As the world awaits military intervention in Syria and we are treated to idle theorizing [6] about how the Ghouta chemical massacre was a "false flag" attack by the rebels, comes a grimly amusing analogue from Central Africa. Rwanda on Aug. 29 accused government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo of shelling its territory, killing a woman and wounding her baby. (BBC News [7]) Open war between Rwanda and the DRC suddenly looms, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appealed to Rwanda's President Paul Kagame [8] for restraint. (BBC News [9]) The shelling comes as DRC troops and the UN's new "intervention brigade [10]," dubbed MONUSCO [11], have been battling the M23 [12] rebels in Congo's east. (BBC News [13], Radio Australia [14]) The DRC government has denied responsibility, and says it was actually the rebels that shelled Rwanda's territory—a claim backed up by MONUSCO. (Reuters [15]) Now, since the M23 is said to be intimately directed by Rwanda's defense minister, Gen. James Kabarebe [16], who has apparently even sent military commanders to lead the rebel force, this basically means that Rwanda is bombing itself. Indeed, Congo Planet [17] tells us the DRC is charging that Rwanda's government used the M23 rebels to shell its own territory, as a provocation to justify a direct military intervention in eastern Congo.
Could be, but... If "false flag" attacks were really that obvious, why would they work?
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