This morning, we had another meeting with the Chairman of M23, Bertrand Bisimwa, in Bukavu for our documentary on the Great Lakes. We discussed their goals, which align with what he stated in our initial meeting in Addis Ababa two weeks ago:

𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀:

1. They don’t want war but peace and unity.
2. They want Kinshasa to honor previous agreements made in 2012.
3. Among what they believe Kinshasa must honor is the reintegration of M23 fighters back into the national army. Many of them are former Congolese army members who want to help secure the country from foreign actors.
4. They want free and fair elections in which all political parties can freely participate.
5. They want their families to return home to their ancestral land from refugee camps in Uganda and Rwanda to live in peace in a functional country.
6. Other issues will be part of negotiations between the parties.

𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗡𝗲𝗴𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲

They are ready and have been ready to sit down and renegotiate with the Congolese government and its partners to come up with a peaceful solution to the eastern DRC .

𝗡𝗼 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻

They do not want secession from Congo, as they are Congolese people who have no interest in seeing their country divided.

I then asked him the following questions in bold and below the questions are the answers:

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁?

“We are defending ourselves from persecution and the loss of our ancestral lands, which has forced our families to live in refugee camps. Many members of our organization have not visited their grandparents’ farms for over 30 years due to persecution.

Whenever our government fails to deliver services to its people, they resort to xenophobia, blaming their problems on the Kinyarwanda-speaking population. They call them foreigners, yet they are Congolese who lived in Congo long before their land was partitioned by Leopold into Belgian Congo.”

𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗔𝗗𝗖

“We are not at war with our Southern African brothers, and we urge them to take the time to understand the crisis in Congo, where brothers and sisters are divided by physical and facial features, tribe and some have no rights because they are said to be Rwandan—an issue stemming from the Berlin Conference.

SADC should take the time to understand the problem in Congo and then mediate without taking sides so that we can solve this colonial problem that is dividing Africa.”

𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀? 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗠𝟮𝟯 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗦 𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁?

“No, we are not terrorists; we are merely fighting for our rights. We are surprised that we are seen as terrorists when we are defending ourselves from groups like the FDLR, Wazalendo, and Mai-Mai, who have killed and displaced our people—women and children—because they say their facial features indicate that they are Tutsis from Rwanda.

The fact that we have been designated as terrorists for defending human rights, while the UN takes sides with the FDLR—which carried out the genocide in Rwanda—and other groups that discriminate and terrorize our communities, shows that the West does not believe in justice. We are left with no option but to defend our lands and rights on our own.”

He then asked me: “Do you know that, with the facial features you have as a Zimbabwean, you could be mistaken for a Tutsi and persecuted in some parts of the DRC?”

𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗼?

“No! We do not commit human rights violations; that’s why Goma and Bukavu are peaceful. We are fighting for the human rights of all Congolese people and trying to end the system of tribal segregation based on physical and facial features.”

𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗥𝘄𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀𝗲?

“Many of us are former Congolese army officers. Some, like myself, are not even Kinyarwanda-speaking. We are Congolese people fighting for our civil, social, political, and economic rights in our own country.”

Written by Rutendo Matinyarare, Chairman of ZASM.