SUMMARY

EDITORIAL: the price of peace

1. KIVU

a. The desertion of CNDP troops within the FARDC

b. The subsequent statements made

c. The deserters turn themselves in

d. Joseph Kabila announces his intentions to arrest Bosco Ntaganda

e. Bosco Ntaganda: the link between Joseph Kabila and Paul Kagame

f. Kivu: occupied and without peace

g. Two positives… or so we hope!

 

EDITORIAL: THE PRICE OF PEACE

 

At the beginning of April, in the two Kivu provinces, several hundred soldiers deserted the ranks of the army. These were servicemen originally from the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), who had been integrated into the national army in 2009 whilst remaining under the orders of General Bosco Ntaganda, who also belongs to CNDP. This political-military movement, created and supported by the Rwandan regime, has now transformed itself into a political party and member of the Presidential Majority (MP). The desertions took place after the International Criminal Court (ICC) renewed its request to the Congolese government in March to arrest the General Bosco Ntaganda, object of an international arrest warrant served in 2006 for recruiting child soldiers and committing war crimes in the Ituri district from 2002-2003.

Officially, Ntaganda is in charge of integrating the CNDP troops into the national army. In reality, he is at the head of the military operation “Amani Leo” (peace today) led against armed groups, both national and international, which still operate in the Kivu region, notably the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). Apparently, this is a normal, necessary military procedure. However, as in similar operations carried out in the past, such as “Umoja Wetu” (Our Union) and “Kimia II” (Silence II), the local people have become the victim of extreme, disproportionate collateral damage (attacks upon villages, theft, rape, arrests, destruction of fields, houses being burnt down…) to such an extent that the people have had to leave their homes and their lives behind to seek refuge in the forest. Meanwhile, the new Rwandan-speaking, perhaps even Rwandan by nationality “occupants” have moved into the villages and fields abandoned by the local population.

The locals are even convinced that behind these various military operations lurks a precise plan: to force them to abandon their land to settle people from Rwanda there instead, to control the cassiterite, gold, coltan, wolframite and tungsten mines, all of which are abundant in the earth below the two Kivu regions. The locals’ suspicions are confirmed by various expert reports from the United Nations, which have denounced the involvement of CNDP troops, and Bosco Ntaganda in particular, in the illegal mining and secret trading of the minerals on many occasions. It is not difficult to establish a link between Ntaganda’s CNDP and the “Rwandophone occupation” of Kivu. Although a general in the Congolese army, Ntaganda serves the general interests of the Rwandan regime in Kivu. According to many observers, Ntaganda is the connecting link between Kagame and Kabila. He is the chain, or the cable, keeping Kabila in a state of dependence upon Kagame. In this context, following the ICC’s call to the Congolese government to act on the afore-mentioned arrest warrant, Ntaganda organised a military self-defence plan, relying on the loyalty of certain servicemen under his control. Their desertion from the national army was a display of their loyalty towards Ntaganda.

President Joseph Kabila went to Goma and Bukavu (North and South Kivu) to personally sort out the problem. Upon close inspection of his statements, the measures he announced seem feeble and ambiguous, almost signs of complicity.

– The desertion of CNDP soldiers was reduced to a mere phenomenon of a lack of discipline in the army, quite independent of the threat that the former CNDP troops represent for the safety of the civilian population, national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

– If Ntaganda were to be arrested, it could be justified by his acts of “insubordination”, not even taking into account the war crimes and crimes against humanity he has already committed, not only in Ituri but also in Kivu, not to mention his direct implication in the illegal mining of minerals or the ICC arrest warrant over his head.

– The coordination of military operations against armed groups, also known as “Amani Leo”, currently undertaken by CNDP officers, is to be transferred into the hands of the military regions. This transfer could lead to the absorption of the provincial chain of military command into the parallel chain of command of the CNDP.

– No allusion was made to the relationship binding Ntaganda to the Rwandan regime, nor to the consequences this leads to. However, even the text of the arrest warrant for Ntaganda issued by the ICC identifies him as a “supposed Rwandan” citizen.

Now is probably not the best moment to arrest Bosco Ntaganda, as troops loyal to him are on the alert and ready to protect him at all costs, even risking causing terror amongst civilian populations. He should already have been arrested. This must be done as soon as possible, and he must then be transferred to the ICC immediately.

In any case, the Congolese people in general, and the population of Kivu in particular, were expecting their head of state to actually reform the army, to allow them to feel safe and to ensure territorial integrity. In the short term, truly nationalist officers must be named and placed in charge of military commands, on a national as well as regional scale. Secondly, the CNDP troops currently in Kivu must be transferred to serve in other regions of the country. If this is rejected, the head of state could then proceed to apply sanctions as foreseen in the military code. In the long term, so as to build a truly republican army rather than a conglomerate of adventurers made up of a mishmash of former armed groups and rebel movements, we must consider a restructurisation of the army, recruiting new soldiers based on free personal choice, professionalism and an adequate pay system. This is the price of peace.

1. KIVU

a. The desertion of CNDP troops within the FARDC

In North Kivu, during the night from Sunday 1st April to Monday 2nd April, servicemen belonging to the former rebel group, the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), left their position at Rubare, 12km to the south of the centre of the Rutshuru territory, heading south towards Katale. On the morning of Monday, 2nd April, other FARDC soldiers had left the headquarters of the 804th regiment at Nyongera, near Kiwanja, in the hands of the military ex-CNDP. These military movements caused panic amongst the population. Sources close to the FARDC in Rutshuru announced that the ex-CNDP militants of the 804th regiment were responding to orders from Masisi, where military associates of General Bosco Ntaganda had also abandoned their positions to move towards Kitshanga.

During the night of Saturday 7th April, the commander of the 805th regiment of the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) in Nyongera camp, in Rutshuru territory (North Kivu), Colonel Innocent Kayina, also defected. According to military sources, the officer took seventy men with him, destroying two new jeeps belonging to the FARDC army as well as a weapon and munitions depot, before leaving.

Further military desertions from the FARDC by soldiers originally in the CNDP were registered in Uvira, Baraka, Fizi, Nyabibwe, Mwenga, Shabunda and Kamituga in South Kivu province.

Colonel Sylvain Ekenge, spokesperson for the “Amani Leo” operation, recognised that soldiers had abandoned their posts without reason. But he also points out that the situation is now once more under the control of the FARDC. He also confirmed that he had barred the way of deserting officers who wanted to help themselves to the armament warehouse at Baraka in South Kivu. He explained, “These are soldiers, officers, who have been manipulated and fallen into the trap, for whatever reason. It has nothing to do with pay, as everyone had been paid, and nothing to do with rations, as everyone had received enough to eat during the last two weeks. It has to do with Machiavellian intentions which we must combat. He is the one who wants to divide us, it’s his problem.”

On the evening of 8th April, in Bunagana, a border post between the DRC and Uganda situated over 100 kilometres to the north east of Goma in North Kivu, clashes occurred between loyalist military personnel and several defecting soldiers from the 805th regiment. The spokesperson for operation Amani Leo, Sylvain Ekenge, confirmed that this had been a “manhunt operation.” After more than three hours of combat, the mutinous soldiers who had been trying to enter the city were forced to retreat. An official report on this confrontation is not yet available, but concordant sources suggest a total of two dead, six wounded and twelve captured mutineers.

On the 12th April, in South Kivu, the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) continued to track four military officers who had defected on 30th March. These officers, still on the run, are leading around 140 troops.

According to sources within the 10th military region, the deserting officers had been chased from the Kashama and Muhuzi areas in the high plateaus of the Ruzizi plain by the FARDC on April 11th. They are currently said to be near the area of Ruhuha, in the mountains overlooking the Mwenga territory.

These same sources confirm that the deserters are making their way towards the administrative headquarters of Kasika, in Mwenga, with the goal of surrendering in Masisi in North Kivu.

Three hundred and twenty-one other mutineers have already turned themselves in to the FARDC during various clashes. They were gathered together on Thursday 12th April at the further training centre in Luberizi.

The four officers who deserted are all colonels, listed below:

Bernard Byamungu: ex-commander of Sector 9 at Uvira,

Sadam Edmond: commander of Sector 10 at Fizi

Nsabimana: commander of the 105th regiment at Baraka

Eric Ngabo, aka Zairois: commander of the 2nd battalion of the 104th regiment at Uvira.

The desertion of these soldiers originally from the CNDP occurred just as the international community increased demands for the transfer of General Bosco Ntaganda to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The court has issued an arrest warrant for Ntaganda. In the verdict returned on 14th March as part of the trial of Thomas Lubanga, former warlord of the Ituri, the ICC judges recognised the complicity of General Ntaganda in the enrolment of child soldiers aged under 15. Kinshasa has always refused to cede to international pressure, arguing that Bosco Ntaganda could be capable of destabilising the region and provoking a new conflict there if he felt threatened.

On 15th March, the Tutsi community of North Kivu published an open letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations in which they wrote that “if General Bosco were to be arrested, this could have negative consequences for the Tutsi community and the region… the arrest of Bosco will undermine the peace process in DR Congo.”

b. The subsequent statements made

On 6th April, in a statement signed on behalf of the Minister of Communication, the Congolese government declared themselves to be “concerned by the feeling of insecurity currently rife in the provinces of North and South Kivu”, and called for “the undisciplined troops to observe military discipline to the letter”. In another statement released the same day in Goma, the commander of operations of the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) called “all soldiers under his command to remain disciplined and loyal.”

On 6th April, during a press conference in Bukavu (South Kivu), the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Leila Zérouigoui, called upon the government to take sanctions against servicemen of the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) who had attempted to desert. According to the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in the DRC, it is time for the Congolese state to say “enough, now” to troublemakers and other problem-causing military personnel. She believes that the problem soldiers must be tracked down and made to account for their actions. “They should not come back to negotiate a return to the army and then demand a promotion,” she argued.

On 8th April, the civil society spokesman for North Kivu, Omar Kavota, called for the head of state, Joseph Kabila, to get personally involved in the matter of these desertions and to initiate exemplary sanctions against the defectors in order to put an end to this phenomenon which is causing the local population great concern.

In the late afternoon on 9th April, President Joseph Kabila arrived in Goma, the main city of North Kivu, to investigate the security situation in the region. Earlier that morning, the Chief of General Staff of the army, General Didier Etumba, had also paid a visit, where he declared upon arrival that “those who do not wish to conform to republican order will be tracked down by the army.” This alluded to the defection of certain FARDC officers over a week ago, who had once belonged to the CNDP rebel group in North and South Kivu. General Didier Etumba stated “We have an extremely clear idea of things. Certain poorly-disciplined soldiers must be hunted down, and we are in the process of hunting them down in the most radical way possible. This is not necessarily a question of staking our claim. Someone who is undisciplined, who does not want to submit to the Constitution of the Republic and to its laws, someone who does not wish to respect the orders of the President of the Republic, the supreme commander of the Armed Forces, someone who refuses to be republican, cannot serve under the flag. And the minute he behaves like this, by taking up arms, he will be tracked down to be neutralised, and anyone with any judiciary problems will be made to answer for them.”

Visiting Goma the same Monday, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in the DRC, Roger Meece, declared that Bosco Ntaganda had been a menace towards the safety of populations in the region for some time now and should answer for his actions before the ICC.

c. The deserters turn themselves in

On 9th April, a new wave of FARDC officers who had defected in Rutshuru surrendered. They brought with them almost eighty of their troops. Among these officers was Colonel Ndaisaba with his company of forty-seven soldiers, including two other colonels and six majors. According to military sources, Colonel Kayina, another deserter from the 805th regiment, had also handed himself in beforehand.

According to the same source, Colonel Ndaisaba and his men are currently under surveillance at the High Command of the FARDC in the Rutshuru Centre.

Colonel Muhire of the 8042nd FARDC battalion also handed himself in to the military authorities in Tongo, about fifty kilometres to the north west of Goma. He had defected on April 4th with around thirty men. According to our sources, he and his men are also under military surveillance in Goma, where they had been transferred.

Four days after their defection from the ranks of the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC), the majority of the soldiers had turned themselves in one by one to the military High Command in North Kivu. A “hypothetical return”, according to the people of Rutshuru who want these deserters to be sanctioned by the FARDC leadership. Whilst acknowledging their return, the civil society believes that it does not completely reassure the people. It asks that disciplinary measures are taken with the wrongdoers to serve as examples to other soldiers who may be tempted to follow in their footsteps. The return of these soldiers, however, has dissipated the panic provoked by their desertion, and life is getting back to normal in the centre of Rutshuru and the surrounding area.

d. Joseph Kabila announces his intentions to arrest Bosco Ntaganda

On 11th April, in Goma, during an audience with active forces in North Kivu, the Head of State Joseph Kabila announced that he had suspended all military programmes and operations currently underway against foreign and local armed groups, in order to reorganise the command chain of such operations. In this province, command will now go through the eighth military zone. The active forces of the province welcomed the decision and called for its immediate implementation.

President Kabila also condemned the behaviour of certain servicemen who, according to him, place importance upon ethnicity. He declared that Congolese soldiers are Republican soldiers and not affiliated with any specific community.

Regarding the defectors who have turned themselves in to the High Command, the Head of State announced that they will firstly be called before the disciplinary council of the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC). “All soldiers involved will have to answer to the courts and tribunals of the military,” promised Joseph Kabila.

“As for the problem of a lack of discipline which has become apparent amongst members of the armed forces, this time I have managed to solve it. Next time, whether it be Bosco Ntaganda or any other officer, they will be arrested and sent to trial,” he warned. “In real terms, this means that if the lack of discipline which we have come to stamp out in North Kivu continues, we will have good reason to arrest any officer involved, starting with Bosco Ntaganda”, he stated. Stressing that he was not working for the international community, but rather for the Congolese people, the head of state declared that it was in the interests of the Congolese that Ntaganda or any other officer of the FARDC should from now on answer to their superiors in the area affected, without delay, in case of further reports of undisciplined behaviour.

Certain sources see this as a promise to arrest General Bosco Ntaganda, but for Omar Kavota, vice president and spokesperson for the coordination of the civil society of North Kivu, things are not as simple as that. “We do not know if his promise will really materialise in the courtroom or whether all compromised military personnel, including General Bosco Ntaganda, will really be reprimanded,” he said.

Making an abrupt U-turn, President Joseph Kabila apparently declared that Ntaganda should be arrested and face a military tribunal in the DRC. “I want to arrest Bosco Ntaganda because the majority of the population want peace,” Joseph Kabila said. However, Kinshasa does not intend to deliver Ntaganda directly to the ICC.

“We can arrest [Bosco Ntaganda] ourselves since we have one hundred reasons to arrest and try him here in this country,” said the Congolese head of state, Joseph Kabila, according to whom “the crimes that Bosco Ntaganda committed here in this country do not require his transfer to the ICC.”

According to Reuters, he could simply be tried by jurisdictions in the DRC rather than being transferred to the ICC. “He has committed crimes in the province of North Kivu and in Goma. He will be tried in Goma or in Kinshasa,” said Joseph Kabila.

After his meeting with active troops in North Kivu, Joseph Kabila went to Bukavu. Upon arrival, he made his way directly to the official residence of the Governor of South Kivu, Marcellin Cishambo. Ntaganda and his men, primarily Tutsis originating from Rwanda, had been integrated into the Congolese army. Their integration allowed them to exert their control over a large part of eastern Congo, but they have been accused of ill-treating communities of different ethnicities.

Since the head of state’s latest statements, it seems that Kinshasa does not intend to stick to the Goma Agreement indefinitely, as it showed its limits, or rather, proved suicidal for the local people.

But arresting Ntaganda will most likely be far from a walk in the park, as, in a statement recorded by Reuters, the Chief of General Staff of the FARDC admitted that he did not currently know the whereabouts of Ntaganda. “The Congolese army does not know where he is”, stated Didier Etumba to Reuters.

The task will be arduous and the populations in the east may have to go through still more hard times. And for good reason. Still under the protection of certain ex-CNDP units who have recently defected, Bosco Ntaganda is not likely to hand himself in. This decision represents a huge challenge for the Congolese army. The FARDC must be sorted out to make sure Bosco Ntaganda does not cause even more damage before his arrest, both in terms of the safety of the local people and the integrity of national territory.

Coming back to the issue of safety, the President of the Republic underlined several key points during his meetings with officers of the Armed Forces of the DRC and the active forces of North Kivu, namely:

*Insistence upon discipline as a key characteristic of the army but also reminding all officers that the Congolese army does not belong to any tribe or province, but is national and republican.

* The suspension of the “Amani Leo” (Peace Now) programme. For the President of the Republic, this does not mean ceasing to track down national or foreign armed groups causing devastation in Kivu, but rather suppressing the structures driving Amani Leo and handing control to the 8th Military Regiment which will take care of routine work, with the intention of working towards the objectives set down when the scheme was first conceived.

* The setting up of a disciplinary commission before which all defecting soldiers must appear from now on. When necessary, the case may then be brought to the military tribunals along with the work carried out by this commission. On this note, it must be stated that the mutinous officers who surrendered to the FARDC have not regained their former functions whilst awaiting the inquests and sanctions which will need to be implemented as a result of their defection.

* Perspective on the opinions given on the Bosco Ntaganda case. Here, the President of the Republic stressed that the North Kivu province and the east of the DRC have suffered for a long time, that investigations are now underway into the matter and that if Bosco Ntaganda turns out to be guilty of one or other infractions, the Congolese justice system will not hesitate to arrest him without waiting for the slightest pressure from the international community.

On 12th April, the head of state Joseph Kabila arrived in Kisangani (Eastern province) from Bukavu (South Kivu) where he met with members of the Provincial Security Council. During this meeting, he announced that all military operations led in South Kivu against armed groups in the province would now be led by the 10th military region.

According to Governor Marcellin Chishambo, the command of operations and of the military region will thus be unified.

e. Bosco Ntaganda: the link between Joseph Kabila and Paul Kagame

 

According to Kris Berwouts, an expert on Congo, Ntaganda is the link between Kabila and Rwandan president Paul Kagame. “The marriage of convenience between Kabila and Kagame, which began in late 2009, is dependent upon Ntaganda”, he confirms. According to the terms of this agreement, the CNDP was integrated into the Congolese army. “Some say it is the Congolese army which has been integrated into the CNDP” continues Kris Berwouts. The fact is that the CNDP currently controls both North and South Kivu. It has never been so powerful at it is right now” he adds.

The agreement saw the Congolese army (read: the CNDP troops integrated into the FARDC) hunt down the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), Kagame’s “hereditary enemy”. The latter thus effectively gained part of the Congolese army in North Kivu which now follows his orders just as much as it does Kabila’s.

This agreement guaranteed Kabila the imprisonment of the leader of the CNDP, Laurent Nkunda, who had threatened to invade the entire Congo territory. After Nkunda’s arrest, Ntaganda, as leader of the CNDP, became a General of the Congolese army and, as such, the most powerful man in North Kivu.

“Nkunda’s arrest provoked discontent amongst a section of the CNDP who didn’t agree with giving up their charismatic leader”, Kris Berwouts explains further. “Ntaganda must make an effort to please this pro-Nkunda wing which still exists. This wing is just as much of a threat to Kagame, as the Rwandan Tutsi elite have taken fright and influential men, such as the former Chief of Staff of the army, Kayumba Nyamwasa, and the former head of Rwandan intelligence, Patrick Karegeya, distanced themselves from Kagame in 2010 and looked across to Congo for support, with the intention of attacking Kagame”. A man like Ntaganda, who controls the CNDP, has become an essential part of Kagame’s strategy.

Ntaganda has proved to be equally useful to Kabila. According to Kris Berwouts, “With the CNDP, Kabila has an important source of power in his pocket which has allowed him to appear to bring a little “stability” to the East of Congo whilst continuing to serve his own electoral interests. During the elections, only Kabila was able to campaign in territories currently in the hands of the CNDP.” Joseph Kabila and Paul Kagame’s ‘love-hate’ relationship means that having Ntaganda in the Kigalian camp is of the utmost importance to the President of the DRC.

As a consequence, Ntaganda looks out for Kagame’s interests just as much as for those of Kabila. This explains why he became a General in the Congolese army in 2009, despite the fact that the International Criminal Court had issued an arrest warrant for him for crimes against humanity, including, among other things, the recruitment of child soldiers.

Hoping to protect their own interests, Kagame and Kabila made an agreement set into practice by Ntaganda. This deal makes a mockery of the rule of law, treats international treaties with disdain and hinders the reconstruction of the region. The CNDP remained its own state within a state, installing its own administration in Masisi, and is today perceived by a large majority of the population as more of a menace than protection.

One question remains to be answered: “As Ntaganda seems to be so powerful, does the Congolese government have the necessary means to stop him by force?” This would seem very unlikely.

At the beginning of April, ex-CNDP soldiers emptied the military camps of Kabira, Rugarama and Mugogo to move towards central Rutshuru, stopping at the main military camp before heading for Runyoni forest at the foot of the volcanoes along the Rwandan border. Soldiers from the Rubare, Nyongera and Kitshanga military camps made for Tongo, stopping at the large military camp of Rumangabo before being deployed in the forest at the base of the volcano, Mount Sabinyo. Rumours about a possible arrest of Bosco Ntaganda were said to have been behind this movement of CNDP troops.

General Bosco Ntaganda himself wanted to pre-empt events by demonstrating the forces he would be capable of deploying in case any attempt was made to arrest him. On Monday 2nd April in Goma, he organised a demonstration of his might by sending twenty jeeps to drive around the streets of the city, all filled with Rwandophone troops, heavily armed with rocket launchers and hand grenades: this sent the whole city and surrounding area into a state of panic.

Kinshasa and Kigali apparently made an agreement on how to handle the arrest of Bosco Ntaganda. However, the delicate questions of finding his replacement and the right time to arrest him are still hanging. Kagame allegedly demanded that an appropriate replacement for Bosco must be found before even beginning to plan any move against him. That is to say, another officer must first be found who would be capable of regrouping the former CNDP troops and preserving their loyalty to Kigali. He apparently had his sights set on Laurent Nkunda, which does not at all suit Kabila’s current interests. Bringing Laurent Nkunda back into the game would be political suicide for the Kabila regime which is still trying to patch up the damage caused by his policy of unlimited alliance with Kagame.

At the moment, Bosco has not only a substantial supply of military equipment, but also troops which are loyal to him, ready to fight to defend him. He is even said to have given his close associates the order to kill him should the situation deteriorate, so that he will not be captured alive. He is also said to be making calls to arms to certain groups such as APCLS, PARECO and SHEKA, in order to have a firing strategy across the entire region, thus forcing his enemies to release their stranglehold on him.

Kigali still needs him to defend his interests in Kivu, and Kinshasa does not have the means to break him without Rwandan support, although EMG/FARDC command in Kinshasa has recently decided to send reinforcements from Kinshasa and Kisangani, including soldiers from regiments formed by Belgian, South African and American troops.

Taking into account the sheer amplitude of the desertions (Rutshuru, Masisi, Walikale, Uvira, Fizi, Baraka, etc….), the Congolese government has so far preferred to use appeasement tactics, presenting the situation as a phenomenon of poor discipline at the heart of the army, easily resolved by sanctioning the problematic soldiers, many of whom are now returning, according to non-verifiable official reports. In a press release published on 6th April, the Congolese government merely called for the army to “strictly observe military discipline towards undisciplined troops who set up non-authorised barricades, disrupted public order and caused alarm amongst the population.”

To demonstrate that the situation is not at all cause for alarm and, above all, that it was not provoked by an uprising of Rwandophone soldiers, supposed to have been integrated into the Congolese army with no problems, the CNDP political party was asked to intervene, using a political statement to clarify their position. The National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) thus condemned the defection attempts made by certain Congolese soldiers. This step was purely symbolic, made to ease ethnic tensions, for appearances’ sake. Until that moment, it seemed that Kigali and Kinshasa were still backing Bosco Ntaganda ; they were doing all they could to avoid any unrest in the region in case further steps were taken to arrest him. Bosco Ntaganda simultaneously protected Kabila’s power and served Kagame’s interests in the north east of the DRC. He knows too much about Kinshasa and Kigali for them to just drop him without taking preliminary “precautions.”

The situation is not as simple as one would think, as Bosco is not only a safety net for Kigali and Kinshasa, but also a business guarantee in the mineral industry, useful to Kagame and to certain authorities close to the Congolese President. Also not to be forgotten are the voices of the Rwandophone population in Masisi and Rutshuru, whose situation has stabilised thanks to the presence of ex-CNDP troops who refused to be posted elsewhere, preferring to “give security to their families”. On the same subject, Congolese Tutsi leaders of Masisi and Rutshuru wrote a memo to explain why they support General Bosco Ntaganda. A careful read of this memo explains what is motivating Kinshasa and Kigali’s reluctance to transfer him to The Hague, as the man knows a great deal about the two regimes and could reveal information which might compromise certain high-ranking officials from both countries. Perhaps the two capitals will consider another way to make Bosco Ntaganda less of a threat. If Ntaganda is arrested in Rwanda, like General Nkunda, Congo will have to wait a long time before judging him.

A CNDP (National Congress for the Defence of the People) representative in exile in France, Jean-Paul Epenge, a colonel in his own country, made a declaration to Africarabia which indicated that the current powers in Kinshasa possess neither the means nor the motivation required to arrest General Bosco Ntaganda, a move the ICC (International Criminal Court) are so strongly calling for.

As for the armed conflict growing in North Kivu, he states that the balance of power hangs in favour of the CNDP, which is capable of destabilising this part of the country without too much trouble. According to Jean-Paul Epenge, this former rebel group remains under the protection of Rwanda, which will not allow it to be wiped out. He also states that Paul Kagame needs the crutch provided by the CNDP to retain his influence over the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is further proof, if it is still required, of Kigali’s manipulation of the CNDP. It could be said that the FARDC have been unwittingly harbouring a “Trojan horse” within their ranks since 2009, capable of causing damage at any moment. This is also evidence that the CNDP is in fact an armed Rwandan force in Congolese territory.

To deliver Bosco Ntaganda to the ICC, which first issued an arrest warrant for him in August 2006, would be, in Epenge’s opinion, extremely risky for the stability of the political institutions of the DRC. Jean-Paul Epenge remains convinced that Kigali would not accept Kinshasa handing over Bosco Ntaganda, who is, according to Epenge, the key to maintaining the fragile peaceful cohabitation currently in place between Rwanda and the DRC..

 f. Kivu: occupied and without peace

According to Patrick Karegeya, former head of the external services of Rwandan intelligence, and Kayumba Nyamwasa, former Chief of Staff of the Rwandan army, the main powers know that Kagame has free reign in Congo, but they do not want to provoke him. One thing is certain: there will not be peace in the Great Lakes region while Kagame remains in power. His intentions are clear: to control the two Kivus and profit from them. Kabila knows he cannot control the east of Congo without Kagame’s help. To put it more precisely, Kabila wants to give the impression that he is still the boss. But the entire economy of the two Kivus is orientated towards Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. Everything is run by partisans and associates of Kagame. In the past, this was the rebel movement of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), and more recently, Laurent Nkunda and now Bosco Ntaganda, both members of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).

For the Congolese people, it is unacceptable that Rwandans behave like the masters of Eastern Congo, and this is understandable. As things stand today, Kabila can still give his partisans and the international community the impression that the East is still part of Congo. But his position has been severely weakened.

Kagame is calling the shots, and all Kabila can do is thank him! The international community is well aware of what is happening behind the scenes in Rwanda and Congo, but is not reacting, which is criminal! When this dormant volcano finally erupts in the not too distant future, foreign diplomats will be hard pushed to claim they did not know what was going on.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has always had difficulty reconstructing its army, its police force and intelligence services… basically its entire security and defence safeguard, 15 years after the fall of the Mobutu regime. Welcomed in 1997 as liberators, the troops of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL) unfortunately brought with them a “Trojan horse” consisting of Rwandan, Ugandan and Burundi soldiers.

Thanks to the war of liberation led against Mobutu from October 1996 to May 1997, thousands of armed forces and foreign “spies” were able to penetrate the secrets of all military bases of the DRC, all of their centres of training or education, military maps, intelligence services, arms and munitions depots, secret security and defence plans and all strategic sites. For a period of twelve months, Rwandans, Ugandans and Burundis were at liberty to go through the bush, forests, rivers, lakes, mountains, hills, plains, valleys, paths, roads, civilian and military airports, ports, dams and factories of the DRC with a fine toothcomb. The Rwandans, Burundi and Ugandans even went so far as to organise a comprehensive purge of our army and our police force, sending thousands of ex-FAZ, Civilian Guard, DSP and Gendarmerie Nationale soldiers and officers either into early retirement or to a senior care home on Kitona military base in the Bas-Congo province. As for many of the experienced, well-trained leaders and detectives from the secret services, they were neutralised and replaced by apprentices who had jumped onto the AFDL bandwagon.

From 1998 to 2003, Ugandans, Rwandans and Burundi returned to DRC under the various guises of the MLC (Movement for the Liberation of the Congo), the RCD (Rally for Congolese Democracy), the RCD-K-ML (Rally for Congolese Democracy – Kisangani – Movement for Liberation), the RCD/N (Rally for Congolese Democracy/National), extending their knowledge on the military and secret service strengths and weaknesses in Congo, a giant with feet of clay.

With the ambiguous retreat of foreign troops from Congolese territory following the signing of the Lusaka agreement in July/August 1999 between the Kinshasa government and the rebel movements, the DRC found itself with its military and security forces completely broken down, a situation which has endured until the present day.

According to certain people from South Kivu, the situation has become complicated by Rwandans returning en masse to Bukavu. Most alarming is that their leaders are still behaving like warlords. Regrettably, some of them are the same people who worked in intelligence with Colonel Jules Mutebusi, one of the craftsmen of the 2004 war. Our sources claim that these new conquerors have regrouped in the Nguba area, on the Rwandan border. They have formed a political party, known as PDF, to enter the country’s political scene by force, although they have other ambitions. As an example, their leader Abas is a civilian, but walks around the town with a military escort counting dozens of heavily armed men. Their aim seems to be to settle down in Bukavu for good, just as they did in Goma in North Kivu.

On 21st March, during a weekly press conference, a question was put to the military spokesperson of MONUSCO to confirm or deny information that the Tutsis were now in control of the rebel movement known as Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). Lieutenant Colonel Félix-Prosper Basse said that “we have noticed contact between the Rwandan and Congolese Hutu from time to time. But he could not say with accuracy whether the Tutsis were now involved in the FDLR.” However, according to various pieces of information from the East of the DR Congo, the rebel movement of the FDLR is indeed essentially controlled by Rwandan Tutsis nowadays. They are said to be the perpetrators of massacres committed against the population of Eastern Congo, particularly in South and North Kivu. The Tutsis’ objective is allegedly to take back their land from the Congolese people.

g. Two positives… or so we hope!

On 29th March, the Interim Provincial Minister in charge of the mines of North Kivu, Adèle Bazizane, declared that eleven out of twenty one mining sites in the Masisi territory had been re-opened for mining.

These sites now bear the “green” label, contrary to the remaining “yellow” or “red” sites. The sites re-opened for mining are as follows: Biabatama, Mataba, Gakombe, Luwowo, Koyi, Budjali, Bishasha, Nyamukubi, Kamatale and Birambo. Here, cassiterite, coltan and wolframite are mined.

The decree deciding to re-open the mines marks the final phase in the process of mineral traceability. This process goes all the way from the extraction wells to exportation, via the trading centres. According to experts from the Provincial Ministry of Mines, the validation of these eleven mining sites means that there are no longer soldiers using the mines for profit, and that human rights are no longer being violated here. This implies that minerals from these mines are no longer “blood minerals”, and can now be labelled and exported internationally. There are already two international certification offices operating in Goma.

On 12 April, the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) signed an agreement in principle with the rebels of Raia Mutomboki in central Shabunda (South Kivu) to bring peace to this territory. According to this agreement, the Raia Mutomboki engaged to lay down their arms and return to civilian life. They set only one condition: a guarantee of their safety. The military authorities declared that they were prepared to enter into dialogue with the Raia Mutomboki and promised to guarantee their safety if they set down their arms. A monitoring committee was set up to maintain communication between the two parties.

The Raia Mutomboki claimed to have taken up arms to protect the local population against attacks by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). The administrator of the Shabunda territory, Louis Boboto, confirmed that a mixed delegation composed of members of the civilian society and local authorities met with the Raia Mutomboki militia on 4th April, with the latter promising to lay down their arms and leave the mission of ensuring civilian safety to the FARDC.

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Translated into English for the project PerMondo ( free translation of documents and websites for NGOs ). Supervised by the translation agency Mondo Agit . Translator: Philippa Criddle

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