Aux racines du conflit entre le Congo et le Rwanda

Braeckman, Colette

3 mai 2023

20230503

Aux racines du conflit entre le Congo et le Rwanda

Pour Gillian Mathys, professeur à l'Université de Gand et membre de la commission colonisation, « l'Histoire a ses droits mais la réponse aux problèmes d'aujourd'hui ne se trouve pas uniquement dans l'Histoire. C'est l'interprétation des faits qui pose question. »

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Le Soir

Article de journal

FR

Scandalized by Paul Kagame's remarks calling into question the borders, Colette Braeckman appeals to a historian. He recalls that the borders were drawn at the Berlin Conference of 1885 where no African was present and no one had a precise map. The Belgian Congo was not created at that time. Madame Braeckman confuses with the International Association of Congo created by Léopold II following the travels of Stanley which became the Independent State of Congo, property of only Léopold II. He donated it to Belgium in 1908 after the revelations about the methods of exploitation of the population to obtain rubber and ivory. The border was drawn only afterwards, by a negotiation between Germany and Belgium. Colette Braeckman very well recalled at the Mucyo commission that France had claimed at the independence of the Belgian Congo in 1960 a right of preemption which she had obtained from Leopold II. The historian thus establishes that the current borders result from negotiations between European States, the populations concerned having never been consulted. He disputes Madame Braeckman when she asserts that Kagame wants to appropriate Kivu. Did the Belgians not appropriate the Congo? In addition to the Rwandan speakers present in Kivu, didn't the Belgians bring Rwandan workers there? The historian calls for a little humility. Let us add that we must take reality into account. When an inhabitant of Kivu wants to take the plane to go abroad, he does not go through Kinshasa. Where is he going through?