"Sticks in Vaginas:" This Is What a Massacre Looks Like

Partial decapitation

Masisi territory in the North Kivu Province has been plagued by conflicts related to land issues and ethnic identity. Currently, the Hunde have no parliamentary representation.

My source made it clear to me that MONUSCO is stretched to the breaking point and in many instances unable to guarantee the safety of civilians. There is no ethnic group or rebel organization that does not have blood on its hands. It is well past the time to sort out ethnic tensions. The violence must stop. Civilians are expendable collateral in a region of Congo that has been abandoned by its government.  You can make a case for "good" rebels and "bad" rebels, but until the rule of law is established, photos of mutilated babies and disemboweled women will continue to flood inboxes of anyone who is willing to listen. 

The continuing media focus on the M23 rebels, now the Congolese Revolutionary Army, is a carefully crafted distraction organized by anti-Rwandan and anti-Ugandan interests. The end result is one more mutilated baby. 

And what about the United Nations report from the discredited  Group of Experts (GoE) that leveled accusation on top of accusation on Rwanda and Uganda, threatening regional stability? In an article in the Daily Monitor, Ugandan Defense Minister Dr. Crispus Kiyonga discussed the allegations and whether Uganda has the moral authority to chair the International Conference for Great Lakes Region. Speaking about the ethnically biased GoE, Kiyonga said this:

For example, they never reached out to the Chief of Military Intelligence. They never reached the Chief of Defense Forces. They never reached the minister of defense, the seriousness of the accusations notwithstanding. So, we protest that wrong procedure. Secondly, why leak the report? They are like children.

What is clear is that in Masisi and elsewhere in eastern Congo heinous crimes against humanity are still the norm. Congo is a failed state, unable to protect her people. International media is indifferent to the day-to-day suffering; parachuting into war zones only when the tanks roll, new rebel groups form, and the RPG's start flying. Sticks in vaginas and babies with no faces hold no immediate interest. It's just a run-of-the-mill massacre.

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