Two U.S.–based nonprofit organizations representing members of the Congolese Tutsi/Banyamulenge community have appealed to New York City Mayor Eric Adams to withdraw from an upcoming Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)–sponsored conference, warning that his presence could legitimize hate speech and denial of atrocities.
In a letter dated September 19, the groups — ISÔKO USA and Mahoro Peace Association — expressed “grave concern” about the event, titled “Thirty Years of Armed Conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Call for the Recognition of Forgotten or Ignored Genocides, for Truth and Justice.”
The conference is scheduled for September 22 at the Jay Conference Center in New York.
“We are survivors of atrocities committed against us for who we are, having fled systemic persecution and killings, and having received no protection from the D.R.C. government,” wrote ISÔKO USA President Safari Munyarugendo and Mahoro Peace Association President Douglas Gasore Kabunda.
The letter, also copied to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Massad Boulos, Senior Advisor for Africa at the State Department, accuses the DRC government of long-standing complicity in violence against Congolese Tutsis.
It cites decades of attacks by government-supported militias, including massacres in South Kivu and Ituri, and charges that Kinshasa has “engineered a false genocide, accusing our community of being responsible for our own persecution and crimes, to exonerate itself from its own responsibility.”
The authors reinforced their warning with a 2022 statement by UN Special Representative on Genocide Prevention Alice Wairimu Nderitu, who noted “indicators and triggers contained in the UN Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes were present in DRC including: dissemination of hate speech and absence of independent mechanisms to address it; politicization of identity; proliferation of local militias and other armed groups across the country; widespread and systematic attacks, including sexual violence, against especially the [Congolese Tutsi] based on their ethnicity and perceived allegiance with neighboring countries; and intergroup tensions.”
“The abuses currently occurring in Eastern DRC, including the targeting of civilians based on their ethnicity or perceived affiliation to the warring parties, must be halted. Our collective commitment not to forget past atrocities constitutes an obligation to prevent recurrence,” Nderitu said in the quoted statement.
Munyarugendo and Kabunda urged Mayor Adams to reconsider his attendance, warning that “your participation represents an official endorsement of the inflammatory rhetoric, the targeting campaign, and the crimes against Congolese Tutsi by the D.R.C. government.”
They cautioned that such a presence could heighten risks to their community in eastern Congo “at a time when the current U.S. administration in Washington, DC, and other international partners seek to appease the tensions in the region, to find a lasting solution to the D.R.C.’s long-standing conflict.”
The letter concludes by thanking the U.S. administration for offering refuge since 2000 and encloses what it calls a detailed report of atrocities committed against the Congolese Tutsi/Banyamulenge population.
