Posts by Jocelyn Kelly
The Stagecraft of Making it Look Like an Accident
Published April 10, 2009 @ 05:35PM PT
Some thoughts on the remembering the anniversary of the Rwandan genocide
When many people write about the conflict in the DRC (and I am guilty of this myself), they describe it as the "spillover" of the Rwandan genocide. Just to see what would happen, I typed "spillover Rwandan genocide" into Google. I got 37,800 hits.
The more I think about it, the more the phrase becomes the equivalent of a literary shrug: "Sometimes genocides leak - what are you going to do about a little spillage?" The CIA World Factbook on Rwanda actually calls the war in DRC the "nagging Hutu extremist insurgency across the border." The violence in Rwanda ended over a decade ago. Yet we still think it has a life-after death quality to continue leaking across borders.
Twelve years, five million conflict-related deaths, and one damning United Nations report later, I think we have to surrender the security blanket of "nagging" accidental violence. For one thing, accidents aren't led by generals who wear Chanel sunglasses.
With his penchant for theatrics and designer eyewear, General Laurent Nkunda has been a favorite subject of media reports. He has hung out with Ben Affleck. He likes taking his silver-tipped scepter and his lamb called "Betty" (she signifies peace) to media interviews. He claims his group, the CNDP, is protecting the Tutsis in DRC from the evil men who led the Rwandan genocide. To do this, apparently you have to massacre Congolese civilians, especially children, repeatedly over long periods of time and at random. His forces were so well organized they were easily able to outgun and out-maneuver the Congolese National Military and repeatedly embarrass UN peacekeeping troops. Regional governments clicked their tongues and shrugged, saying they could do little about the CNDP or any of the dozens of other rebel groups in the region.
