For 35 years, conflict has ravaged the Great Lakes Region of Africa, beginning with the Rwandan Civil War and Genocide, then followed by the Congo Wars and ongoing conflict. Millions have died and millions more have been displaced. There are now eight million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a figure surpassed only recently in Sudan. The US’s responsibility in Palestine and other aerial bombing wars is obvious, but its role in Rwanda and Congo remain obscured. Many know that it dates back to the 1961 US-Belgian assassination of Patrice Lumumba, but not that it has continued through US support of Rwandan President Paul Kagame in the Rwandan Civil War and the invasion, occupation, and plunder of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Trump’s so-called peace plan rewards him and US corporations with no end to the violence in sight.
Rwandan political prisoner Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza risked her life to expose the brutal Kagame regime and its abuse of Rwanda’s tragic history to justify war in Congo. Having already endured eight years in prison, from 2010 to 2018, she remains forbidden to leave Rwanda and now faces re-imprisonment. This webinar will deconstruct the lies used to justify the ongoing war and highlight Victoire’s case.
Guest speakers include:
- Ann Garrison, a Black Agenda Report Contributing Editor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She also contributes to The Grayzone, Pacifica Radio, and other outlets. In 2014, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for her reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes region
- Judi Rever, a Canadian journalist who worked for Agence France-Presse in Africa. She authored In Praise of Blood: Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front and Rwanda's 30-Year Assault on Congo: The Crimes, the Criminals, and the Cover-Up, and she currently contributes to Canadian Dimension. In 2015, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for her groundbreaking investigative work on the Rwandan Genocide and Congo Wars.
- Maurice Carney, co-founder of Washington D.C.-based Friends of the Congo to raise consciousness about the consequences of colonialism and neocolonialism on the Congolese people and support Congolese communities and organizers on the ground. He appears on multiple media outlets and contributes to Black Agenda Report.
- Marceline Nduwamungu, co-founder of the Women's International Network for Democracy and Peace (Réseau international des femmes pour la démocratie et la paix) to promote democracy and peace in Africa and especially the Great Lakes Region. She grew up in Rwanda and received political asylum in Belgium after the Rwandan Civil War and Genocide.
Join us to look beyond the headlines and get a deeper understanding of one of the world's most protracted resource wars and humanitarian disasters.
WHEN
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WHERE
Zoom
CONTACT
Melissa ·