Kivu in Ottawa, Canada
  
• The Offices of the Kings (Mwami) of the Vira, Fuliiru, Bembe and Lega in the RDC
  

 

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The United Nations and Joseph Kabila, illegally, endorsed Minembwe.

 

This month of September 2008, the indigenous tribes of Vira and Fuliiru in the territory of Uvira, the Bembe in the territory of Fizi, and Lega in the territory of Mwenga will not again enjoy the rights to their lands, to their farms and will not again send their children to the schools of their choice on the lands of their own ancestors. Ten years ago, this month of September, the Rwandan movement, alias Rally of Congolese for Democracy ( Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie – RCD) decided to occupy some of the lands that belong to the indigenous tribes of Babembe, BaVira-Fuliiru and BaLega in the mountains and high plateaus of Fizi, Uvira and Mwenga, respectively, and hand them over to the Tutsi known as Banyarwanda. Banyarwanda is a term reserved to the population that migrated from the land that comprise the Republic of Rwanda today to the present Congo. The Banyarwanda speak the Kinyarwanda, a bantou langague spoken in Rwanda, in Congo, in Burundi and in Uganda. Though the term Banyarwanda is applied to both the Hutu and the Tutsi, the reality is that only the Tutsi settled in the South-Kivu province where are located the high plateaus of mountains Mitumba.

 

Though the history of the Great Lakes region supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR A/5211/Rev.1, New York 1962 and A/5511/Rev.1/Add.1) show that 60,000 Tutsi from Rwanda crossed into the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (RDC), the United Nations Commission for the Human Rights produced, since 1995, documents that concluded that all the Tutsi living in the RDC were "Banyamulenge". Without defining the term "banyamulenge" and how it came to be, the UN special envoy to Zaire in 1995, the Chilean Roberto Garreton, concluded in his report that all the Tutsi living in the Kivu region migrated from Rwanda around 1797.Before and after the 1996's war, called the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of The Congo/Zaire (AFDL), many other documents, produced by the United Nations, such as these: E/CN.4/1995/67, paras. 87 to 89; E/CN.4/1996/66, paras. 33 to 37 and 84 and 85; E/CN.4/1997/6, paras. 111 to 138 and 223; /CN.4/1997/6/Add.1, paras. 26 to 29; paras. 98 to 102 and 126 ©, came to this conclusion:"the Tutsi of Rwanda origin who had been living in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo for generations".

 

The people of the DRC do not need to be reminded of whom the Tutsi are or when they crossed the Kivu Lake or the Ruzizi River into the present Congo. There exist several studies and academic papers on the subject. The people of the DRC care about what the Tutsi have done with their lands and other ancestral resources that they destroy daily and expropriated when the first arrived. The UN's Declaration of Human Rights, the Laws and Constitutions of the RDC and other international convention's agreements, all recognize the right to every nation to organized itself, and the right to its sovereignty. The recent United Nations' Declaration of The Rights of the Indigenous People also recognized that local tribes have the same rights as any other person, and that they should be protected and respected as well. The United Nations Special Rapporteur (Martinez-Cobo,1984) defined the Indigenous peoples as "those which having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sector of societies now prevailing in those territories, or part of them. They are determined to preserve, develop, and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions an legal system" (University of Minnesota Human rights Center, 2003). Unfortunately for the indigenous of the zones of Uvira, Fizi and Mwenga, these rights seem not to exist for the Tutsi, the government of Joseph Kabila and for the united Nations themselves.

 

Since the creation of the "Territory of Minembwe" by the RCD, a rebel and foreign sponsored movement, on September 2^nd 1999 in Goma, , we have seen the United Nations, through its United Nation Mission in the Congo (Monuc) encourage the development and the construction of a local airport in the high plateau; we have seen even the UN Secretary's envoy, Mr. Allan Doss, travel into the high plateaus to meet with the representatives of the Tutsi and "Federalist and republican Forces" (Forces Republicaines Fédéralistes- FPF), without following the proper procedure in a sovereign country (for example meeting first the local commissioner and other local administrative authorizes of Fizi territory in which the true minembwe village is located? In his address to the reporters in Bukavu, after his vist into theplateaus between 13 and 15 august this year, Mr. Doss said: "Then I met with military and civilian authorities in Minembwe and Uvira. Minembwe gave me a good idea of the realities on the ground; it is not the first time that I'am in South Kivu but it's my first visit to the high plateaus" (Jacqueline Chenard, Monuc, 18 August 2008) . What are these "realities on the ground"?

 

The indigenous tribes of Fizi, Uvira and Mwenda have said again and again that The Tutsi have the right to live in the Congo as the government wishes and according to the law. But until the government does so, they have no right to occupy the lands of other people because the Constitution of the country recognized the customs, traditions and ancestral lands of the indigenous. Because the people of Fizi, Uvira and Mwenga are peaceful people, because they know how difficult it was when they first received the Tutsi into their territory fleeing persecution in their own kingdoms, East of the Kivu Lake and Ruzizi River, they lived in harmony with the Tutsi as any other human being. But they refuse to be denied their own rights to what is rightfully theirs. The International Community has the obligation to help the indigenous of this part of the RDC to regain their Rights on their lands, on their farms and on their traditional resources. For this reasons, here are the facts or the "realities on the ground" to consider, followed by our recommandations;

• The government of the Congo does not recognize any territory of Minembwe. In 2007, the Interior minister of the DRC, Mr. Denis Kalume Numbi, confirmed that there was no such a territory of Minembwe in the country. Minembwe is a village in the territory of Fizi. According to the Ordonnance-Loi No. 82-006 of February 25^th 1982. with this law of 1982, the province of South Kivu has only eight Territories which are the Territory of Fizi, Mwenga, Uvira, Walungu, Kabare, Idjwi, Kalehe and Shabunda.When The RCD's arrêté No. 001/MJ/ROUTE/MB/1999 created the Minembwe territory, it violated the law of 1982 and at the same time cut off the groupements (local subdivisions) of Basimukindje in the chiefdom (chefferie) of Mutambala, of Basimunyaka-South in the chiefdom of Lulenge and in the chiefdom of Tanganyika for the Territory of Fizi; took all the groupement of Bijombo in the chiefdom of Bavira and other parts of the chiefdom of Bafuliiru in the Territory of the Uvira and ¾ of the chiefdom of Itombwe in the Territory of Mwenga. Apart from these eight territories in Soth Kivu, there exist 145 territories in the whole country. Minembwe is not one of them;
  
• When the RCD enacted another arrêté No. 059/ADM-TER-MPJSL/2000 of October 27^th to recognize the 35 groupements in the so called Minembwe territory, it was violating the constitution of the DRC.
  
• Many of the 60,000 Tutsi refugees who came to Congo after the Rwanda 1959's Revolution disappeared from the records of the UNHCR. The deputy UNHCR commissioner , the Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, testified after his African tour that 20,000 Tutsi refugee disappeared during the period of 1663 and 1996, exactly when the Rebellion of 1996 started. Not only the United Nations lost Mr. F. Preziosi, the UNHCR's representative in the Congo and his friend M.J. Plicque the The Labor International Bureau (Bureau International du Travail- BIT), but also the members of the UN, the UNHCR, the Red Cross and the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief spent and lost $355,000 in 1993, $330,500 in 1964 and $78,000 in 1965 on these refugees. Among these refugees in the Kivu, many were instanlled in Mulenge, Lemera, Katobo and Kalonge where one of the United nations's representative Mr. Preziozi lost his life. No one knows where are these refugees, because every Tutsi deny that they ever existed. Even the UN Special envoy to Zaïre in 1995, Roberto Garreton, denied this truth in his 1996 report. How would you imagine the money($ 28,000 to be precise) the Nations around the world contributed to build a school in Katobwe in the chiefdom of Bafuliiru in which 100 places were "allocated for the children of the Tutsi refugees"?. We are not saying this. Aga Khan said it in 1964 (UNHCR/A/5511/Rev.Ad.1)
  
• The Lemera's Accords signed in Lemera in October in the presence of Joseph Kabila, the present president of the DRC and its Rwanda mentors, the AFDL was signing the occupation of the eastern part of the Kivu region by the Tutsi population. There is no secret to that because Joseph Kabila knows about this contract when he was deputy chief of staff of the Congo Armed forces, under the control of James Kabarebe, his boss from Rwanda;
  
• The territory of Fizi alone, to take this one, has four chiefdoms and sub-divisions as follow: the chiefdom of Lulenge with five groupements of Basimimbi, Basimunyaka-South, Basikasinge, Basombe and BaObekulu; the chiefdom of Mutambala with Basimukudje, Balala-South, Basimukuma-South, Batombwe and Babwari; the chiefdom of Ngandja with the groupements of Basikalangwa, Basikasilu and Babungwe-South; and the chiefdom of Tanganyika with groupements Babungwe –North, Balala-North, Basimunyaka-North, Basilocha and Basimukuma –North. Where do you think this minembwe territory will fit in these Babembe villages and localities?
  
• President Joseph Kabila is aware that Minembwe is part of the "Lemera accords" at which he and his late father participated and that cost his life. He Is selfich enough that he cannot make it possible for Minembwe to be recognized and violate the constitution of a country he is running. If the support to the Amani Programme is not getting much attention from the Tutsi representated by the the Federalists and Republicans Forces of Ruhimbika and the National Congres for the People's Defense (CNDP) of Laurent Nkundabatware whom the United Nations know well his crimes against humanity and crimes of war, it is because they will not fully participate until Joseph Kabila agree to the Lemera accords.
  
• The government of the DRC sent several officials in the high plateaus to meet with the above representatives. In 2004, the RCD appointed many officials to overseer this "famous territory of Minembwe" among them Muragizi bin Masonga and Ngongo Kapapnga and Abandelwa Nyama. While Muragizi was named the chief commissioner (administrateur), the other two were his deputies. In parallel, the RCD named Musasilwa Lulindi as Fizi commissioner. These nominations show that there exist two territories in one: Fizi and Minembwe.
  
• Just last month, the department of education of the RDC (www.eduqepsp.org) published the results of Examens d'État 2008. For the record, the Minembwejournal blog whose"Hakim" is the editor, published a short list of schools of the "territory of Minembwe" for his fellow Tutsi. Here is the list of the "Mulenge" (another term used for Minembwe) territory: institute Minembwe, Nyamibungu, Bikuba, Furaha Kabara, Rurambo, Bijombo, Wanainchi, Madegu, Mulenge, Ilundu, Tangazo, Mikenge, Ndegu, Lugezi, Mugorore, Makutano, Mucho, Kashenyi, Kidote and Kigwena. In total, twenty schools in Minembwe. Geographycally, it is impossible for a village (if we consider Minembwe to be a village) to contain twenty secondary schools.
  
• In 1998, the king or Mwami of the chiefdom of Itombwe in the territory of Mwenga was assassinated by the Tutsi rebels (Ilutelo Mbobochi, Les conflits ethniques et leur impact dans les territoire de Fizi au Sud-Kivu, 1998). Today many parts of this chiefdom are controlled by the Tutsi;
  
• In 2004, just after the Congolese Inter Dialogue in Sun city (South Africa), the RCD through its arête No. 059/ADM-TER-MPJSL/2000 enacted and created 35 groupements in the territory of Minembwe. The appointees in these new sub-divisions are not all dead. They can still testify.
  

There is no mistake that in the eyes of the Tutsi, the territory of Minembwe exist. They know they do not need the approval of Kabila or any government whatsoever. The creation of this territory by the RCD in 1999 was not an accident because it was already discussed in 1965 in Burundi (Verhaegen B. Du Congo 1964 au Zaïre 1997. Similitudes et Divergences, Anvers, February 1997, p. 5). It has been ten years since the creation of this unlawful territory. Since the government has never taken any action against it, we assume that it endorsed it. It is normal that the United Nations and the Monuc are moving from and to the high plateaus because it is "unofficially" recognized by the Congolese people but officially recognized by the international community, a move the Tutsi are comfortable with.

But because the "Friends South Kivu/USA" and the indigenous of Fizi, Uvira and Mwenga are commited to peace and security in the whole country and are afraid that the violation of their fundamental rights may escalade and lead to other massacres in the future, we recommend that:

1. The Programme Amani be suspended until other conditions are met. These conditions are parts of the rest of the recommandations;
   
2. The government of Joseph Kabila and Antoine Gizenga declare officially unconstitutional and cancel the territory of Minembwe because the RCd had not authority to create a territory inside a sovereign country;
   
3. The United Nations' Security Council appoints and sends an Special Team of Lawyers, Scholars and Human Rights Organizations on the ground in the Fizi, Uvira and Mwenga to investigate on the following issues: the frontiers or boundaries of all the chiefdoms that existed in these three zones before 1999, review the decree of 1891, 1908, 1910 and 1933. These decrees statute on the traditional authorities and chiefdoms before and during the colonization. The team will also find out what the constitution of the DRC say about the chiefdoms and customs in the country.
   
4. A census be done in these three territories of Fizi, Mwenga and Uvira beginning in the 1900s. If the Tutsi claim that they are "indigenous" of the Congo, they must be in the censuses that were conducted in each chiefdom as it is custom. Some of the archives exist. These censuses were conducted on basis of families, clans, tribes and hills. It was not based on racism or tribalism but that's how a traditional leader knew his population or subjects.
   
5. A general census be done in the entire country because the DRC has not done a single census since 1985. It is not possible for a country to have no illegal for twenty years of anarchy, corruption and internal and external conflicts. For the census to be fare, there must be a 60 days truce between the parties engaged in the Amani Programme and the eastern borders of the DRC closed.
   
6. President Joseph Kabila appoints an acting military commandant in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu in replacement of the ad interim General Patrick Masunzu. Since the eviction of generals Nabyola and Mbuza Mabe who were neutral in the matter regarding the security of the province of South Kivu, Joseph Kabila has refused to appoint a new commandant. He, instead, appointed general Masunzu, a Tutsi to control the province. It is not clear why general Masungu now when the Nkundabatware in the Noth kivu and the FRF in the high plateaus, both fighting for the rights of the Tutsi, refuse to fully participate in the peace process.
   
7. All the lands appropriated by the RCD and the Tutsi and traditional authorities overthrown re stated in their positions
   
8. The Supreme Court of Justice of the DRC see into the matter
   

   
    

 

In the name of the indigenous of Fizi, Uvira and Mwenga, I thank you for the support of the United Nations and the willingness to help the DRC achieve the development of its future generations.

 

For the "Friend of South Kivu/USA"

John Kapapi

Maryland USA