Having been in eastern Congo three years ago and having experienced life under FARDC and the CNDP, what I am seeing in this video is familiar and preferable to the threats of drunken FARDC soldiers, extortion, scares from mercenary rebel groups along the backroads, and aggressive sexual innuendo. This writer has seen both sides of the conflict and spent two days in "detention" in a Goma under FARDC and the Secret Police. Count me in with Sitting Bull and the M23 rebels. I'd like to be on the right side of history on this one.
Here is a suggestion to the M23. Your name is terrible. "M23" holds an emotional and moral context for you of broken promises. You are fighting for regional control over regional issues and promises made on March 23, 2009. Some of us get that, but most people over here in the West hear "M23" and think of a tank or weaponry--it sounds very military. Plus, the international press is solidly against you. You do need a complete makeover.
Ditch the name "M23." Call yourselves the "Good Rebels." Define yourselves. Don't allow the media and foreign governments to define you. Chief Sitting Bull, a Lakota Medicine Man, was considered the last Sioux to surrender to the U.S. Government. They paid him back by killing him after they broke treaty after treaty. Sitting Bull would have had an easier time of it with a good public relations person. Maybe he just needed a name change. The broken treaties could be compared to the broken promises of the Goma Peace Accord.
The FDLR are definitely the bad rebels, but Kinshasa is pinning "bad" on you. Be careful.
(Apologies to my native friends if I took liberties with your history in drawing this analogy)
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