DR Congo: M23 try the bat shit crazy play

New Vision reports

Congo M23 rebels boycott peace talks

By Raymond Baguma
KAMPALA - The M23 rebel delegation on Monday failed to turn up for the ongoing dialogue at Speke Resort Munyonyo.

                                                Speke Resort Munyonyo

A special session had been convened to enable Congolese foreign affairs minister Raymond Tshibanda respond to M23’s allegations against the Congolese government of Joseph Kabila.
Not a lot of good faith present. That is important in negotiations.
The talks between the Congolese government and M23 opened on Sunday amidst tension with the rebels’ executive secretary, François Ruchogoza, accusing Kabila’s government of ignoring the problems facing eastern Congo and the social exclusion of some people in the region.

“The security situation in the eastern part of our country is partly explained by the central government’s refusal to recognise that there are internal problems that must be diagnosed and treated in depth. It is also the expression of a visible consequence of poor governance characterised by the lack of visionary leadership,” Rucogoza had said.

In response, minister Tshibanda protested and said the dialogue would only continue after the DRC government delegation responded to the accusations made by the rebels.

The bad faith is at a level that I suspect a solution may well have to be imposed on them. We are still at the agenda setting stage for the real talks in Goma so I would think the risks are not to high at this stage.  

On Monday, Uganda’s defence minister Dr. Crispus Kiyonga, who is the chief facilitator of the dialogue, said he had called the meeting guided by the principle of the right of reply to enable the DRC delegation to respond.

Kiyonga said he had informed M23 who were expected to attend the special session.

However, he later received a message from the rebels, saying their delegation would not attend. Also, the session’s starting time was extended to enable the rebels to be present.

Kiyonga said: “I personally rang the M23 leader and appealed to him to turn up for the meeting. But the M23 leader said he was under instructions not to attend this particular meeting.” Kiyonga, however, said the rebel delegation was still in Kampala.

I wonder who issued that instruction ? Kilgali's ?


The Congolese government delegation asked Kiyonga to avail another time today and prevail upon the M23 delegation to attend the session.

I suspect they have made their point.

DR Congo: Predictable in some ways

" In a world with no systems, with chaos, everything becomes a guerilla struggle, and this predictability is not there. And it becomes almost impossible to save lives, educate kids, develop economies, whatever. "

Bill Clinton

The Daily Monitor ( Uganda ) reports

DRC threatens to cancel talks

Talks between the M23 rebels and the Kinshasa government started on a bad note in Kampala yesterday, with the Congolese government threatening to pull out of the negotiations.

The trouble started when the secretary general of the rebels, Mr Francois Tuyihimbaze Rucogoza, who is heading the delegation, accused the DRC government of tribalism, xenophobia and killing Kinyarwanda-speaking government soldiers.

Good to see things off to such a positive start.

“M23 is a Congolese movement but we are called foreigners because there are some Kinyarwanda-speaking leaders. The current president (Kabila), has signed several agreements but he has not implemented any. We want the regional leaders to establish a mechanism to follow up whether this agreement will be implemented,” Mr Rucogoza said.

It is hard to see how regional leaders will be able to do so with out Kinshasa's authority. 

Accusations
Mr Rucogoza also accused the Kinshasa government of corruption and failing to improve the living conditions of people in eastern DR Congo.

Congolese Minister Raymond Tshibanda, who had given his remarks before Mr Rucogoza, asked Uganda’s Defence minister Crispus Kiyonga, who is mediating the talks, to respond to the accusations, saying the M23 were using the platform to “taint the image” of his government.

“It’s unacceptable for people who have AK7 as their legitimacy to taint the image of those elected by the people Congo. We request to be given the same opportunity to respond or else we will not continue with these negotiations,” Mr Tshibanda said.

So we appear to have agreement on both sides to withdraw from negotiations.

He had calmly presented his speech and promised that they were open to talks. But he said the DRC government would not allow rights abuses and sovereignty in their territory.

Dr Kiyonga promised to give equal opportunity to both parties but adjourned the meeting to today. He said the meeting was to set ground rules before holding more talks in Goma.

Good fucking luck with that Dr Kiyonga.