“Stage set for genocide”, Banyamulenge warn

In a message to the UN Secretary-General, the Banyamulenge organisation Forces Républicaines et Fédéralistes (FRF) warned that the stage was set for a “genocide” of the Banyamulenge. A copy of the message, received by IRIN on Friday, said the Banyamulenge had been “gratuitously used as a tool” by Rwanda and “dehumanised” by DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila. The war in DRC could not be resolved for three reasons: the “dictatorial methods” of the Kinshasa regime which supplied the armed militias to keep itself in power; the “foreign occupation” of the country and the “manipulated rebellion which plays on local conflicts to justify its presence; the presence of armed militias in the Kivus which “teach the ideology of genocide” to various ethnic groups.

The message appealed to the international community to “stop the large-scale violation of human rights in eastern DRC”. The FRF called on Kofi Annan to appoint a special envoy for the Kivus and to help organise a round-table conference of the different ethnic groups in Kivu.