more on the neo colonial game - in congo this time

I wonder if Blair is secretly dreaming of becoming a  newer and  bigger  King Leopold- the royal  Belgian owner/exploiter of  the earlier colonial version of  Congo.  He seems to be playing a smarter, updated, version of the  neo colonial   game. From Iraq , the Middle East  to  Africa  the man just keeps showing up.  Much to the despair of  the millions that  the neo colonial games are effecting.  


Such is the cycle of despair in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – scene of massacres, of mass rape, of children forced to fight, of families fleeing in fear again and again, so many sordid events that rarely make the headlines. It can seem a conflict of crushing complexity rooted in thorny issues of identity and race, involving murderous militias with an alphabet of acronyms and savagely exploited by grasping outsiders. But consider one simple fact: right now, there is the risk of another round breaking out in the deadliest conflict since the Second World War.

The west bears some responsibility for the latest act in the Congolese tragedy. Not just because the ethnic divisions that cause such fear were inflamed during dark years of Belgian misrule. Nor simply because we gobble up those minerals that fund the warlords. But because at the heart of the horror in a country the size of western Europe is the tiny nation of Rwanda, darling of western donors seeking to assuage their guilt over inaction during its own genocide.

Britain and America in particular have lionised a regime guilty of ghastly internal repression and gruesome foreign adventurism, with catastrophic consequences for millions of Congolese. Admirers of Paul Kagame, the despotic Rwandan president, praise his country's economic development, ignoring that it is part-financed by trade in minerals plundered and pillaged from a ravaged neighbour. As far back as 2001, a Congolese rebel leader admitted such theft was Rwandan state policy.

Yet western leaders hailed Kagame as the modern face of Africa and pumped vast aid into his arms. Britain is the biggest bilateral donor; we directly funded agencies of repression, then led moves for Rwanda to join the Commonwealth. The links between our two countries are alarmingly close: Andrew Mitchell, our former aid minister, invited me last year to meet Rwanda's head of intelligence, a regular visitor to his Whitehall office. Meanwhile, Tony Blair advises Kagame on "governance", even while swanning around seeking peace in the Middle East.

Rwanda is far from the only villain in this drama. Uganda, another western ally, is also linked again to the latest unrest, the president's own brother accused of backing the M23. But Rwanda is the cause of much of the trouble. The truth is that six times as many people have died already in the Congolese wars as died in the Rwandan genocide. Time to say never again – or does the blood of Congo not count?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/25/ian-birrell-congo-rwanda-civil-war