A Shabel reportage

Responsabilities of genocide in Rwanda have to be shared, beetween hutu and tutsi. The new UN report, published the 1st october 2010 is a step in the right direction. We ask for justice, we ask to make clear what happened in Rwanda. Until that, we will continue to fight to protect our people".

We meet Mister Laforge, the spokesman of FDLR (Democratic forces for the liberation of Rwanda) and his general staff, after two days walking in the forest, in a little thatched hut. The long path starting from the little village of Niabyondo is sometimes like a river because of the torrential rain. The front line, a part of an impenetrable forest, is disputed by the congolese Fardc and the Mai Mai militias, allied with the Fdlr.



We are in the Masisi region, north Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.



On the "Goma - Walikale" axis, many military operations are leaded by the governemental forces Fardc. The target are the Fldr forces, and the hutu rwandan refugees. Especially now, after the Un Report, they are a serious threat to the geopolitical stability of the entire region.



So dozens of Fardc platoons with tutsi commanders are moving on the axis, with no veichles, no food, no water, no logistics. By foot.



In this axis, the villages are every day under attack of unknown militia: rapes, killings, robberies. Mass rape is the new trend here. The victims are women. It is hard to understand who are the responsibles. Here, every armed or bandit group, often made of deserters, wear the same uniform, use the same Ak 47 kalashnikov, speak swahili or kinyaruanda.



They armed groups historically fight in the region to control a vaste mining area full of cassiterite and nobium. And they use the mass rape as a terrible new weapon.



But Fdlr (and the rwandais) are always the first guilties: they are the ennemy here, since 1996 when they arrived. And now it's very easy to blame them for every accident, every action, every crime. So it's easier for the Fardc to hunt them.



The only hope for the civilians here is the Monusco, the United Nations mission: the paecekeepers patrol the axis, build camps and bases near the villages to protect the population. But the number of blue helmets is not enough.



"Since few months ago, we stop to support the Fardc operations in the area" reaveals Hirut the chief in charge of Monusco. "We cannot support who is also a threat for the population".



An exclusive reportage from the heart of Congo and from the core of a new devastating war.