The Empire of Silence, a moving requiem in a country ravaged by more than 25 years of war

Რ About?

For twenty-five years, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been devastated by a war that has largely been ignored by the media and the international community. The death toll reaches hundreds of thousands, if not millions. The perpetrators of this crime are innumerable: the insurgent movements, but also the armies, the Congo and neighboring countries … It seems that all have failed to commit murder, for monopoly power, for money, for the unpunished wealth of the Congo. And general indifference.

Requiem for slaughter

Oslo, 10 December 2018. Dr. Dennis Mukwege, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate that year, addresses his acceptance. “My name is Dennis Mukwege. I’m from one of the richest countries on the planet. However, the people of my country are the poorest in the world. The disturbing reality is that our abundance of natural resources – gold, coal, cobalt. And a source of terrible poverty in the Congo.

When I talk to you, in New York, a report in a desk drawer rots. It was written after a professional and rigorous investigation into war crimes and human rights abuses committed in the Congo. This investigation clearly names the victims, places, dates, but avoids the perpetrators. What does the world expect to consider? There is no lasting peace without justice. However, it is impossible to negotiate justice. “

He knows what he is talking about; Who was a direct witness to the October 1996 massacre at his own hospital in the Kivu region. From the first unfinished series, it is still going on … its release with the same sharp resonance. Extremely painful, is the host of a powerful and terrifying documentary, The Empire of Silence.

This empire is, first and foremost, a huge country, four times the size of France, crossed by the Congo River, which forms its backbone and owns one of the largest equatorial forests in the world. This silence is clearly boundless for all these victims of the massacre, anonymous or not, at least hundreds of thousands.

Victims whose vast majority of butchers continue to live with complete impunity. Such a deafening silence on the part of the international community, despite investigations by UN agencies and their overwhelming evidence, underscores the institution’s inability to face the absolute games of cynicism and political calculations.

Traveling for more than thirty years with a Congolese camera in hand, film director Thierry Michelle, the big name of the documentary, witnessed the quarrels, sufferings, but also hopes of the Congolese people. Dr. Mukwege conveys the request, and the sequel to his previous film, The Man Who Repairs Women, depicts the sequences of this ruthless violence that has ravaged and destroyed the Congo for a quarter of a century.

Because if the genocide that took place in Rwanda from April to July 1994, which resulted in the deaths of 800,000 to 1 million people, is known to the general public, not many people know that this tragedy was followed by Law II when the refugee columns were crossed. The Rwandan border has been extended to the DRC, which has been particularly persecuted by the forces of Paul Kagame, who is currently the country’s president for 22 years.

ᲡIn fact, Empire of Silence Is a kind of sequel to Thierry Michel’s previous and unusual documentary, released in 1999, King Mobutu of Zaire, which ended with the fall of Zaire’s dictator, overthrown in 1997 by a coalition in which Kagame will play a key role. . Here, too, the humanitarian excuse for this intervention will obviously be a clean façade; The goals of Congo’s neighboring countries are obviously the enormous wealth of its entrails …

Always in an extremely pedagogical subject, an essential element, moreover, given the great complexity of the game of alliances and regional issues, Empire of Silence Significantly enriched with numerous testimonials as key players (such as Boat PillayPresident of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (1999 to 2002) and a survivor of violence.

The horrific testimonials sometimes accompanied by images bordering on instability in a documentary may warn you. And, FinallyA fascinating and dizzying reflection on the tendency of Africa, through the iconic case of the DRC, to generate unregulated, systematic, planned and coordinated violence.

Violence and massacre, which seems to be intensifying and becoming absolutely horrible (The UN will launch an investigation into acts of cannibalism in January 2003 North Kivu in DRC). Civil and political, religious and social violence, at all levels. In this logic of reflection and in what gives sight and understanding, the impact is left Empire of Silence It is bubbly and deep, with the energy of the uppercut of hell.