Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>The Great Lakes\u2019 recent history isn\u2019t just about war \u2014 it\u2019s about who controls the story. In the post-genocide Great Lakes, Rwanda\u2019s real battle is not just with militias, but with the story written about it.<\/p>\nA colleague of mine, living abroad and enamored with everything Western, once told me that Rwanda could never be as exciting as countries where, according to him, the press is free and professional. He believes Western media stand as a model of truth-telling, while here the government supposedly \u201ccontrols\u201d information.<\/p>\n
My reply was simple: that view reflects a narrow understanding of how the world really works. Western media, like the religions once exported alongside colonialism, often serve powerful interests. They adjust their \u201cmoral compass\u201d to fit those interests over time \u2014 condemning certain crimes as unacceptable, swearing such atrocities must \u201cnever happen again,\u201d only to enable or excuse others when politically convenient.<\/p>\n
In 1994, as Rwanda endured the Genocide against the Tutsi, Western powers did not simply fail to act; they allowed, and in some ways, facilitated the forces responsible for the massacres to regroup in Zaire (now DR Congo). There, the defeated ge\u0301nocidaires were sustained by millions of dollars in so-called humanitarian aid \u2014 aid that too often flowed directly to those very perpetrators. Rwanda\u2019s appeals to disarm these forces fell on deaf ears. Instead, incursions into Rwandan territory from across the border forced Kigali to act, sparking the First Congo War. And yet, the dominant Western narrative was not about Rwanda\u2019s right to self-defense \u2014 it was that Rwanda had \u201cinvaded\u201d Zaire.<\/p>\n
This is how the media\u2013NGO complex works: interests align, narratives are fixed, and Africa\u2019s stories are told through a lens designed to protect those interests. In the Great Lakes region, that meant portraying Rwanda not as a recovering nation refusing to become another permanent aid recipient, but as the \u201cbad boy\u201d of the region.<\/p>\n
For 30 years, the same pattern has held. The story of Rwanda\u2019s post-genocide transformation \u2014 a nation declared \u201cclinically dead\u201d in 1994, now a continental leader \u2014 has been ignored or distorted. Western media have preferred to highlight the \u201ciron fist\u201d of its leadership, never the stability it has maintained, the absence of election violence, or the context that explains its high electoral returns. Instead, they romanticize or excuse the armed groups \u2014 from Paul Rusesabagina\u2019s FLN to Victoire Ingabire\u2019s FDLR \u2014 as supposed vehicles for \u201cdemocratizing\u201d Rwanda, regardless of their terrorist record.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in eastern DR Congo, hundreds of thousands of Congolese Banyarwanda have lived as refugees since the genocidal forces crossed into Zaire. The world\u2019s largest UN peacekeeping mission, deployed since 1999 at a cost of billions of dollars, has not brought peace. It has presided over a multiplication of armed groups from just four to more than 250 by 2022. When the targeted communities finally took up arms in self-defense, their actions were reduced to a single accusation: Rwanda must be behind it.<\/p>\n
This season\u2019s headlines have reached a new level of absurdity. Rwanda, we are told, is in DR Congo \u201cfor the minerals\u201d \u2014 as if a country investing heavily in governance, security, and foreign investment would risk it all for the trickle of revenue that mineral smuggling could bring. This theory is easier to repeat than to test against facts, which might explain why it persists.<\/p>\n
The double standards are glaring. Take the recent Reuters claim that the AFC\/M23 rebels \u201cslaughtered more than 300 people,\u201d based on a single UN Human Rights staffer\u2019s word from Kinshasa, 2,600 kilometers from the alleged site. Geneva quickly amplified the accusation, neatly inserting Rwanda into the frame. Such reporting fits a long-established pattern: reflexive suspicion of Rwanda, rooted less in evidence than in entrenched prejudice.<\/p>\n
The timing is not random. A new peace deal, signed in Washington with support from the Trump administration, and direct negotiations between Kinshasa and AFC\/M23 with support of Qatar, offer a potential giant path forward. But those excluded from the process would rather see it fail than succeed. For them, undermining Rwanda\u2019s role is a means to that end.<\/p>\n
The lesson is clear: when it comes to Rwanda and DR Congo, too much of what passes for \u201cnews\u201d in the West is not about truth, but about manufacturing consent for policies that keep Africa weak, divided, and dependent. Until this cycle is broken, the victims will remain the same \u2014 and so will the storytellers.<\/p>\n
Source: The New Times<\/b><\/p>\n
For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Albert Rudatsimburwa Africa-Press – Rwanda. The Great Lakes\u2019 recent history isn\u2019t just about war \u2014 it\u2019s about who controls the story. In the post-genocide Great Lakes, Rwanda\u2019s real battle is not just with militias, but with the story written about it. A colleague of mine, living abroad and enamored with everything Western, once told me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":107155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,761],"tags":[2542,4036,758,5714],"class_list":["post-107156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-dr-congo","tag-genocide-ideology","tag-rwanda","tag-western-media"],"yoast_head":"\n
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