Rick Warren's African Allies Tied To Massacres, Sex-Slavery, Forced Labor, Concentration Camps

[The Night Owl]

From Talk2Action...

Rick Warren's African Allies Tied To Massacres, Sex-Slavery, Forced Labor, Concentration Camps
By Bruce Wilson

Critics of Barack Obama's choice to include Rick Warren in the upcoming January 20, 2008 presidential inauguration ceremony have focused on the celebrity evangelist's religious beliefs and at least one report has traced his ties to reactionary African religious leaders. Media coverage of Rick Warren has failed to note, however, his friendship and alliance with two African presidents accused of perpetrating terrorism and massive human rights violations including massacres and assassinations, mass-rape, slave labor, sex slavery, large scale concentration camps, and the use of child soldiers.

A December 12, 2008 UN report charges Warren's African allies, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame and Uganda's President Youwerie Museveni, with continuing to fuel the conflict in the Congo by supporting the renegade army of Laurent Nkunda, whose recent military offensive has created hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Rwanda and Uganda have been indicted, in a series of consecutive United Nations reports presented to the UN Security Council, released between 2001 and 2003 , for repeatedly invading and violating the sovereignty of the Democratic Republic of The Congo, and supporting renegade armies in that country, in order to loot the Congo's immense natural wealth. The more than one decade long running conflict has claimed an estimated 5.4 million civilian lives.

...

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/1/19/113845/387/Front_Page/Rick_Warren_s_African_Allies_Tied_To_Massacres_Sex_Slavery_Forced_Labor_Concentration_Camps

[Solon]

1. Is this the common ground we are supposed to work with him on?

Just asking.

[bushmeister0]

2. Watch out, George Will is getting a hardon! One of those 4 hour types.

He'd better check out the thread on female orgasms.

[Captain Hilts]

3. Other than that, Warren's a great guy. nt

[juno jones]

4. Thank you.

Everyone should know what the dominionists really are.

I'll give y'all one clue. They ain't Christian.

[ThomCat]

6. They definitely are Christian.

They aren't what you consider good Christians, but you can't pretend that they aren't Christian.

[bulloney]

32. Today's Christians, anyway. Doesn't Pat Robertson have ties to shady dictators, too?

[leftstreet]

5. Reaching across that aisle...

:puke:

K&R

[HamdenRice]

7. Mention "Africa" and the gullible will believe pretty much anything bad

Paul Kagame is best known for ending the Rwanda genocide, and initiating a new system of reconciliation and justice between Tutsi and Hutu. Although a Tutsi who overthrew a Hutu dominated genocidal regime, Kagame decided to end the cycle of vengeance and create an inclusive (if somewhat authoritarian and stability obsessed) government.

Yoweri Museveni fought to end the genocidal regimes of Idi Amin and Milton Obote, and created the first stable government in Uganda in decades. Museveni also adopted the first effective government sponsored AIDS prevention system in the 80s and early 90s, which helped Uganda become the first country to drastically bring down AIDS infection rates which continued to soar in other eastern and southern African countries, and which became the model for successful AIDS prevention efforts across the continent.

While no one can defend their proxy participation in Congo, any realistic analysis has to acknowledge that in both cases, their intervention has a lot to do with preventing Africa's largest ever civil war from spilling over into their respective countries.

Hey, but if you say "Africa", you can pretty much convince the uninformed of anything -- sex slavery, cannibalism, massacres, whatever.

[Swamp Rat]

8. Good point

However, since Jabba da Rick was mentioned, anything is possible. :D

[Hannah Bell]

9. Kagame? "ending the Rwanda genocide, and initiating a new system of reconciliation and justice"???

http://www.allthingspass.com/uploads/html-191The%20Grinding%20Machine%20interview%20with%20Paul%20Rusesabagina%20FINAL.htm



Keith harmon snow talks with Paul Rusesabagina, the ordinary man who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda:


KHS: Are you a friend of Kagame at this point?

PR: Well, to the best of my knowledge, I have never been one. I've never been his friend, because, myself I knew Kagame from the beginning as a war criminal. Why a war criminal? Because, since Kagame came over from Uganda—on his way from Byumba and Ruhengeri in the northeast—what he did was to kill innocent civilians, innocent Hutu civilians. This has never been qualified as a genocide, but it is one; until it is qualified as a genocide, me I won’t call it a genocide, but it is supposed to be one...


....PR: That was April 17th to 20th, 1995.<5> Those were Hutus he was killing. When Kagame followed one of his former Ministers of the Interior, Seth Sendashonga, and he was assassinated in Kenya <16 May 1998>, he was killing the Hutu.<6> He followed Augustin Bugilimfura, who was a prominent businessman: he killed him in Kenya. <7> He followed one of his former colonels in the army, Lizinde Theoneste, who used also to be a major in President Habyarimana’s army , and he also killed him <1998> in Kenya. But on the other hand, he also kills Tutsis. Kabera Assiel in the year 2000, he raised a voice, and talked, and he was assassinated trying to get into his house in Kigali, in Rwanda.<8>


....KHS: To survive under the Kagame machine.

PR: Yes, to survive what they call today in Rwanda, the grinding machine.

KHS: The grinding machine?

PR: Yes, the grinding machine: a machine grinding human beings. You understand what I mean?

KHS: Terrorism, brutality, murder, torture, intimidation, death squads… a reign of terror…And that is the Kagame machine?

PR: Yes, that is the Kagame machine. And to be more specific, the former leader of that grinding machine is today the military attaché in Washington DC. His name is Gacinya, Rugumya.

[Hannah Bell]

10. KHS: ...which brings up the question of the Uganda connection to the Kagame machine.

PR: How do you call this—Pilato? —the nickname, you know this one, who condemned all the babies to death when Jesus was born... They used to call Paul Kagame the Ugandan Pilato…


KHS: And why did they call him that?


PR: He was the head of military intelligence in Uganda. Between 1986 and 1990: Kagame was the one condemning people to life or death in Uganda, the one who was deciding people’s lives. <14>


KHS: Well, Kagame and Museveni have worked together to terrorize Congo, and their own countries right? And this is always with outside military support. But many people don't see, or don't believe, that Paul Kagame has deep connections outside. How do you feel about that? What do you think the reality is?


PR: Well, the reality is that Kagame has got support somewhere. I do not know really whether he gets it from the U.S. military. But Kagame has good support from somewhere. In any case, he does not get that support from France. He doesn't get it really from Europe. But he gets it from somewhere.

[Hannah Bell]

11. KHS: Does that mean that the Interahamwe were killing people under the command of Paul Kagame?

PR: Well, not under his command, but Kagame had infiltrated the militias.


KHS: Does that mean that the militias—that the Interahamwe who were killing—were killing with the complicity of now President and then military commander Paul Kagame?


PR: Without knowing, for sure. They were not aware, that they were working for him . But most of those guys who were just on the roadblocks were Kagame people. <17>


KHS: When you say, “they were not aware…” Who was not aware they were working for Kagame?


PR: The militias. Me I think that Georges was not aware that all of those guys were with him ; guys like Kajuga, Robert, who was his president, I'm sure he did not know.


KHS: So you then say that Kagame had something to do with orchestrating what people know as “the genocide in Rwanda,” which was those now famous “100 days”—or three months as you call it—of killing.


PR: What do you think? Who killed Habyarimana? Who benefited from Habyarimana’s death? It is Kagame and his people. And if you go back to the region, to the Great Lakes region, between 1990 and 1994, as I was describing, the rebels on their way from Uganda—in Byumba and Ruhengeri, in northern Rwanda— they were killing civilians. Today you can go to many former communities which Kagame has completely reshuffled, and changed, every way, upside down. Today if I go to the hill where I was born, he has changed the names.


KHS: They have changed the names of the hills where you were born?


PR: Yes. All the names have been changed. So, killing civilians. If you go there today in Byumba, you will notice that 80% of the population are widows, women, all women. Why 80% of the population, today, is widows? Because rebels were inviting their husbands to meetings and killing them.


KHS: This is before 1994.

[HamdenRice]

13. Patton killed a lot of Germans to get to Buchenwald to stop that genocide

and like Patton, Kagame is above all a soldier. Post genocide Rwanda is indeed stability obsessed, but I suppose we would be also in the wake of the murder of 1/10th of the population.

[Hannah Bell]

14. he says kagame's killing started long BEFORE the rwandan massacre,

& in fact spurred it. he's saying kagame is implicated in the genocide every step of the way, & that since he's taken power, the killing goes on.

Kagame trained at Ft. Leavenworth KS in 1990. He's the US pawn, well-known if you pay attention, & deeply implicated in the corporate war in congo, where death totals rival hitler's - with little comment in the west.

Warren's involvement there (on "faith-based" gov't $$$) says: Vietnam-style "pacification" & intelligence-gathering.


Friends of the congo:

Congo Accuses kagame-Nkunda Collaboration

The Congolese government formally accuses Rwanda of what many people already know. Bloomberg news quotes the Congo government as saying that Rwanda is visibly supporting rebels in the Congo. Congo's foreign minister, Antipas Mbusa Nyamwisi told the United Nations Security Council that Rwanda's actions are ``in flagrant violation of all the processes in progress'' to end fighting in the region.

The State Department has chimed in but you will hardly hear Rwanda or Kagame mentioned in any of their proclamations as Kagame is a long-time client of the U.S. who will not come in for an admonition or pressure whatsoever.

http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/blogarchive/2008_10_01_blogarchive.php

[HamdenRice]

15. You might want to read a book before spewing word salad

Upthread, you wrote:

"Interahamwe were killing people under the command of Paul Kagame"

That's about as bizarre and counter-factual as saying, "The German SS were killing Jews at the order of General George Patton."

Kagame was fighting the Interahamwe, which were the Hutu militias that were carrying out the genocide, not commanding it. How on earth could Kagame, who was invading from Uganda, be commanding the forces of his enemy? If you can't even get the sides right, why should we take seriously anything whatsoever that you have to say on the issue?

This is just nonsensical word salad. But as I mentioned upthread, mention Africa, and you can pretty much write any bizarro nonsense you please, and most people's eyes will glaze over.

As for Rusesabagina, by all accounts a very nice, heroic man, he and Kagama hate each other for complicated reasons. Rusesabagina is a Hutu who saved Tutsis and moderate Hutus from the Hutu government genocide, but no Hutus wanted to bring back Tutsi minority rule, which, in effect, having Kagama as head of state, suggests. Rwanda genocide survivors have, in turn, harshly criticized Rusesabagina.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/09/AR2006050901242.html

[Hannah Bell]

16. you might want to read my post before you spew apologetics.That's the interviewer's question, here's

the answer:


PR: Well, not under his command, but Kagame had infiltrated the militias.

KHS: Does that mean that the militias—that the Interahamwe who were killing—were killing with the complicity of now President and then military commander Paul Kagame?

PR: Without knowing, for sure. They were not aware, that they were working for him . But most of those guys who were just on the roadblocks were Kagame people. <17>

KHS: When you say, “they were not aware…” Who was not aware they were working for Kagame?

PR: The militias. Me I think that Georges was not aware that all of those guys were with him ; guys like Kajuga, Robert, who was his president, I'm sure he did not know.

KHS: So you then say that Kagame had something to do with orchestrating what people know as “the genocide in Rwanda,” which was those now famous “100 days”—or three months as you call it—of killing.

PR: What do you think? Who killed Habyarimana? Who benefited from Habyarimana’s death? It is Kagame and his people. And if you go back to the region, to the Great Lakes region, between 1990 and 1994, as I was describing, the rebels on their way from Uganda—in Byumba and Ruhengeri, in northern Rwanda— they were killing civilians. Today you can go to many former communities which Kagame has completely reshuffled, and changed, every way, upside down. Today if I go to the hill where I was born, he has changed the names.



"he and Kagama hate each other for complicated reasons"

not complicated. KagamE = funded & trained by the US, one of the prime instigators of the conflict all over this region, mass-murderer & genocidaires whose massacres in the 90's helped provoke the rwandan genocide.

[Hannah Bell]

17. In 1990, Kagame, head of Yoweri Museveni's Ugandan intelligence services,

trained at Ft. Leavenworth. Next, he assumed control of a Ugandan invasion of Rwanda. Then, he spent several years in charge of guerilla-style attacks & massacres on Rwandan villages - the resentment from which helped fuel the tensions of the Rwandan genocide.

Then there was the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana; Kagame/Museveni widely held responsible: another trigger for the genocide. Then the placement of provocateurs & propoganda campaigns to fuel more tension.

The genocide was the result of covert war, france v. us; kagame an agent; the whitewash of him as the one who "stopped the genocide" & created "peace" is disgusting.

The killing continues, & he's up to his ears in it.

[HamdenRice]

18. "Because he makes a twirl in life, my box is broken

help me blue elephant. Isn't lettuce brave? I like electrons, hello. Tissues without a triangular head lice be it with controller is the noodle man of ice pops and radio yes thanks. So even with I but he river flow amber rod with it. You know bear mama said just keep boxing."

That's an example of "word salad" according to Wiki. It's somewhat more coherent that your list, which frankly, it's too tedius to refute.

But I will say that everyone knows that the French concocted the Kagame shoot down theory because they were in charge of the Kigali airport (and obviously not Kagame), and the French needed to cover up/distract from their support for the forces that committed genocide.

But your theory, that it was American Democratic President Bill Clinton who was responsible as pawn master of Kagame, for the genocide is duly noted.

What's next: a Bill and Hillary killed Vince Foster post?

[Hannah Bell]

20. No, Democrats never support illegal invasions, covert actions, & the like.

Course not, "everyone" knows that.

French being "in charge" of the airport is irrelevant; the plane didn't crash at the airport; its crew was French; the crash, & the charge that Kagame orchestrated it, occurred before the genocide.

I don't defend the French, etc. I object to the sanctification of Kagame & the erasure of history.



Kagame = butcher.

Warren = covert ops.

[Hannah Bell]

22. PR: The Interahamwe had a President: Kajuga, Robert. KHS: Was Robert Kajuga a Tutsi? PR: Yes.

PR: Yes, Kajuga was a Tutsi.

KHS: How can that be? The Interahamwe, according to the common portrayals of genocide in Rwanda, were a bunch of murderous Hutus with machetes…

PR: How could that be? That is a problem. Because Kagame had infiltrated the army , and the militias, everywhere; he had his own militia within a militia.



http://www.allthingspass.com/uploads/html-191The%20Grinding%20Machine%20interview%20with%20Paul%20Rusesabagina%20FINAL.htm#_ftnref37

[HamdenRice]

27. You probably also believe the Jews carried out the holocaust nt

[Hannah Bell]

31. non-seq, ad-hom. kagame is a peace-making saint! the evil hutus went mad!

rwanda now a peaceful paradise!

the interhamwe's leader was NOT a tutsi!

everything the press tells us is true!

our leaders never lie!

all dems act from noble motives, never for reasons of power politics!

[ColbertWatcher]

12. More news from Uganda ...

From the Los Angeles Times
Help is urged as Congo toll rises
Human Rights Watch says civilians need protection from the Uganda-based Lord's Resistance Army.
Associated Press
January 18, 2009

Dakar, Senegal — Ugandan rebels in eastern Congo have slaughtered at least 620 people in the last month, and civilians in the region desperately need protection, human rights groups said Saturday.

Human Rights Watch said many of the attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army appeared to have been premeditated, and victims' skulls were crushed with bats and axes.

(...)

The Lord's Resistance Army has fought in northern Uganda for two decades, and rights groups have accused it of cutting off the lips of civilians and forcing thousands of children to serve as soldiers or sex slaves. The conflict has spilled into Sudan and Congo.(more)

--Los Angeles Times

And, of course, here is Wikip*dia's tube for Lord's Resistance Army: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Resistance_Army

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA),<3> is a Christian sectarian guerrilla army operating mainly in northern Uganda and parts of Sudan.<4> It is designated a terrorist organization by The United States Department of State.<5>

The group was formed in 1987 and is engaged in an armed rebellion against the Ugandan government in what is now one of Africa's longest-running conflicts. It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself the "spokesperson" of God and a spirit medium, primarily of the Holy Spirit, which the Acholi believe can represent itself in many manifestations.<6> The group claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments and Acholi tradition.<6><7> The LRA is accused of widespread human rights violations, including murder, abduction, mutilation, sexual enslavement of women and children, and forcing children to participate in hostilities.<8>

Gee, I wonder if the American Dominionists are for or against this group? If they are against them, I wonder if they'll swoop in and save their defenseless brown Ugandan brothers?

[HamdenRice]

19. You do realize that the Lords Resistance Army is trying to overthrow Museveni, right?

When it comes to Africa, people don't even seem to need to get the sides right.

:rofl:

[ColbertWatcher]

21. So, they didn't kill all those people? n/t

[HamdenRice]

23. Yes, they did, but you are citing the LRA for why Museveni...

(in the OP) is bad, although Museveni has been trying to suppress these dangerous fanatics for years.

[ColbertWatcher]

25. Oh, no. I posted it because I first read about it yesterday!

It's news about a Christian group trying to wield power in Uganda. Kinda like that other Christian group (Dominionists) trying to wield power in Uganda.

I wonder what the differences are between the two?

[Hannah Bell]

26. What you need to know about President Museveni

1. Crimes Against Humanity I

The Ugandan government failed to protect northern Ugandans when they needed it most. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is responsible for orchestrating genocide in Northern Uganda, where he has incarcerated nearly two million people in concentration camps, euphemistically known as “protected villages.” Read a report by the Govt. of Uganda, WHO, UNICEF and others (pdf version).

At the height of the crisis, (circa 2005), more than 1,000 people per week were dying from preventable diseases in these modern day concentration camps. More people have died from conditions in the camps themselves than at the hands of the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) or government forces, and over 20,000 children have been abducted.


2. Crimes Against Humanity II

In 2005, Museveni’s government was found guilty by the International Court of Justice for committing grave war crimes in the DRC, including: the invasion and plundering of the natural resources of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and of fomenting ethnic cleansing. Uganda was ordered to pay the DRC $6-$10 billion.


3. Rampant Corruption

Under Museveni, Uganda is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Yet, donor countries including the US, keep donating money to the regime without holding Museveni accountable for corruption.


4. Lawlessness I

President Museveni has no respect for international laws. He came to power using child soldiers and continues to coerce children into joining his armed forces to sustain his regime (See China Keitetsi’s story).

5. Lawlessness II: Locally, President Museveni does not respect the rule of law: he used soldiers to invade the nation’s High Court twice to intimidate judges, has exhibited complete disrespect for human rights, and bribed Ugandan Parliamentarians to amend the constitution to remove presidential term limits. The removal of term limits places Museveni as a de facto life president. Museveni has also been involved in land grabbing without the consent of the owners.

etc.


http://exposeugandasgenocide.blogspot.com/2007/10/fact-sheet-on-ugandas-president-yoweri.html

[Hannah Bell]

30. "First of all,

the Lords Resistance Army is not the main problem here it is the UPDF—as with their criminal operations looting Congo and backing the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army and now other factions in the war for Darfur. These are not in any sense “tribal” conflicts. Someone in the U.S. has deep ties to Joseph Kony and the LRA, and if they wanted this guy dead he would be dead long ago.

There are LRA agents in Washington connected at the highest levels. As long as Museveni—perhaps the worlds leading terrorist and war criminal today—right up there with his pal Paul Kagame from Rwanda—has these so-called ‘rebel’ so-called ‘enemies’ on its borders, like the ADF and LRA—then the Uganda government can continue to scream bloody murder “we need help” and continue to get AID, which is turned into weapons in what may be the world’s largest AID for ARMS scandal after the AID for ARMS scandal in Ethiopia."

http://debatebothsides.com/showthread.php?t=59431.

[Zookeeper]

24. MSNBC had a guest on today, who pointed out that Warren's...

"celebrated" work on AIDS in African, has come with a spike in infection rates because he and his fundie friends have focused the emphasis from condom use to abstinence.

I can't think of one damn reason to feel okay about Warren being within 100 miles of Obama's inauguration!

[McCamy Taylor]

28. Yep, yep. Warren has some 'splainin' to do. So does Bush. So does the press.

Congo is a brutal, bloody endless war and the press is not covering it.

If Warren being at the inauguration gets the left to start focusing on the Congo and US complicity, maybe it was worth it.

[McCamy Taylor]

29. This is WAY worse than his gay bashing IMHO. Warren is a walking war crime.

I was willing to cut Obama some slack when I first heard about Warren, but not any longer. Unless Warren completely denounces the mercenaries out of Uganda and Rwanda and starts working nonstop for peace and justice in the Congo, he is a war monger for the corporations in ministers' clothes.

[Hannah Bell]

33. i suspect that's exactly what he is, shades of vietnam's phoenix program,

or the old-style missionary shock troops for western capital.

convert 'em, bribe 'em, use them for intelligence-gathering, take over their land.

africa, once pacified, = the next low-wage platform & capitalist "miracle economy".