DR Congo: "And I don't give a damn for the Fleet Street aficionados. "

Reporters sans Frontières (Paris) Reports

COVERAGE OF ARMY COLONEL’S MURDER IN NORD-KIVU CENSORED

                                                         Colonel Mamadou Ndala

Reporters Without Borders condemns attempts by military and civilian officials in the eastern province of Nord-Kivu to prevent journalists from covering the spectacular murder of an army colonel, Mamadou Ndala, in an ambush near the city of Beni on 2 January.

Several journalists in Beni and the neighbouring Butembo region have been the targets of intimidation attempts in the course of trying to report on the murder.

There are a huge number of question marks over Colonel Ndala's death. Officially it was the result of an ADF ( Allied Democratic Forces ) ambush ( Ugandan Muslim rebels). Goma journalist and blogger Chantal Faida blogs: 

" Since then, this term refers to the traitors working inside for the enemy. Their modus operandi is known: espionage, propaganda, destabilization attempts and attacks. The eastern DR Congo is plagued by repeated wars. It is strangled by armed groups, the main ones: M23 (folded in Uganda), FDLR, ADF / NALU and nebulous "MAIMAI" These are the four groups mentioned columns. And the fifth is within the regular army. If this were not the case, why the general Olenga he speaks often of the "purification" of the troops?Some cases of unsolved murders corroborate this theory of the existence of the "fifth column" within the FARDC."

Chantal is a very sensible commentator and I suggest if she is asking questions alongside Reporters without Borders then FARDC has a major problem developing. Did elements of the Congolese Army kill Colonel Ndala ?

“We condemn the threats that civilian and military officials have made against journalists covering Col. Ndala’s murder and the ongoing investigation,” Reporters Without Borders said.

This time last year I would have and did described FARDC as bunch of thieves and rapists. That changed during the course of last year and we started to see the emergence of a professional military. Jason Stearns at Congo Siasa blogs:   

" In addition, the army is now giving more prominence to the commando battalions, the 321 and 322 trained by the Belgians (a third is currently being trained in Kindu), the 391 trained by the Americans, and one by the Chinese (on the northern front line in Tongo). During the operations last year, these battalions had been mismanaged by the military hierarchy, which dismantled them, sent them to areas where there was little to do, and "sabotaged them by sending them into battle without supplies or knowledge of the terrain," according to one Belgian trainer."

In other words this is a huge step backwards on the part of FARDC.

“The media must be allowed to do investigative reporting and to talk freely about this case without being constantly harassed. Censuring the media’s coverage of this murder just draws attention to the behind-the-scenes rivalries that are affecting the investigation.”

Stearns concludes:

" Of course, the problems of the Congolese army are far from over. As argued here before, the real challenge of army reform lies in tackling the culture of patronage, racketeering and impunity that undermines military discipline and any sense of hierarchy in the armed forces."

Reporters Without Borders added: “We urge the military high command to order their officers to stop this intimidation and we call on the civilian authorities to formally tell the media that they can safely talk about Col. Ndala’s murder, because this information is in the public interest.”

That is a huge understatement. FARDC along with MONUSCO and its offshoot the Intervention ( Africa ) Brigade are tasked with cleaning out the rebels holed up in the East and if FARDC have personnel that are not signed up to this objective then they should be dismissed. Keeping the Eastern DR Congo public and the International Community ( who are funding these operations ) informed of progress and setbacks is an obligation FARDC can't just ignore as inconvenient.

Col. Olivier Amuli, the spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) in Nord-Kivu, publicly threatened two journalists – Austere Malivika of Voice of America and Keny Katombe of Reuters – on 15 January.

What a bloody moron. Again from Jason Stearns:

" Both sources agreed that the departure of dozens of senior officers to Kinshasa––where around 120 officers have been sitting around in hotels in January, ostensibly for training seminars, but in reality awaiting redeployment––helped, as well. "These officers had been embezzling funds and running parallel chains of command. Their departure has simplified the military hierarchy." The Congolese intelligence officer argued: "Some of these people had been in collaboration with our enemies. Getting them out of here helped."

He accused them of “sticking their noses into the army’s business,” in particular, trying to cover the army’s operations against the ADF/NALU Ugandan rebels. And he threatened them with the same fate as journalists in other parts of Africa such as Moussa Kaka (imprisoned in Niger) or Ghislaine Dupont and Jean Hélène (murdered in Mali and Côte d’Ivoire respectively).

Colonel Oliver Amuli should be sacked.

This public threat followed several attempts by Col. Amuli to intimidate them by phone, especially as regards video footage that was filmed a few minutes after the attack on Col. Ndala’s convoy, which Amuli wanted to prohibit.

I have watched that footage and I can't see anything in it that would materially hurt the reputation of FARDC. Colonel Amuli on the other hand has damaged the reputation of FARDC beyond belief with his threats to kill journalists. Not only that but Voice of America and Reuters, the man is fool.

When reached by Reporters Without Borders, the FARDC spokesman for the 8th military region denied that any journalists had been threatened and insisted that the armed forces had a “good partnership” with the media.

I don't believe FARDC. 

Beni’s local media has also been affected by the censorship. Col. Dieudonné Muhima asked Beni’s mayor to prevent local reporters from meddling in the case.

Colonel Dieudonné sounds like he is putting his hand up for dismissal as well. FARDC needs to clean up this mess and clean out the dead wood.

On 7 January, Nord-Kivu governor Julien Paluku Kahongya asked the region’s journalists not to cover Col. Ndala’s murder because this was “obstructing the investigation.” He reversed his position at a news conference two days later, after talking to Reporters Without Borders.

Yes...“obstructing the investigation.” , sounds more like compromising the cover up.

Members of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) threatened freelance reporter Alain Wandimoyi and Agence France-Presse stringer Albert Kambale in Butembo on 4 January, accusing them of knowing too much about Col. Ndala’s death and insisting that they surrender the material they had gathered on the case.

You fight bad information with good information as a certain New Zealand blogger often points out. He is right. Suppressing information has only increased speculation and death  threats aimed at journalists attempts to confiscate information, instructing civil authorities to become involved in the cover up is batshit crazy.

Col. Ndala, who headed the 42nd Battalion’s Rapid Reaction Unit, has been posthumously promoted to brigadier-general. The exact circumstances of his death and the identity of those responsible have not yet been established.

The question is will they ever be established, one has to wonder why FARDC are covering up this. If there is a fifth column operating in the army the arrest the pricks and make it it clear that treason will not be tolerated but do it publically.   

He was combatting the ADF/NALU Ugandan rebels at the time of his death and was very popular with the region’s media because he was always very open and ready to talk to them.

Which of course makes the colonels clowns mentioned above look even more stupid and unprofessional.

Democratic Republic of Congo is ranked 142nd out of 179 countries in the 2013 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

I suspect that will decline as a result of this fiasco.

DR Congo: Why is this a catastrophe ?

DW ( Germany ) Reports

David Zounmenou:"M23 rebel group in DRC weakened by leadership problems"

The UN special envoy to the Great Lakes region, Mary Robinson is visiting the volatile eastern region of the DRC, as fighting between M23 rebels and Congolese troops backed by UN forces continues.

Her one week visit will also take her to neighboring Uganda and Rwanda. The top UN official is responsible for trying to implement a framework agreement, signed in February, to bring about peace in North and South Kivu.

DW: What is it that she possibly can achieve with this visit?

David Zounmenou: The visit is very important given the escalation of violence in the region. The visit will certainly call on various actors to show restraint and put an end to the violence and probably reinvigorate the negotiation process which will help to avoid the kind of catastrophic scenario that we are now foreseeing.

It must be me. I can't see the situation as it is at the moment in Goma, as a catastrophe unless we are looking at it from the perspective of M23. I personally don't give a toss what happens to those murderous bastards. This is exactly the scenario that the UN Security Council envisaged when it authorised the Intervention Brigade ( Africa Brigade ). Voice of America reports: 

GOMA — Residents of Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, are optimistic that the withdrawal of M23 rebels from positions outside the city could bring an end to fighting in the area. The situation is still volatile, as tensions with neighboring Rwanda remain high.

Days after the shelling stopped, the Virunga market in Goma is starting to shuffle back to life.

It’s Sunday - a typically slow day - but many of the shops here are open. Women are folding colorful fabrics, and customers are walking through rows of used blue jeans hanging from wooden posts.

Should a war break out with Rwanda then it might be fair to describe it as a catastrophe. That said Rwanda has to confronted about its ongoing human rights violations in the DR Congo. It is the worlds job to keep the situation under control, we owe the people of Goma that at the very least.  

   

How much influence does she have on the region, will she be able to achieve what she hopes to achieve?

The region has been in the spotlight for a few months now. I think everybody knows what is at stake if nothing is done and that is the reason why the UN has stepped up the game by consolidating the mandate of its peacekeeping mission and by warning the regional actors that have been involved in the conflict to stop providing the support to rebel fighters in the area. So I think she stands a chance to speak to various actors and to call them back to negotiations.

I have no objection to a talk fest but that is all it can be. There is no accommodation possible with M23 they have three choices unconditional surrender, withdrawal to Rwanda or death. Rwanda will not respond to carrots so it must be the stick.  The Intervention Brigade and MONUSCO is part Mary Robinson's stick. Good to see it being used so effectively.  

Shouldn't she have visited the region before the situation escalated?

I think the UN has always been visiting the region. Ban Ki Moon accompanied by the World Bank chief has recently visited Congo to see what was happening on the ground. But there has also been a difficult political process of negotiations unfolding in Kampala. It seems to me the government in Kinshasa didn't give the process the full attention and political commitment it deserves because Kinshasa believes that the M23 organization is at its weakest point for two reasons: Firstly, because the support from Rwanda has dried up probably because of the outcry of the UN group of experts' report and secondly, the leadership issue within the M23 group itself, the sanctions, the departure of Bosco Ntaganda and the dismissal of the political head Bishop Jean Marie Runiga. So all these factors gave Kinshasa the impression that they can step up the game and defeat the group once and for all.

I am skeptical about support from Rwanda having dried up. Jason Stearns at Congo Siasa blogs: 

The most recent fighting appears to have triggered renewed Rwandan support to the rebels, according to UN and diplomatic sources. According to one such source, the M23 launched an attack on FARDC positions in the night of August 22/23, leading UN military observers to believe that the M23 had night-vision equipment. The UN mission has also reported to the Security Council that Rwanda has provided such support. A diplomat told me that his country, a Security Council member, had also confirmed Rwandan support to the M23 in the recent fighting and had spoken with authorities in Kigali about this. According to the same source, most important donors in Kigali were on the same page in this regard.

I have no doubt Kinshasa sees this as an opportunity to rid the Eastern DR Congo of the M23 cancer. I suspect it might be more than just an impression from their perspective. I agree with their thinking.

Where does the current situation leave the Peace, Security and cooperation agreement signed in February 2013? Is it dead or there's still hope that it can be implemented?

I think the agreement still stands and still holds and I think we can still hope for sustainable peace in the Great Lakes region. This is because the agreement signed did give the responsibility to the various actors involved in the conflict. It is up to countries supporting the groups fighting in the DRC to stop doing so and for the Congolese local authorities to undertake political reforms as per the agreement. I think it's time for a political dialogue that will help all countries in the region to avoid a deplorable situation.

Not so sure about that. It will I suspect depend on what happens at the ICGLR meeting this week. I think that Kabila's attendance at the meeting is a mistake and he should have sent if any one a junior official.  

The UN has constantly accused Uganda and Rwanda for supporting the M23, what sort of welcome should she expect from these two countries?

It will be tough and extremely difficult but you also have to understand that Rwanda feels a bit isolated currently and has a limited margin of maneuver. So it will be an opportunity for them to give the other side of the story.

That is hilarious. Rwanda really needs another opportunity to lie.

David Zounmenou is a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, South Africa

Dr Congo : Lets add land reform into a civil war equation.

Voice of America reports

DRC Revises Land Policy

GOMA — Farmers organizations have been meeting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to discuss changes to the country’s land law, which is being revised.  Experts say the current law, mainly dating from colonial times, is out of date and failing to prevent conflict.  The land problems are acute in the country's North Kivu province.

                                            The fertile lands of Masisi in eastern DR Congo

A roadside in Masisi territory.  All around are green hills, lush pastures for herds of cattle.

The VOA team here is discussing how to get the cattle to make a noise. You may have heard one cow there but the rest are just contentedly grazing on this unfenced, seemingly boundless grassland.  But some of the neighbors are not so happy with this state of affairs - like this smallholder farmer who asked for his name to be withheld.

He says the number of cattle in the area has increased because large farmers have bought up the surrounding hills for pasture.  He went on to say that it’s difficult for local people to find anywhere to grow their crops.

It would be interesting to know the quality of the cattle, I am making the assumption that they are beef beasts. If there is a dairy industry then it has made huge strides since 2002. In cattle an emphasis on the quality of the herd is usually far more important than an emphasis on quantity where profitability is concerned.  

  

Milk yields and proportion of dairy animals

Milk yield (kg/year) 

               1980  1990   2000  2002 

Cattle 838  848   825  833

Traveling around this area one notices an odd feature of the landscape.  The plains and valleys, and where the hills rise to a plateau, all areas suitable for growing crops, have been taken for pasture.

That is a major concern meat commands premium prices in  the context of the current anarchy. Add to this the looming food crisis facing sub Saharan Africa and issues that the world faces with regard to food security and the importance of arable cropping land takes on a new focus.

Most of the cultivated areas are on steep slopes.  And those slopes are eroding fast.  Farming advisers say that after a few agricultural seasons they should be left fallow for ten years, but they aren’t.

If it isn't sustainable it isn't farming. It sounds glib but it is a hard reality.

This territory of Masisi is where land conflict first turned into ethnic war in North and South Kivu provinces.  Nearly 20 years ago fighting broke out between the agriculturalists and the ranchers, and many of the cattle were killed.  But since then the ranchers have expanded their territory.

Farmers’ organizations met at a forum in the North Kivu provincial capital Goma this month, to discuss land shortage and land law.

In some ways I am struggling a bit with this. Goma as any reader of this blog would know is at the centre of a huge armed standoff that could revert to civil war in an instant. However that observation aside this issue is one that needs solving.

The speaker is listing the land problems in Masisi.  A major problem, he says, is the competition between agriculturalists and ranchers, and one sign of that are the herders, or cowboys, carrying guns.

Is anyone not carrying weapons in the DR Congo ? I guess just another layer of complication in an already complicated situation.

One of the small farmer representatives from Masisi was Augustin Munyanziza.
He says that there’s now a war in North Kivu caused by the M23 rebels and armed groups like the Raia Mutomboki, but the real cause is the land problem.  He says in Masisi, 70 percent of the land has already been sold as large concessions, with the result that the population lacks arable land.
And it's an ethnic war, he says, because there’s an ethnic dimension to land use.

Some ethnic groups till the soil while others raise cattle, says Munyanziza, and there’s conflict between the two groups which are mainly Hunde, Hutu, Tembo and other tribes on the one hand and Tutsi on the other.

There are in fact so many factors in play that I am struggling to get my head around this. Lets throw mineral rights as distinct from land rights add in territorial ambitions by the DR Congo's neighbours to the east numerous armed militia a UN peace keeping force and a proposed AU peace keeping force.   

Land conflict expert Oumar Syllah, who works for United Nations agency
U.N. Habitat, says it’s too simplistic to suggest the land problems come from one community taking over too much land.

"We need to be careful and not jump to rapid conclusions.  But we know there are a lot of Tutsi dignitaries who take control of land based on their financial power or their political power, and this a reality," said Syllah.

An outdated legal code, Syllah says, has been part of the problem.  He says it fails to protect security of tenure and investment and is largely irrelevant to small or peasant farmers.


OK I can accept that but updating the legal code will do nothing with regard to the security situation. Fiddling while Rome burns springs to mind.

Peasant famers’ rights to their land are based on custom, meaning recognition by their traditional chiefs.  They often have no written documents granting them land rights, and if they do, the documents were usually granted by the chief, and are not recognized by the law.  This can be quite convenient for the chief if he wants to sell the land to someone else.

The land law, which was last updated in 1973, says customary rights to land will be defined by a presidential decree, but that decree has never been issued.

Well that if nothing else sounds normal. " Where sanity ends the Congo begins " .

Oumar Syllah is advising the government on changes to the land law.

"We need to think about how we can have a kind of democratic system for access to land. Right now we have military involvement and influential people involved, which is not in favor of local communities," he said.

​​The organizers of the three-day forum in Goma earlier this month have yet to circulate a clear statement of what was agreed as farmers’ recommendations for land law reform.  In a newspaper article they said it was agreed that the new law should recognize documents given to farmers by traditional chiefs.

That could potentially massively complicate things.

A farmers’ representative at the forum, Safari Gasimba, said that that recommendation should go further.

He said if they are going to lobby for legal recognition for documents issued by chiefs, they should at the same time lobby for democratization at the local level, as laid down in the constitution, so that chiefs will be advised by representatives elected by the local community.

Which of course is another way of moving the chiefs into a ceremonial role. They are going to love that idea. 

The chiefs’ authority is increasingly being challenged in North Kivu, and especially in Masisi, where population movements have meant that many inhabitants no longer recognize the traditional chiefs as their clan leaders.

Is there really in the modern world a place for tribalism ?

Introducing the Congolese Revolutionary Army

Voice of America reports

DRC's M23 Rebels Under Pressure

                        M23 volunteers at Rumangabo training camp in North Kivu province, DRC, October 8, 2012. (N. Long/VOA)




GOMA, DRC — International pressure is mounting on the M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo and their alleged backers. Following the release of a Human Rights Watch report that accused the rebels of war crimes, the United Nations Security Council said it intends to apply targeted sanctions against the M23’s leaders and those sending them arms.

Not really, what sanctions can be applied against the rebels, there is already an arms embargo in place that is being subverted. Where to next, action against Rwanda remains a possibility. The rebels have no interest in international travel so a travel ban won't work.   


The M23 on Monday gave its small force of less than 2,000 combatants a new name -- the Congolese Revolutionary Army.

That speaks volumes for the political ambitions of the group. This is an attempt to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the world. It is not for domestic consumption.

Rebel spokesman Vianney Kazerama told VOA that despite having few fighters, M23 has been able to defeat much larger government forces because it has a cause.

He denied reports from U.N. experts that the M23 has been reinforced by the Rwandan army.

Despite a massive  amount of evidence to the contrary. Whilst I have little doubt that Rwanda has been arming the rebels as well, questions need to asked about just how motivated the Congolese military.

He said the group's leaders, when they were in a previous rebel movement, signed a peace agreement with the government on March 23, 2009, which the government did not respect.

That accord called for the government army to neutralize the Rwandan Hutu rebels that have been in the Congo for nearly two decades after many of them took part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The accord also called for better governance, for a good integration of Congolese rebels into the army and political life, and for the return of some 55,000 Congolese refugees from Rwanda, many of whom have been there for more than a decade.

The Congolese refugees in Rwanda are mostly of the Tutsi ethnic group, as are most of the M23’s commanders and many of its rank and file.

The M23 is a successor movement to other Tutsi-dominated rebellions that conquered parts of the DRC in recent civil wars and aroused strong antagonism among many people.

Since the M23 launched its rebellion earlier this year it is blamed for destabilizing the whole of North Kivu province, where 320,000 people have fled their homes since May.  The group controls only a strip of territory about 120 kilometers from north to south along the borders with Uganda and Rwanda, but has shown it can defeat the regular army.

That is an interesting statement I don't think the army are interested in fighting, but M23 have been bested by the rangers from Virunga National Park.  Here's a thought though, Congo airpower 

" As of 2007, all military aircraft in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were operated by the Air Force. Jane's World Air Forces states that the Air Force has an estimated strength of 1,800 personnel and is organised into two Air Groups. These Groups command five wings and nine squadrons, of which not all are operational. 1 Air Group is located at Kinshasa and consists of Liaison Wing, Training Wing and Logistical Wing and has a strength of five squadrons. 2 Tactical Air Group is located at Kaminia and consists of Pursuit and Attack Wing and Tactical Transport Wing and has a strength of four squadrons. Foreign private military companies have reportedly been contracted to provide the DRC's aerial reconnaissance capability using small propeller aircraft fitted with sophisticated equipment. Jane's states that People's Air and Air Defence Force of Angola fighter aircraft would be made available to defend Kinshasa if it came under attack."

In other words a joke but Pablo at Kiwipolitico points out,

 " I have discussed in various fora the military, intelligence, domestic security and political implications of their use now and in the future. The hard fact is that, bad press notwithstanding, UAVs (aka “drones”) are here to stay and will dominate the air space in the years to come."

This technology is at this well beyond the M23 but not beyond the Congolese government and how long would M23 last against this sort of attack, the psychological effect would be huge. Fairly hard to hide from a missile. Infra-red is bloody useful in jungle situations.

M23 is accused by Human Rights Watch of deliberately killing 15 civilians since June and of executing 33 of its own combatants for trying to desert.

Several of the M23’s leaders are also accused of having command responsibility for massacres, forced recruitment, rape and torture between 2004 and 2008 when they were serving with previous rebel movements.

That would seem likely.


M23 denies the war crimes charges. A civilian spokesman for the movement, Maitre Muhire, spoke to VOA at the rebels' headquarters in Bunagana.

"I’ve read the Human Rights Watch report and what I found is it’s based just on rumors, because those allegations don’t give the area where the supposed crime has been committed, they don’t say the names of the victims, they don’t mention anything which really can be a proof that the crime has been committed," said Muhire.

Muhire said the Congolese NGO which carried out the field work for the report is biased against the movement. He said the M23 has asked for a neutral investigation supervised by the U.N.  He also invited journalists to check out the allegations themselves.

I think he might find that the UN has already done that.

Human Rights Watch and other sources report that the rebels have threatened to kill people who speak out against the movement.

A number of civilians who approached by VOA in areas under M23’s control were reluctant to talk about the rebels’ record, while others complained about soldiers extorting food and other items. Hardly anyone, except one or two who had joined the movement, were singing its praises. 

As I said above the name change is not for domestic consumption.

The M23 arranged for VOA to visit a training camp and meet about 20 men who had recently joined the movement.  Nearly all of these men were in civilian dress and from their age and background it seemed likely that they had volunteered to work as civilian cadres, rather than as soldiers.

I am guessing it is more likely they don't have uniforms or weapons available yet but Rwanda is bound to be coming up with some inept plans to achieve that.

One officer who recently deserted from the Congolese army and gave his name as Douglas was an exception.

He said he had deserted because there was tribal hatred against his people in the army and other soldiers wanted to eradicate them.

A U.S.-based Congolese analyst, Jason Stearns, says incidents in which Tutsi soldiers in the Congolese army have been threatened or murdered by their comrades have helped to spark off repeated rebellions among the Tutsi community.

Stearns also reports that the M23 has recruited hundreds more combatants since its last major clashes with the army in August.  VOA was not allowed walk around the training camp to see any of these new recruits.  Human Rights watch alleges that many of them were recruited by force, many are under 18 and some are under 15.

Hard to judge but I doubt it.