DR Congo: " Venomous verbs of ruthless candour plagiarise assassins fervour "

Congo DRC News alleges I have translated this from French using Google Translate and then attempted to clean up the result ( against what most people would call good
judgement ). Congo DRC News is an M23 Facebook page. 

All translation mistakes are mine. 

Official Statement of Management of the Movement of March 23. 

We are totally distressed, dismayed, frustrated after new reports of 

summary execution of prisoners of war by the department military Intelligence 

DRC in Kinshasa. 

These are serious allegations. The problem is that they are being made by Bertrand Bisiimwa who is the head of what remains of M23. To call the management of M23 pathological lairs would be being generous.

The executions occurred between the months of July and August 2014. Those executed were soldiers from the National Congress for the Defense of the People, Acronym CNDP, which were integrated into the Government Army to seal the Peace Agreement signed March 23, 2009 between the CNDP and the DRC Government. They were part of the hundred military personnel who were arrested in Goma, Masisi and Beni between May 2012 and August 2013 for the suspicion of belonging to the Movement of March 23. 

The CNDP was the predecessor organisation to M23. The M23 acronym comes from the failure of the integration of the CNDP in the Congolese army ( FARDC ). I don't think it would be unreasonable for the Government of the DR Congo to hold suspicions about former CNDP rebels having connections with M23. Acting on those suspicions without proof and one must assume without judicial process would fall into the category of war crimes. The question remains did it actually happen ?

There are soldiers whose situation remains unknown. They were sent to Kinshasa and kept in different jails with no accessible services under the jurisdiction of FARDC Military Intelligence and subjected to atrocious torture and constant degrading treatment seriously damaging their health.

None of those fitting this category appear to be named. The dead can wait if there are soldiers fitting this designation they should be named, that they haven't been makes me very suspicious. 

Ten of them were summarily executed between the months of 

July and August 2014, They are: 

1 Basanganira Donatien 

2 Mahoro Faustin 

3 Nzirasanaho Emmanuel 

4 Hakizimana Richard 

5 BISENGIMANA Martin 

6 Kivamussa Simpenzwe, 

7 Hakizimana Fidel 

8 Bonane, 

9 Aliete Ndibindela, 

10 Molisho Safari. 

Under international criminal law, the execution of prisoners War is described as
war crime. Nations committing war crimes are liable to appropriate jurisdictions. 

I have had to clean up this a lot to make any sense of it. I assume the point Bisiimwa is trying to make is that the DR Congo government may be accountable to the Hague for these executions if they happened, or they happened without due process. 

Therefore, we are strongly concerned about the fate of other Prisoners of war on the list submitted to the Government for release. Their fate remains unanswered, eight months after signing. ( Nairobi agreement )

As for the " signing "

" So we have three documents; according to the United Nations, Banda and Museveni signed one set, we appear to have photographic evidence to back this up. Then we have Bertrand Bisimwa signing something that that says M23 is finished as a military force, something I would have thought was fairly self evident.  At the same time the government of the DR Congo is signing a third set of papers that seem to bear no relationship with the previous two sets of documents and making matters even worse this is all just speculation on my part as I have not been able to track down the text of any of the documents."

We have as far as I can see no mutually agreed document signed by M23 and Kinshasa. Those who are alleged to have been executed do not fall into the prisoners of war category they according to this article are former CNDP members who had joined the Congolese Army. The failure of Bisiimwa to distinguish again adds huge credibility questions to this report.

Statements of Nairobi. 

It is the same with respect to members Movement of 23 March who returned to the country in response to the many  messages initiated by DR Congo. Despite the Government  commitment to the amnesty. those who returned have been arrested in their homes by the security services and placed in detention without any judicial process. 

As far as I am aware the Congolese Government hasn't encouraged any of the M23 rebels to return. Bisiimwa's credibility as usual is stretched beyond breaking point. The Nairobi agreement is meaningless. M23 have in effect accepted an unconditional surrender and unconditional means just that.

In the city of Goma, we were able to identify 19 cases including 14 at the Central Prison Munzenze: NDAMWENGE BYENDA Daniel KAMBALE MBUSA Felix KAKULE TASI Mark Rwamanywa HABIPFURA, BIAITU FESTO, SEMPEZWE on, SENGIYUMVA Samuel BAHATI Bahari Roger Kalimunda Gerard Kazimoto Desire hamuli RWAMAKUBA Kaigo, Bonane BINEY, BAKUNZI Steve KAYEMBE Ally; 5 to Dungeon the National Agency for Information, ANR acronym Kabasha Olivier Bwira Eugene, Murhula Patrick jeanjacques PRINCE Andrew and SIBOMANA. 

I think we in New Zealand can assume our future head of state is not in gaol in Goma.

We recall that about 100 prisoners of war from CNDP, beneficiaries of the Amnesty agreement of 2009 that the DRC government had asserted to have released and transported in planes to the East are so far still missing. The subject was discussed at the talks in Kampala without agreement. Kinshasa has been criticized for not having delivered the prisoners to the Leadership of the CNDP as stipulated in the agreement.

Five years is a long time.

We denounce and condemn these acts of murder. We just to request from the 

ICGLR and SADC international inquiry to get to some light on this issue 

with similar facts have always legitimized specifications movements 

insurgency. 

Allegations without evidence sums this up. M23 need to provide some hard evidence. I think it reasonable that should the DR Congo government face ICC action over these allegations of war crimes then the M23 should also be held to account for the many Crimes Against Humanity that they are accused of.

Made in Kampala, August 17, 2014 

The President of the Movement of March 23.

Africa: Around the African blogs

I will attempt to update on the African Blogs that have caught my attention on a weekly basis. I am of course bound to miss a huge number so feel free to suggest any you think might be worth future inclusion.  

                                                               Photo Visit Virunga



Rosebell Kagumire blogs  on clean water in Uganda and the UN Millennium goals.

" The failure of such handouts to deliver sanitation solutions has highlighted at this unclogging blockages conference in Kampala. One participant told us how NGOs had built latrines for people in Kampala slums but majority were using these latrines to keep their animals."

Alex Engwete Blogs on DR Congo politics an the maneuvering in Kinshasa.

So forget the antics of drama-queen Kamerhe! The most interesting thing to watch these days is the deadly no-holds-barred power struggle being played out within Kabila's Majorité Présidentielle (MP).

On Thursday, January 30, 2014 this bloody fratricidal power struggle that was being waged behind closed doors broke out in the open at the Grand Hotel in Kinshasa. But prior to that date, there was the ever widening rift between Prime Minister Matata Ponyo--hated within the MP for allegedly effectively plugging money leaks--and Deputy PM and Budget Minister Daniel Mukoko Samba.

Rising Continent - Lions on the move - blogs on whether simplistic interpretations of African events are racist.

“Why is the media coverage, for example, of conflicts in Nigeria and the Central African Republic important to countries in the West that do not appear to be involved in them? Anup Shah, author and owner of the Global Issues website, offers some answers to that question. Shah points out that simplistic views, at worst, are racist, whether intentional or not, and at best, offer no platform on how to move forward.”

Lesley on Africa blogs On the Ugandan Military deployment in South Sudan 

Within days of the outbreak of the violence in mid-December, the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) deployed to South Sudan at the government’s invitation. The UPDF’s mission at the outset was ostensibly to evacuate the over 200,000 stranded Ugandan nationals and to secure strategic installations in Juba. However, several weeks into the operation, President Yoweri Museveni disclosed that the UPDF was also involved in combat operations alongside government forces.

Virunga Mountains Blog Is unique in the Great Lakes Blogosphere. 

" The democratic Republic of Congo is very diverse and its not easy to tell or describe how Congolese look like-though, a stereo-type has been imposed on them by ignorant people. It can be very hard for some of us that have been living in diaspora for long to keep up with the culture. But we do try when we can."

Ann Garrison blogs  Also blogs on the Ugandan military in South Sudan.

" The Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army in Opposition has said that they expect no progress in peace talks regarding the civil war in South Sudan unless Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni withdraws his army from South Sudan, which is there to back up President Kiir's faction of the army, not only with troops but also with artillery and helicopter gunships." 

The Clowns of the Congo Congo DRC News ( M23 ) don't blog

This Account Has Been Suspended  ( Not unusual and no great loss )

The Timbuktu Chronicles blog On Business, highly recommended.

" ...To start out his small operation, Mupuya figured out he needed a capital of 36,000 Ugandan shillings ($14). He raised the first $11 from selling 70 kilos of used plastic bottles he'd collected over one week. Mupuya then borrowed the remaining $3 from his school teacher and embarked on his entrepreneurial journey producing paper bags on a small scale. Since then, the business has grown extensively and today, at the age of 21, Mupuya is the owner of Youth Entrepreneurial Link Investments (YELI), the first registered Ugandan company to make paper bags."

WomanStyles blogs on Bim Fernandez who I have never heard of.

“I play a mean guitar and I’d really like to be like Courtney Love.”

One thing she shares with the rock-star widow of Kurt Cobain is wealth.
Her first single, Let’s Take it Naked, came out only last week but her riches are already up there with the superstars.
Home is a fabulous Manhattan apartment with a Picasso above her bed and a valuable first edition of Alice in Wonderland on the coffee table."

Visit Virunga is not a blog, but the fantastic Gorilla DC blog is undergoing maintenance, that said the great new is that the Park is again open for business. I will update with the blog details but go visit the new site.   

DR Congo: Victory

DW TV reports

M23 rebels to lay down arms in east Congo

                                                          Bisimwa called for the M23 militia to lay down their arms

The Democratic Republic of Congo's M23 rebels have ended an 18-month insurgency in one of Africa's deadliest conflict zones. As news spread, it became clear that this was what people had long been hoping for.

I guess reality had to strike home eventually although it has taken a hell of a long time. I can no longer link to the M23 propaganda site Congo DRC News although I have several articles they published reproduced on this blog should any reader feel the urge to indulge in a bit of batshit crazy. I am actually going to miss the site and the morons who wrote for it, there was a certain satisfaction knowing that no matter how uninformed my views on the conflict were they at least made a lot more sense than anything M23 had to contribute. 

   

The M23 group surrendered Tuesday, saying it would "end its rebellion" and instead pursue their goals "through purely political means." The announcement came just hours after more than 200 rebels were coaxed from their hilltop positions within the M23 strongholds of Tshanzu and Runyoni early Tuesday morning.

I would imagine it didn't take much coaxing in the end.

Group leaders called on fighters to lay down their arms following a fortnight of fighting that cornered the militia in heavily wooded hills along the border with Rwanda and Uganda.

"The chief of staff and the commanders of all major units have requested to prepare troops for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration on terms to be agreed with the government of Congo," M23 leader Bertrand Bismwa said in a statement.

Bismiiwa has as usual got it wrong. M23 have been defeated they will take what ever terms are offered them. Those terms should and I think will include criminal indictments for the M23 leadership, I hope that they are handed to the ICC. 

'Victory for the DRC'

In response to the announcement, government spokesperson Lambert Mende commented that, "It is a total victory for the DRC." The rebels, he added, who had been flushed from the hills, fled to neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

More than 80 M23 rebels crossed the border into Uganda, Ugandan army spokeperson Paddy Ankunda said, adding the men were being held until a diplomatic decision was made on their fate.

That decision will not be an easy one.  

The army began a major offensive against the rebels on October 25, gradually claiming the rebel-held strongholds until the intransigent M23 militia was forced into the mountains about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the regional capital, Goma.

By Sunday (03.11.2013), the insurgents had called for a ceasefire, but the army pursued their assault along with United Nations troops. The UN special force had up until then been assisting the military with aerial reconnaissance, intelligence and planning, but joined fighting after being given the go-ahead to attack the mountain region.

The Intervention ( Africa ) Brigade deserve special recognition. They have saved MONUSCO and the UN mission to the eastern DR Congo. I would expect that the UN may well rethink how it operates peace keeping missions as a result.

Since the ceasefire was called, the UNHCR has received over 5,000 Congolese to their transit center, 20 kilometers inside Uganda. That, Lucy Beck, the UNHCRs external relations officer told DW "was the biggest amount of refugees we've ever transported in one day from the border." Since fighting began, she added, "The organization had assisted more than 75,000 people who arrived in Uganda from the DRC." 

There must be repercussions for the M23 leadership, thousands have died War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity have been perpetuated by M23, there is no place for impunity, we the world owe the victims justice.

An issue of amnesty

At the SADC meeting of regional leaders being held in South Africa on Tuesday, DRC President Joseph Kabila said he would sign a peace deal within the coming days if the M23 rebel group laid down their arms.

Russell Feingold, US special envoy to the Great Lakes Region of Africa, said the deal needed to raise the issue of amnesty and reintegration of rebels into the army to ensure its durability.

Russell Feingold should resign, there is no room for an amnesty and there is no place for the rebels in the Congolese Army. Jason Stearn blogs,

" There is no doubt that the FARDC is performing much better now than in 2012. Its command structure has been changed and streamlined, beginning with the appointment of General Lucien Bahuma as regional commander in June 2012, and of General François Olenga as land forces commander in December 2012. These commanders have paid more attention to making sure logistics were in place and salaries paid on time, boosting soldiers' morale and enabling the newly-trained commando battalions to do their job. Then, in January 2013, over a hundred officers––many of them from the Kivus––were invited to Kinshasa under the pretext of a seminar on army reform (they are mostly still in Kinshasa today). This simplified the military hierarchy in North Kivu, which had become clogged up with competing chains of command, a coterie of high-ranking officers embezzling funds and issuing contradictory orders. "

In short there is no place for the rebels and I doubt any of the FARDC leadership or rank and file would want them. The Congolese army is starting to look and act like a professional military, why would anyone want to destroy that progress ?

"In a region that has suffered so much, this is obviously a significant positive step in the right direction," he said. Those suspected of serious human rights violations, he added, should be sought out and not aided through amnesty.

Obama needs to recall this fool. Any human right violation is serious, I would have thought that might have dawned on the idiot.

Support for a peace accord

In a show of support, women in the capital, Kinshasa, dressed in white and chanted songs praising the country's leader and the army. One woman told DW, "We've suffered so long from this war. Now we are very happy." Another added, "There will be change now. The president promised that when the war was over. Now we have to love each other."

I await Alex Engwete's take on this with considerable interest. 

In response to the announcement, the United States said it was a "significant positive step" for eastern Congo, a region that has endured more than 15 years of conflict as competition for gold, copper and cobalt intensified along with cross-border ethnic tensions.

As the conflict with the M23 draws to a close, Martin Kobler, head of the 19,850 UN backed peacekeeping mission in the DRC, said their efforts would now turn to the countless number of armed groups operating in the east, including the Rwandan Hutu FDLR that fled across the border after the 1994 genocide.

"We have teeth, and we are using those teeth," Kobeler said from Pretoria, making reference to the 3,000-troop intervention brigade currently stationed in the DRC.

Martin Kobler is spot on and he has picked his next target well. I have seen many fools suggesting that the FDLR have been allied to the Intervention Brigade and even bigger fools attempting to justify the existence of these genocidal killers. They must be next armed group to be brought to justice. The International Community needs to make it very clear that you can run but we will never stop looking and justice will be done. 

While many peace deals have been signed in the past, there is hope this recent accord will stand firm and send a message to other rebel groups across the DRC and the greater African continent.

What accord ? 

"The military victories over the M23 will send a very strong message to the many other armed groups operating in the east," said Stephanie Wolters of the Institute of Strategic Studies in Pretoria.

"It may prompt them to consider the advantages of a negotiated solution over a drawn-out military campaign."

I doubt it. 

" The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct."
Marcus Tullius Cicero 

DR Congo: M23, Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity amongst the lies.

Congo DRC News reports, ( this is a M23 website and as such a work of fiction particularly following M23's defeat at the hands of the Congolese army FARDC ) It is translated from French by an unknown translation service and I have attempted to clean it up, all translation mistakes are mine.

WITHDRAWAL OF M23 IS NOT A SIGN OF WEAKNESS

                                                                                                  M23 Rebels

Sunday, October 2013 27, the rebels of the "M23" took the decision to abandon some of their positions. These are Kiwanja, Rutshuru, Rubare Rumangabo, etc.. A courageous act that was interpreted by the government, not only as a sign of weakness, but as a victory for the government forces of rebellion. And yet, it was far from this: it is in no way a sign of weakness and even less a victory for government forces. It is a withdrawal after a long period of internal consultations. We had to avoid a bloodbath in cities where the population would be the victims of violence that could be avoided. That's what M23 wanted to avoid. But what has happened ?

Whilst I have come to expect lies from M23, they have a major problem running this line. 

" We had to avoid a bloodbath in cities where the population would be the victims of violence that could be avoided."

The New Zealand Herald reports.

GOMA, Congo (AP) The Congolese army took three towns in eastern Congo Sunday in fresh fighting against the M23 rebels, said the army spokesman.

The army says it has found two mass graves in Kibumba, a town it took on Saturday, according to the provincial governor.

The army on Sunday gained control of Rutshuru, Kiwanja and Buhumba towns in the Rutshuru area of North Kivu province, near Congo's border with Rwanda, army spokesman Lt. Col. Olivier Hamuli told The Associated Press.

There will be more discovered as the Congolese Army reasserts Congolese control over the rebel held territory.  M23 presents as a domestic Congolese organisation, they are actually Rwandan terrorists and we can be sure that more evidence of their crimes against humanity will come to light. The DR Congo doesn't often make the mainstream news in New Zealand and as a New Zealander I am saddened that it should do so for this.

CTV News ( Canada ) reports

" In Kibumba, the army discovered two mass graves, North Kivu Governor Julien Paluku told AP. The army has been ordered not to touch the graves so that they can be investigated by the government and the United Nations peacekeeping mission to Congo."

I can only hope that those responsible are identified and brought to justice.

Deployment Brigade MONUSCO Kiwanja

On 16 October 2013, the special services of M23 based Kiwanja report ten "Puma" helicopters of MONUSCO at Kiwanja Airfield.  Service agents manage to infiltrate the MONUSCO operation and see things up close. Their report is explicit: it was a contingent of about 300 Tanzania, South African and Congolese FARDC soldiers.

The most daring members of the contingent sought to establish military positions in the area known as the Kamulima (near the residence of a chieftain of the PPRD, former RCD and native Nyanzale). They were challenged by the M23 forces and returned to the MONUSCO base at Kiwanja.

This account is of course contradicted by the media reporting on the defeat of M23 and whilst one can choose who to believe it is clear to me where credibility lies and it isn't with M23. More from CTV News. 

" United Nations forces are not participating in the fighting, but are in armoured personnel carriers and jeeps with mounted machine-guns several kilometres behind the army forces."

The day began with clashes at Kibumba followed by those Mabenga Ngwenda and then the joint forces looked for M23 on the battlefield, the operations of the joint quota (undercover MONUSCO) began at night as they infiltrated Kiwanja and armed civilians. On the third day of the general government attack (the fronts of Kinyandonyi of Kahunga and Kibumba), the coalition forces were retreating everywhere. Civilians armed by the joint quota forces began to push throughout Kiwanja. Fortunately, in less than an hour, police intervention dissuaded them  from continuing.

Again this isn't backed up any way by accounts from reporters on the ground.

" The population of Kiwanja indicates that in the last hours of fighting, the M23 rebels fought in civilian clothes before retiring to 9 pm local time to Bunagana, a border post with Uganda." 

I have no doubt the " armed civilians " were M23 rebels who fearing death had removed their uniforms. Had they been armed civilians then I doubt very much there would be an M23 member alive today to make up this crap.

The following day  about ten o'clock in the morning, the defensive line of M23 at Kahunga had reached the Mabenga bridge the uniformed FARDC brigade arrived at Kiwanja with the UN Intervention Brigade, as well as hundreds of civilians armed with Kalashnikovs, who appeared in almost all the streets and avenues of Kiwanja.

Again we can discount this version of events, it however strikes me that if you are going to lie it would be wise to try and disguise the lie in a way that is at least credible to the gullible, this is something that M23's sponsor Rwanda also struggles with.   

The police could not contain the horde, however, they held them in waiting until the arrival of a group of M23 rebels came to Rutshuru to cover the retreating M23 forces, back from the Kahunga Mabenga front. They  carried out an orderly withdrawal through Kiwanja and Rutshuru, firstly, to avoid the trap of FARDC-FDLR-BRIGADE/UN coalition had set for M23 of shooting the armed civilians and being accused of massacring civilians, and, on the other hand, to retreat to the Bunagana base.

Bunagana is a border post between the DR Congo and Uganda, you can draw your own conclusions.