Excellent site.

Had it not been for a guy named Alex Linder, I would never have heard of Nkunda or your article.

Thanks.

Looking for good guys and bad guys in the whole Tutsi-Hutu narrative is a futile effort. Kagame is as totalitarian as Habyarimana was. I mean totalitarian in its textbook sense, with a) maximum power centralization, b) massive indoctrination, c) preventive repression. Totalitarianism is the Rwandan political culture since 19th century at least. Funnily, Rwanda was considered an “african success story” by the West both under Kagame and Habyarimana; both have been Western pets.

All Rwandans are well-organized – when it comes to killing as well, – both Hutu and Tutsi. As far as the body count is concerned, the hutu really leaped ahead during the genocide, but the tutsi caught up with them in Congo in 1996-2000. It’s difficult to know the exact figures; statistics are not reliable in this part of the world, if you know what I mean.

And how the genocide came about to happen is quite a dark story actually. Otherwise Kagame and the French would not be hating each other so much.

Really, the story of tutsi self-defence has been used and abused since 1994. It has been employed to justify anything that Kagame and his underdogs were doing.

The Americans have now turned against Nkunda not because this ‘general’ is of any importance on his own. The fact is that the outcry from the Congolese as to what the Rwandan Government has done to their country has become too much to ignore. The message is therefore for Kagame: pal, we really like you and your lovely little fascist country, but you can’t play the “poor tutsi / western guilt” game forever.

The narrative on Rwanda is analogous to WW2 history starting with the genocidal bombings of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, and ignoring the crimes committed before that by the Axis powers, and in doing so arguably denying the Holocaust, which is pretty much what Gary did.

If Gary knew what really happened, which largely contradicts what he’s written, then he lied. I don’t believe he did know, which for a self proclaimed war nerd may actually be worse. Gary got his info somewhere. Wherever that was, they were lies and deceptions.

I have checked out the comment and the link to the Taylor site…

While the history is many layered I still find it hard to see who isn’t interpreting the situation in their preferred way. Accusing anyone of lying seems too extreme. At best there are two tribes of homicidal maniacs who kill and rape each other whenever one has the upper hand. At this moment the evidence points to the Hutus being the worst offenders. After this point there seems to be a successful general with a few men who is making an impact. Whether it is for personal gain, political backers or some other reason it is impossible to say right now…

What lies and what deception? Your post is useless without arguments. Data first please, when, where, who and what corroborating sources?

This intellectual dishonesty is bad enough in itself, but when it’s used to proclaim a piece of murdeing scum, justifying his crimes on the basis of a self-defence revenge fantasy, totally ignoring historical context and the reality of the rape and pillage of the Congo by the Tutsis, makes Gary no better than his arch-nemesis Victor Davis Hanson.

Bono is an ignorant scumbag whose self-promoting meddling is undoubtedly doing harm to Africa. In ignoring the truth of the situation in central Africa and glorifying mass murderers, is the war nerd any better?

The UN was not in Kisangani at the time (and I have friends and colleagues who were) and as for Kiwanja–no one has charged the UN with the massacre (as for MONUC and its effectiveness–well that is another topic altogether). I take ALL reporting with a huge grain of salt.

Have you forgotten about the 5 million + Congolese who have died as a result of the seemingly never-ending conflict in the Kivus…and let us not forget the assassination of the Presidents of Burundi and Rwanda and the Hutus who have been slaughtered by the Tutsis…and the murderous presence in the DRC of Kony and his LRA….

I am not the one glorifying a man who has the blood of innocent civilians on his hands while at the same time claiming to be a “Christian” pastor.

Why do you say nothing about people like Dr. Mukewege, a courageous man who has tirelessly worked to heal the women who have been so savagely raped in the Kivus? His life has been threatened, his hospital destroyed more than once and yet he continues forward.

Mystified

Even in the middle of a brutal jungle conflict, he keeps it representin’.

did any of your sources on the Kisanjani “massacre” provide a convincing reason why the UN peacekeepers didn’t lift a finger to stop it when their base was less than a couple miles down the road? Take your Africa reporting with a grain of salt-

Have you forgotten about the nearly one million innocent civilians murdered by the Hutu, now hiding out in the eastern Congo? get your priorities straight.