UN should fund Congo peace efforts – Museveni
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has called on the United Nations to fund the operations of the proposed 4,000-strong neutral international force to enable it to pacify eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Museveni is the current chairperson of the International Conference on the Great Lakes (ICGLR), a position held on a rotational basis among all the eleven member states.
Interesting to remember that just two weeks ago the Ugandan Foreign minister was declaring no confidence in the UN.
In a meeting with journalists at his country home in Rwakitura on Monday, Museveni said that he had sent a delegation to lobby for the funding at the UN General Assembly.
“If they fund it, I believe the Tanzanian army can do the job like we have done the job in Somalia. I don’t think the groups in DRC are more dangerous than the Al Shaabab,” he said. Tanzania has offered to contribute troops to the neutral international force. During Heads of State and Government Summit in Kampala early this month, other ICGLR member states were urged to make a similar commitments within one month. The humanitarian situation remains dire in eastern DRC, with over 226,000 people displaced in North Kivu alone in the past several months while over 57,000 Congolese have crossed into Rwanda and Uganda.
That is interesting the AU force has become Tanzanian force I would say reading between the lines. Equally interesting is Alex Engwete blog of yesterday.
" Burundi and Rwanda are now (and have always been) true, and even
conjoined, twins when it comes to wreaking terror, instability, and
pillage in eastern Congo.
And this association has now hatched yet another devious scheme against the DRC.
But, uncannily, with Congolese aiding and abetting!
Sources in the Force de la Défense Nationale du Burundi (FDNL), the
Burundian army, tell me about their frustration at not being able to
put a stop at the vast-scale conspiracy now unfolding in South Kivu."
Alex goes further
At any rate, here's how those sources presented to me the new Rwandan
(and Burundian) strategy:
1) Congolese intelligence agents and assets in South Kivu Province,
especially Uvira and all across the Ruzizi Plain, are in the pocket of
Burundian intelligence;
2) Burundian intelligence agents and assets are in the pocket of
Rwandan intelligence;
3) A massive recruitment drive of combatants is underway in Rwandan
and Burundian refugee camps sheltering Congolese Rwandophones;
4) New recruits have all had some military training or familiarity with weapons;
5) Combatants are then escorted into the DRC by Rwandan military advisors;
6) Some of these combatants are now in the Rubumba hills above the
city Luberizi, and, aping Congolese armed groups, call themselves
"Mai-Mai Obed" (after their leader who's named Obed, a former RCD
officer);
7) In the night of Monday, September 17, Mai-Mai Obed successfully
launched an attack on the FARDC proving ground of Luberizi, looting
the arms depot and killing one soldier (an attack confirmed by a
report filed by Radio Okapi on September 18); and
8) The idea is to spread those "foco groups" inside DRC to stir or to
create "foyers of armed tensions" by setting up fake Mai-Mai groups,
as one of the officers summed up the strategy.
Now remember that both Rwanda and Burundi both sit on the ICGLR and are part of the JVM ( Joint Verification Mechanism ) yet,and I have no reason to doubt Alex or rather his sources, both Rwanda and Burundi are undermining the AU mission. So we appear to have a plan to nuliffy the AU / Tanzanian force before it takes the field.
Back to New Times
In his message to ICGLR Heads of State Summit, held in Kampala, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said the UN stands ready to provide support in cooperation with the African Union, regional and international partners.
The problem is that the UN looks to be supporting an inititive that seems to be being set up to fail. I think funding this might well be a waste of money. Remember the UN is all ready spending around $5 million a day trying to keep a lid on things.
He encouraged bilateral and regional level dialogue aimed at finding a lasting solution by addressing the underlying causes of the conflict.
ICGLR Heads of State will meet again in Kampala early next moth to review progress on the implementation of the decis(ions) taken during the previous summit.
The bottom line is that Tanzania should they decide to become the leading military in the AU force will not face a situation like the situation Uganda did in Somalia. The expansionist ambitions of Kilgali are focused on the Eastern DR Congo and until Kilgali alters its gaze.
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