This article is not well researched and the information provided is not neutral. It biased information based on one side of story and who has told it. Certainly Fidel is portraying Hutu people as Bad guys because he was told so by Tutsi. I guess if Tutsi were to tell their side of story they will portray themselves as innocent. As a Burundian born in Uvira just under the Mulenge Mountains, as a Burundian refugee who never knew my country and as a person who went to school with the so called Banyamulenge, I find it misinforming when one write lies about the whole story. This kind writing can only increase hatred and conflicts in people that are trying to recover from these bad memories. We should encourage true stories and stories get unite people rather than divide them.
For your good information, there are 450 tribes in Congo and none of them is Banyamulenge. Mulenge is a mountain in Uvira and the habitants are called " Bavira". When Tutsi from Rwanda occupied that Mulenge it was because they needed a place to cattle and Mulenge was beautiful plateau where they could cattle. Congo gave them to place to live not to change the names. As I said the Mountain Mulenge belongs to Bavira the naturally born people of Uvira. If the Tutsi from Rwanda wanted to be naturalised they should integrate themselves in local tribes and call themselves as either Bavira, Babembe, Bafuliro etc…However because Tutsis have always been so arrogant and dominant, they wanted distinguished themselves from the rest of the people. By the way Congolese people have been so welcoming to these Rwandese. They were given a fertile land, they were given higher positions in the Government and in churches they had higher positions such as Bishops of the Roman Catholics Church. What else they wanted? Dominion? Power so that they can continue their empire from Rwanda and Burundi to Congo and who knows the rest of Africa.
The war that the so-called Banyamulenge (the Tutsi from the Rwandese origin) were involved in to remove the dictator Mobutu was not justified. Everyone in Congo was suffering from Mobutu’s dictator and Mobutu was falling trough democratic processes. Why Tutsis did took gains then? Was it because they wanted to reclaim their Congolese nationality that Mobutu took away from them? Not really. The war simply an invasion of Rwanda and the violation of territorial integrity of Congo. Rwanda used the so-called Banyamulenge under the pre-text that they are reclaimed their nationality but eventually it was an invasion and a need for power by Tutsis.
Fidel is talking about 800,000 people who died during the genocide in Rwanda. He also talking about the massacre of Tutsis in the refugees’ camp of Gatumba in Burundi but he never mentioned about 3, 8 million people that have died since Rwanda and Tutsis invaded Congo. Fidel ignored to mention 2 million Rwanda Hutus that were killed in refugees’ camps throughout the Eastern region of Congo when Rwanda invaded Congo. These people were killed by who? Rwandese troupes and the so-called Banyamulenge. Are these not lives? Why when thousands Hutus are killed, no one raises their voices, but when one Tutsi is killed people like Fidel make a lot of noise and alerts the whole world? Are you saying that Hutus are not human beings?
In addition, who is a bad guy here? For instance in Burundi, over the years Tutsis have used tyranny, plunder y and gains to marginalise the Hutus. They even killed the first democratically elected President Melchior Ndadaye. They armed a militia group called “les sans defeat” (without defeat). Where was Fidel when this happened? Did Hutus complained about this? Why can Fidel research all the facts before he sympathize with one group and call the other “bad guys”?
Please read a book called: “Burundi: Hunger, Sexual Violence Dog Country by Nigel Watts and Published by Hurst Books. You will understand the truth about the great lakes region.
What we need in the great lakes region are people to support us in our endeavour to build everlasting peace and not people who are eager to continue diving us. Of course part of healing is to be able to tell our story, but true and neutral story. Because in some way or the other, Hutus and Tutsis have all killed and committed bad things. But there are still good people in all of us. Thank
Contact: clement.nkubizi@nmmu.ac.za for comments

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This article is actually great, whoever thinks it's bias may be the fact that they never get over what happened in the central Afr. It's never about who was right or wrong, or who killed more or less as Papy mention in his comment. I think Fidel's forcus is on the gatumba genocide and the fact that the banyamulenge are neither congolese nor rwandan...Mulenge is not in Uvira as zaza comment mention, it a mountain overlooking uvira and the Bembe people do not live in Uvira or Mulenge, the Bembe live in Bubembe or fizi i don't know what year you left the central Afr but a lot has happened since Zaza... i am a hutu who is already healed and i believe this is not as bias as it's based on one event. I believe Fidel just wanted to highlight the Banyamulenge who are not well mention in many stories of central Africa...I actually enjoy the other post by the women from Iraq...good stuff.

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Zaza, where are you from actualy? don't comment on stories you don't understand well...Uvira is Uvira, Please! check the map! Mulenge is a mountain, The bashi live in Bukavu to help you and the bembe live in Fizi which is closer to Uvira. Again had it occured to you that the baluba and bakongo had a comflict...or the tshi and rega in bukavu...or did you know that a rwandese can not live in Kinshasa without being attacked or the fact that the rest of congolese refer to people from the east as rwandese? when was mulenge a capital of south kivu. man you are oblivion

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It is quite disturbing to see how many people from that part of the (central Africa/DRC) keep feeding the spirit of war and hatred through hateful propaganda based on false information. It is true that one gives what he/she has. Hence, hatred based information based on hate in their heart. To these people, genocide and countless massacres of innocent Tutsi women, children and men are never enough. They keep paussing as victims of some kind of injustice based on the fact that Banyamulenge claim their long denied rights to citizenship in a country they lived for over 120 years. In the minds and hearts of these Congolese extremists most of whom are closely related to hutus, just because Banyamulenge have a Rwandese origin makes them not Congolese. Guess what? many of those who dessiminate this propaganda have western citizenships, either from USA, CANADA, or somewhere in Europe which they get only after few years. But, they shamefully feel that Banyamulenge cannot be Congolese even if what became Congo as a result of Berlin Conference in 1885 found Banyamulenge present in Mulenge.
For those you impostors who claim Mulenge to be a place of Bavira, or ba Bembe? do you have a term "Mulenge" in anyone of the local languages from the Sud-Kivu tribes? what does "Mulenge" means? Lying will never liberate your spirit, intellect and mind! As much as you can hate people, you can never change their history simply because you hate them. Denying their history is not a solution either. It is past time that you realize that your hatred towards Tutsis based mainly on your inferiority complex will never make you any better, nor will make them worse off.
By the way, haven't you realized yet, that they more you hate them, the stronger and much prosperous they get, while you on the other hand you get even poorer, weaker and miserable? If you were capable of learning, that would be enough lesson. But again, a heart full of hate, ignorance, with a guilty mind can never learn any thing good.

The good BAD news is that Banyamulenge are and will always be Congolese whether you like it or NOT.
By Muaki

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They are a people in a hate nation.
This comment is for those who deny the fact that Mulenge is a place of Banyamulenge, and denying the congolity of Banyamulenge people. Read the entire comment by Muaki.
By the way, who do these people think Congo is? in USA, it takes five years for one to be an American, 3 in Canada, and less than 10 in most Western countries where curiously some of the extremist closed minded Congolese reside. But, in Congo? No, non, no, Banyamulenge with over a century can never be accepted as Congolese, even if fact show that Congo became Congo when these people where already there. A fact and a past that they hopeless think they can simply erase! Poor you haters!!!!!!!!1

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Before I embark on this comment I would like to make you know all that the aborigin of the countries we are discussing about are the Twa '' Batwa "the aboriginal pygmy forests hunters and gatherers ( Wiki media project 2010 ).

I am a congolese dwelling in SANGE. I will give my comments more scientifically without bias since a very good scientists deals with objectivity and not otherwise . Research based on subjectiviy is not a good reserch dear brothers and sisters.

The killings and massacres in this part of the continent has been cused by the colonizers ( belgians ) , in the past centuries , our forefathers could not have such problems we have to day , the arrival of Belgian has divided us , that is why even our comments base on ethnicity , each one is trying to show how best his ethnic group is , that is an ethnocentrism .
Genocide in Rwanda
This was done by the Rwandan militiamen called Interahamwe currently dwelling in the DRC and other parts of the African countries ( ibid ). This led Paul Kagame and his allies to do much efforts and forced back the MRND and RPF got power . The war caused so many HUTu refugees in the eastern part of the then Zaire . For instance some of the refugees lived in MUGUNGA in Goma while others lived in the plaine dela RUZIZi .

The history of Massacres of refugees

Being refugees in the DRC , the interahamwe caused a threat to the KIGALI governemnt , in 1996 with Kabila , Rwanda , Uganda and Burundi gathered together to invade the DRC and the unfortunate Mobutu was overthrown. We all know the story . Kagame with his allies manged to kill more refugees in the Mugunga and Kilba, sange and runingu burundian and rwandan ( HUTU ) refugees saying that there were threat to both Burundian and Rwandan governernment . In the same year , more Congolese from Banyamulenge tribes were killed in BARAKA city in the FIZI territory by the Bembe before even the war started . I can remember Rugema and Mariamu wa Lutabola , methodist member church were among many who were killed .

Second WAR in the DRC

Laurent Kabila declared to send back all Ugandan and Rwandese back to their respective land , very surprisingly other congolese of Banyamulenghe origins joined with Rwandese to go back to Rwanda . This situation culminated the other war which killed almost 5 million DRC innocent citizens. During the Second Congo War, Tutsi militias among them Banyamulenge in the Congo province of Kivu desired to annex themselves to Rwanda (now dominated by Tutsi forces under the Kagame government). Kagame also desired this, both to increase the resources of Rwanda by adding those of the Kivu region, and also to add the Tutsi population, which the Banyamulenge represented, back into Rwanda, thereby reinforcing his political base and protecting the indigenous Tutsis living there, who had also suffered massacres from the Interhamcalled and Mai Mai.
The Mai Mai on the other side sprang up, supplied by the arms dealers around the world that profit in small arms trading, including the US, Russia, China, and other countries added the threat among both banyamulenghe and other tribes in the DRC.

Massacre of Gatumba

Negative forces in the DRC with their allies in Burundi ( Mai Mai , Interahamwe and FNL ) came over the innocent congolese refugees of Banyamulenghe tribe and killed about 161 adult and children in that camp. This is terrible if people can play a such scene of killings , can we call ourselves human with humanity ?

Massacre of makobola

Banyamulenghe led by the Rwandan army invaded Makobola ( Fizi and uvira territories ) and managed to kill almost 7 hundred people in those villages . It was a calamity dear brothers and sisters . This is not enough the ecatomb of Kasika is not talked .

MULENGE AS A CONFLICT

I am conviced that In November 1959, The Tutsis, enraged by their gradual loss of power, made an attempt on the life of Grégoire Kayibanda. Tutsi forces also beat up a Hutu politician, Dominique Mbonyumutwa, and rumours of his death set off a violent backlash against the Tutsi known as the wind of destruction. An estimated 20,000 to 100,000 Tutsis were killed and many thousands more, including the Mwami, fled to neighboring Uganda before Belgian commandos arrived to quell the violence. Several Belgians were subsequently accused by Tutsi leaders of abetting the Hutus in the violence. The report of a United Nations special commission reported racism reminiscent of "Nazism against the Tutsi minorities" that had been engineered by the government and Belgian authorities.

The revolution of 1959 marked a major change in political life in Rwanda. Some 150,000 Tutsis were exiled to neighbouring countries. Those Tutsis that remained in Rwanda were excluded from having any political power in a state becoming more and more centralized under Hutu power. Tutsi refugees also fled to the South Kivu province of the Congo, where they called themselves Banyamalenge.

Mulenge is a UVIRA haut plateau and there is no place in the DRC we can find a territory ( zone ) called Mulenghe but the part is a portion of the UVIRA zone . When people say that MULENGHE is a rwandan name, as a scientist and a linguistic , I believe our mother tongues are similar it can be VIRA and other languages .

in Uvira we had a former mwami who was called Lenghe from the mountain origin and I am also conviced that in Rwanda we had the oldest state, which had no name, was probably established by the Renge lineages of the Singa clan and covered most of modern Rwanda, besides the northern region. The Mubari state of the Zigaba (Abazigaba) clan also covered an extensive area.

From the above fact and which are well evidenced I am conviced that our conlict in this region is rooted from the colonizers who planted a hatred and ethnocentic spirit in us .

I welcome the challenges since good knowledge does not fear challenges . I would like to make the author of this article that it worth enough when doing such reserches do you best to contact all tribes in this area for good data and reliable .

Best wishes and good chance , I know we will live in armony in paradis , the world is passing no one will live forever .

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