Comments on: Congolese children work, fight and die for our cell phones and diamonds http://sfbayview.com/2008/congolese-children-work-fight-and-die-for-our-cell-phones-and-diamonds/ Black liberation news and views Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:57:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Rubabaf http://sfbayview.com/2008/congolese-children-work-fight-and-die-for-our-cell-phones-and-diamonds/comment-page-1/#comment-648 Rubabaf Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:27:12 +0000 http://www.sfbayview.com/?p=600#comment-648 My friends of san francisco bay views, i would like to kindly request you to spare your little time and visit Rwanda, se how hundrends of thousands of people were sloughtred in just less than 100days and then tell me if u can underestimate the rwandan 1994 jenocide any more! plz never judge issues just from hearsay stories!! FDLR, is there in congo and are planning to come back to finish their plan! they want to kill all tutsis from where ever they are! that will never happen again!! you never talk of the roll of france in genocide and congo civil wars, why? fench government planed and financed genocide, do you know about that? in katanga, french and chines companies are mining, never Rwandan companie or the American companies neither yet nkunda's troups as u claim!! Plz, Plz!!!! My friends of san francisco bay views, i would like to kindly request you to spare your little time and visit Rwanda, se how hundrends of thousands of people were sloughtred in just less than 100days and then tell me if u can underestimate the rwandan 1994 jenocide any more! plz never judge issues just from hearsay stories!! FDLR, is there in congo and are planning to come back to finish their plan! they want to kill all tutsis from where ever they are! that will never happen again!! you never talk of the roll of france in genocide and congo civil wars, why? fench government planed and financed genocide, do you know about that? in katanga, french and chines companies are mining, never Rwandan companie or the American companies neither yet nkunda’s troups as u claim!!

Plz, Plz!!!!

]]> By: Ann Garrison http://sfbayview.com/2008/congolese-children-work-fight-and-die-for-our-cell-phones-and-diamonds/comment-page-1/#comment-180 Ann Garrison Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:28:00 +0000 http://www.sfbayview.com/?p=600#comment-180 Today I followed the news from Congo as the Rwandan Army fired weaponry across the Rwanda's border and Rwandan backed Congolese General Laurent Nkunda led his highly disciplined militia towards Goma, a town near that border, in Eastern Congo. The Congolese Army was on the run; UN peacekeepers were described as unable to stop the Rwandan surge, and thousands of Congolese fled Goma, a city in chaos. Many Congolese threw rocks at the UN peacekeepers for failing to protect them, and I couldn't quite tell why they thought the UN had failed them, for lack of will, inability, or collusion. This is a hugely complex situation, but three things need to be understood: 1) Rwanda is a U.S. client state. 2) The Rwandan Army and rebel, Rwandan-backed General Laurent Nkunda are not in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to protect its ethnic Tutsi minority. They are there to control Congolese mines and smuggle minerals back across the Congolese border. 3) The Rwandan client state, and Rwandan-backed General Laurent Nkunda have invaded Congo, controlled mines, and smuggled minerals into Rwanda for export for years, under cover of Nkunda's claim to be protecting the Tutsis, and the world has ignored this because of their memory of the much oversimplified story of the "Rwandan Genocide," as simply a Hutu slaughter of Tutsis. Though ethnic tensions have certainly been created or stirred up as all this tragedy has unfolded, this is not, most fundamentally, ethnic conflict. It is an imperial resource war which U.S.-backed Rwanda has waged on the hugely mineral-rich Congo, a.k.a., Congo-Kinshasa, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Today I followed the news from Congo as the Rwandan Army fired weaponry across the Rwanda’s border and Rwandan backed Congolese General Laurent Nkunda led his highly disciplined militia towards Goma, a town near that border, in Eastern Congo. The Congolese Army was on the run; UN peacekeepers were described as unable to stop the Rwandan surge, and thousands of Congolese fled Goma, a city in chaos. Many Congolese threw rocks at the UN peacekeepers for failing to protect them, and I couldn’t quite tell why they thought the UN had failed them, for lack of will, inability, or collusion.

This is a hugely complex situation, but three things need to be understood:

1) Rwanda is a U.S. client state.
2) The Rwandan Army and rebel, Rwandan-backed General Laurent Nkunda
are not in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to protect its ethnic Tutsi minority. They are there to control Congolese mines and smuggle minerals back across the Congolese border.
3) The Rwandan client state, and Rwandan-backed General Laurent Nkunda have invaded Congo, controlled mines, and smuggled minerals into Rwanda for export for years, under cover of Nkunda’s claim to be protecting the Tutsis, and the world has ignored this because of their memory of the much oversimplified story of the “Rwandan Genocide,” as simply a Hutu slaughter of Tutsis. Though ethnic tensions have certainly been created or stirred up as all this tragedy has unfolded, this is not, most fundamentally, ethnic conflict. It is an imperial resource war which U.S.-backed Rwanda has waged on the hugely mineral-rich Congo, a.k.a., Congo-Kinshasa, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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