I surrendered myself to you defenseless, while you yourself handed me arms. Quote from André Maurois (1936)
Since the FARDC were deployed on a massive scale in the highlands of Itombwe, more particularly in Minembwe, there was no sign that the situation would worsen further and that the army would turn its arms against the population it was supposed to protect.
Three years later, the results of the military action seem more concealed and mixed: hundreds of individuals have been killed, hundreds of villages burnt and thousands of herds for the Tutsi Banyamulenge have become black gold for the surrounding populations. and the FARDC.
Faced with an army that overvalues ethnic radicalism, we are at a level where even the most optimistic observers do not imagine that the violence of the regular army against Tutsi civilians could quickly end.
The aim of our article is to examine the excessive use and the disastrous consequences of heavy weapons on the civilian population of the villages of Kalingi & Kitavi, under the order of General Dieudonné Muhima, of the security record of the national army (FARDC ) in the murderous war that has raged in the highlands of Itombwe, for three years as well as the reasons for the slippage of the so-called republican army in securing the region.
According to the internet; a heavy weapon as opposed to a light weapon, is a weapon with great destructive capacity possibly transportable by combatants on foot such as the light machine gun, recoilless gun, mortar and other, but whose use involves the deployment of a support ( tripod, base) and the use of several soldiers.
We also speak of a collective weapon. It may not also be transportable without the use of a suitable vehicle or mechanized transport tool. For example, a cannon or a heavy mortar.
Indeed, on September 01 to 02, 2020, the general had imprudently ordered the order this time not to drop bombs on young defenders “TWIRWANEHO” but rather on the unarmed civilian population, namely on old mothers. and children …… who live in the Kalingi & Gitavi villages, overlooking the northeast of central Minembwe.
The artillery / Bomb throwers cantonment straddled two villages inhabited exclusively by Banyamulenge peasants. The artillery in the direction of these villages for two nights and two consecutive days. Pregnant women, old mothers, newborn babies spent the 72 hours in the bush while the others languished under the rubble of the bombardments.
Ordinarily, the maintenance of order must carefully balance the use of force by avoiding collateral damage unlike conventional war operations, General Muhima uses excessive forces liable to raise the Tutsi Banyamulenge population in indescribable torment.
The physical and psychological consequences of bombing two villages are so enormous. Several cases of abortions have already been recorded while the psychological trauma is unspeakable. A week after the bombing the number of abortions rose to 9, while the cases of physical and psychological trauma are difficult to determine.
Even more decisive, on the eve of the attack on two villages, on 09/08/2020, the same general again issued the order to simultaneously attack several villages at the same time including Kahwela, Kabingo, Masha, Kabingo, Kakangala and Muriza Although the general is so far convinced that maimai’s assault on the young TWIRWANEHO is now impossible, but the general is stubborn to intensify the fighting until using heavy and long-range weapons such as: 12mm & 14mm , machine gun, RPG, Katyuha, 62 or 83 mortar and others ……. among the civilian population.
The disproportionate use of force by General Dieudonné Muhima, with his May May allies and Burundian rebels against Banyamulenge civilians, gives a feeling of horror and desolation.
The general is decidedly more daring than ever to destroy definitively what he considers to be enemies, foreigners and Tutsi invaders until he proceeds to the bombardment of the civilian population with heavy weapons in the villages including old mothers and young children. up to infants are the first victims.
Indeed for more than three years the Tutsi of the high plateaus of Itombwe have lived undergoing unprecedented acts of cruelty, the association of all the so-called Bantu tribes including (Bafulero, Babembe, Banyindu, Bavira) without forgetting the Bashi although these the latter deal with propaganda and political manipulations against the Tutsi Banyamulenge.
These various coalition tribes and the Burundian rebels are in tune with the FARDC who play the supplementary role to complete a project of which they are the designers and the organizers which consists in slaughtering the Banyamulenge until the surviving denier or failing that send them home to Rwanda, moreover the most extremists would send them to Ethiopia.
This coalition of evil, ravages all that is in their passage like the locusts, under the order of a deranged general, of a general without law or faith, of a general responsible for the crime and blunders of the national army in peacekeeping operations in the Itombwe highlands.
General Muhima, treat the Banyamulenge of his potential enemies, which pushes him to the permissiveness of the ruthless package of dropping Bombs among the civilian population without worrying about anything. The presence of Muhima far from leading to pacification, leads to a radicalization of armed groups and even civilian populations.
The Congolese evil that we have been told since our early childhood is not only due to the lack of good governance of public affairs. It is also linked to the inability of the so-called republican army to ensure the sovereignty of the country and to guarantee the security of the population and their property.
Finally, let me recall that the ordeal of the Tutsi Banyamulenge in the high plateaus of Itombwe dates back more than three years. As soon as the first ball came out in April 2017 in the Bijombe group, the FARDC were very present and armed to the point of the tooth, but this had not prevented the conflagration of the entire Itombwe region (the uvira highlands , Fizi and Itombwe).
Everywhere where there are killings of Banyamulenge, fires of houses ……. The FARDC are still omnipresent as stray dogs would always be found near a slaughterhouse.
All hope in the national army has evaporated like morning dew.
I sign and persist that the apocalypse of the Tutsi so dreamed of by the general will never see the light of day. On the other hand, the Banyamulenge are never again determined to live against the will of the general and his acolytes!
By Bigina Mfashingabo
