Muyaya Challenges World Over Rutaremara’s Call to Banyamulenge

DRC government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya has challenged the international community to consider how it would react if a senior Congolese figure openly encouraged Rwandan citizens to take up arms against their own government, following controversial remarks by veteran Rwandan politician Tito Rutaremara concerning the Banyamulenge and M23.

KINSHASA — Democratic Republic of Congo government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya has turned the controversy surrounding remarks by veteran Rwandan politician Tito Rutaremara into a direct challenge to the international community: what would happen if the roles were reversed?

Speaking after Rutaremara’s controversial intervention at a commemoration of the Gatumba massacre, Muyaya asked international partners to imagine a senior Congolese official addressing a Rwandan community and openly encouraging its young people to take up arms against Rwanda’s government.

Muyaya said he would be “very interested” to see how Congo’s international partners would react.

The question has particular significance because international officials have previously reacted swiftly when inflammatory rhetoric came from the Congolese side.

What Tito Rutaremara said

The controversy began after remarks delivered by Rutaremara, a longtime RPF figure who has held several senior positions in Rwanda, during commemorations marking 22 years since the 2004 Gatumba massacre, in which more than 160 Congolese refugees, predominantly Banyamulenge, were killed in Burundi.

In circulating footage of his remarks, Rutaremara addresses Banyamulenge youth and encourages them to take up arms and help M23 “liberate Congo.”