DR Congo: " You've finished playing hangman, you've cast the fateful dice"

The Security Council  has announced

SECURITY COUNCIL PRESS STATEMENT ON DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, GREAT LAKES REGION

                                                            FDLR criminals

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Mark Lyall Grant ( United Kingdom):

On 7 August, the members of the Security Council heard briefings by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Head of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), Martin Kobler, the outgoing Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes Region, Mary Robinson, and the Minister for Defence of Angola, João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, in his capacity as representative of the Chair of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR). The members of the Security Council welcomed the nomination of Said Djinnit as Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes Region.

So the only thing worth noting from that is that Said Djinnit is / is to be / might be / the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General. Somewhat at odds with his bio. in Wikipedia.

" Said Djinnit (Arabic: سعيد جينيت‎) (born June 7, 1954) is an Algerian diplomat who has been Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for the Great Lakes region in Africa since 2014. Previously he served as the Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA)."

On the whole I think Wikipedia is more likely to be correct than Mark Lyall Grant, who either clearly can't read or has the ability to alter the decisions of the UN Secretary General from this blog July 20.  

" To continue building on her work, the UN Secretary General recently announced the appointment of Said Djinnit, former Special Representative of the Secretary General for West Africa, to succeed Robinson. Ambassador Djinnit's appointment is a reassuring and welcomed sign of the UN's sustained commitment to the Great Lakes."

This blog has long argued for Security Council reform, this whilst minor is yet another example of an organisation that is out of all touch with reality. 


The members of the Security Council welcomed the progress against armed groups, including the military defeat of the 23 March Movement (M23), the signing of the Nairobi Declarations by the Democratic Republic of the Congo Government and M23, and the significant weakening of the Allied Democratic Forces—National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU), but regretted that no significant progress was made towards the neutralization of the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR). They noted the initial efforts made by the Democratic Republic of the Congo Government and the Governments of the region towards fulfilling the commitments made under the Peace Security and Cooperation Framework, including the development of national and regional benchmarks. The members of the Security Council welcomed the efforts of regional organizations, in particular the role of the ICGLR, including that of President José Eduardo dos Santos as Chair, as subsequently demonstrated by the holding of two Heads of State and Government Mini-Summits in Luanda ( Angola) on 25 March and on 14 August.

For fucks sake M23 were defeated last year. The Nairobi Declarations signed by the Congolese Government were not the same declarations that were signed by M23 and for some reason Mark Lyall Grant seems unaware that there was in fact a third declaration signed in Nairobi. All had different text and all are totally meaningless.


" 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."

As for the weakening of the Ugandan rebels ADF that is progress. Bloody slow progress but progress. The FDLR, my gut feeling is that they will not comply with the six month time frame to disarm. If MONUSCO and its component part the Intervention ( Africa ) Brigade want to maintain credibility they should be preparing a devastating response to be visited on the FDLR the day they go over the deadline. Genocidal killers deserve no respect. In the interests of avoiding unnecessary deaths, the FDLR have had ample time to demobilise.

The members of the Security Council reaffirmed their support for the swift neutralization of FDLR, as a top priority in bringing stability to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes region. They recalled that leaders and members of FDLR were among the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, during which Hutu and others who opposed the genocide were also killed, and recalled that FDLR is a group under United Nations sanctions, operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and which has continued to promote and commit ethnically based and other killings in Rwanda and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They expressed deep concern regarding the sustained domestic and regional threat posed by FDLR, including recent reports of continued human rights abuses by members of FDLR and continued recruiting and training of combatants, including children, and stressed the importance of disarming and ending the threat caused by this illegal armed group.

As I said above if the FDLR think they can play games with the world it is time they reflected upon the fallacy of that position and if they do so from the perspective of watching the grass grow above them so be it.

The members of the Security Council took note of ongoing ICGLR and Southern African Development Community (SADC) diplomatic efforts to harmonize views and approaches on the neutralisation and unconditional disarmament of FDLR. They further took note of the six-month timeframe for the voluntary surrender of FDLR from 2 July and the review of progress after three months, as set out by the joint ICGLR-SADC meeting of Ministers of Defence on 2 July. They expressed concern about reports by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of the Congo that FDLR has interpreted this six-month timeframe as a call to stall previously scheduled demobilizations. They noted that the disarmament process should be concluded swiftly, have a clearly defined end state and be supported by credible military action. Meanwhile, they encouraged the Democratic Republic of the Congo Government, in coordination with the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), to actively pursue military action against those leaders and members of FDLR who do not engage in the demobilization process or who continue to carry out human rights abuses. They underlined MONUSCO’s mandate to neutralize all armed groups, in line with resolutions 2098 (2013) and 2147 (2014), and further underlined their support for an effective disarmament, demobilization, repatriation, reintegration and resettlement programme, paying a particular attention to women and children, as part of the demobilization process.

That is a Security Council authorisation for MONUSCO to neutralise kill the bastards. They deserve it.

The members of the Security Council took note of the technical missions carried out by the Democratic Republic of the Congo Government-led delegations to Uganda and Rwanda in April and July, respectively, to assess and process amnesty requests for former M23 combatants, in preparation for the repatriation of those eligible for reintegration, and underlined the need to fast-track and conclude their return to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in accordance with an agreed timetable. In this regard, they encouraged the parties to speed up the implementation of the Kampala Dialogue/Nairobi Declarations in order to ensure the permanent demobilization of M23.

What fucking dreamland are the Security Council living in ? Security Council President Mark Lyall Grant is a bloody fool. M23 have not gone away and will not go away " ...the permanent demobilization of M23." As I said we need Security Council reform. Mark Lyall Grant is an idiot.
The members of the Security Council called for the full and swift implementation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s national commitments under the Peace and Security Council Framework, including the restoration of State authority and the wider governance, economic and security sector reforms needed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to consolidate the progress made so far. They noted in this context the particular importance of security sector reform, including the establishment of a rapid reaction force. They stressed that the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo bears primary responsibility for security, protection of civilians, national reconciliation, peacebuilding and development in the country.

Nothing unreasonable there, other than how ? Easy let's repatriate to the DR Congo all the receipts of all the wealth stolen from them... yup billions upon billions of dollars. America you are fucked and the UK with you your economies just failed due to debt failure.

Or we could do what we are doing now and a lot more... not just leave the DR Congo to spend another century in hell.

The members of the Security Council commended the work of Special Representative of the Secretary-General Kobler and outgoing Special Envoy of the Secretary-General Robinson, and underlined the continuing crucial role of MONUSCO in protecting civilians and promoting peace and stability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They stressed the importance of the troop-contributing countries’ role in the implementation of the Mission’s full mandate, including the neutralization of all armed groups through its Intervention Brigade, in support of the authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, either unilaterally or jointly with the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC), and in cooperation with the whole of MONUSCO. They further emphasized the importance for MONUSCO to support and work with the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to arrest and bring to justice those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. They also stressed the need to continue to increase the effectiveness of the Mission, and looked forward to the outcome of the forthcoming Strategic Review of MONUSCO and the wider United Nations presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Gobbledygook at its best.

The members of the Security Council encouraged the United Nations, the African Union, ICGLR, SADC and other relevant international and regional organizations to continue to work together to support the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Governments of the region towards the full implementation of the national and regional commitments under the Peace and Security Council Framework.

New Zealand is running for a seat on the Security Council and I think we might get it. I hope we don't. The last thing the world needs right now is us.

DR Congo: FDLR " We don't need no uniforms, we have no disguise "

IRIN Reports

Fighting an invisible enemy in DRC

BISHONGERA, 9 April 2014 (IRIN) - It is difficult to identify the fighters of the Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), one of the many armed groups active in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), some of whose leaders played a key role in Rwanda’s genocide 20 years ago. Bearing neither uniform nor insignia, they are indistinguishable from the civilian population. 

The pangas (long knives) the FDLR carry in North Kivu Province’s Rutshuru Territory village of Bishongera are commonplace within agricultural societies and the AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades have been stashed since the DRC national army (FARDC) and Malawian soldiers from the UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC’s (MONUSCO) Force Intervention Brigade (FIB)began preparations in the area for an offensive against them. 

I very much doubt the weapons have been stashed. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised to find that the shooting of Virunga National Park head ranger Emmanuel de Merode was the result of FDLR activity.

The trick, according Patrice Munga*, a civil society activist based in Tongo a few kilometres down the mountainside, is to look at the footwear. “The ones wearing the gumboots - they are FDLR.”

That is fairly flimsy when it comes to positively identifying FDLR combatants. Shooting a guy because of the footwear he is wearing is a hell of a big call. 

In the valley below, a UN helicopter gunship traverses Virunga National Park. The clatter of its rotors does not elicit a glance from the roughly 10 young men in gumboots, some brandishing pangas, gathering around the only bench in the village where a senior FDLR officer, Agathe Nzabonimana*, wearing black shoes, sits. He barks orders at the encroaching men in Kinyarwanda and they move away.

Which suggests if a IRIN journalist can elicit this information then boosting the intelligence gathering ability of the Intervention ( Africa ) Brigade should be a priority.

He tells IRIN: “We [FDLR] don’t have uniforms. We don’t have support from a foreign country” - a direct nod to M23, an alleged proxy force of neighbouring Rwanda.

It is hardly comparing apples with apples. The FDLR are genocidal Rwandan rebel group attempting to establish an exclusive Hutu regime in Rwanda. M23 were a bunch of murderous Rwandan / Congolese thugs at the hard end of Rwandan efforts to colonise the Eastern DR Congo.

M23 was the first armed group targeted by FIB, established after a February 2013 UN Security Council resolution to “neutralize” and disarm all armed groups in the country. FIB has since moved its sights to other armed groups. 

The 3,069 strong FIB - a unit shorn of any civilian functions - is made up of soldiers from Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania and equipped with heavy weapons and helicopter gunships and works in tandem with the FARDC. Military operations in North Kivu Province are either under way, or in preparation, in the districts of Masisi against Janvier Buingo Karairi’s Alliance des patriotes pour un Congo libre et souverain (APCLS); in Beni against the Allied Democratic Forces(ADF-Nalu) an anti-Ugandan militia; and in Rutshuru against the FDLR. 

I am not on the ground but it would seem to me that the a reason that the Intervention Brigade was so successful against M23 was its refusal to be stampeded into action. The brigade took its time getting organised and as a consequence took a lot of flack   it was the the right decision as subsequent events have proved. M23 collapsed in a spectacular fashion. I think dealing with each group in a sequential way might well be less popular but ultimately more successful.  

" The intervention brigade, consisting of Tanzanian, South African and Malawian soldiers, was created by the U.N. Security Council in March and has deployed to Congo over the past few months, reinforcing 17,000 U.N. blue helmets already with MONUSCO. The brigade has a stronger mandate than past U.N. peacekeeping missions and is authorized to fight the rebel forces operating in eastern Congo.

There has been widespread skepticism in Congo that the intervention brigade will be a game-changing addition to the existing U.N. force, which stood by when M23 fighters briefly captured Goma late last year.

Main roads through Goma were blocked early Saturday by burning tires and crowds chanting anti-MONUSCO slogans.

Kobler, the U.N. mission chief, called on Goma residents to protect his staff after angry crowds tried to march on the mission headquarters there.

He said he understood people's impatience to see an end to rocket attacks "but the U.N. are not the enemy."
A host of NGOs in a joint 5 March 2014 correspondence to the Security Council on the renewal of the “robust” military mandate noted the “upcoming military operations carry with them high risks for the civilian population of DRC”. 

But the heavy weaponry of the intervention brigade - which proved decisive against M23 – will be less effective against the FDLR, which has integrated within Congolese communities over the past two decades. 

Agreed. But MONUSCO is not without significant intelligence gathering assets.

FDLR mix with civilians 

In Tongo, where soldiers are gathering with the support of FIB’s Malawian contingent, an FARDC major in the 601 Regiment - more commonly referred to as the Chinois commandos in deference to their three years of training by Chinese military instructors - told IRIN “the difference between M23 and the FDLR, is that the FDLR mix in with civilians. 

“M23 had military emplacements, so when we used heavy weaponry, we knew we were hitting military targets. It makes FDLR very hard to attack… The FDLR is essentially using them [civilians] as human shields,” he said. 

“There are FDLR in every village [of the Rutshuru operational zone]. The local population does not collaborate [with the FARDC] as they fear retribution after we leave. So they will not identify the FDLR,” the major said. 

The reality is that the FDLR are a cancer inflicted upon the Eastern DR Congo and they need to be eliminated. If that means garrisoning the Rutshuru zone then so be it. Establish safe zone around the villages and take the genocidal bastards out.

Nzabonimana dismisses the notion. “We live very well with the population. Why is it necessary to do this operation? I have no problem with the FARDC, but if they come here, they will kill the population… I am not afraid of the FARDC. I have been through two [anti-FDLR operations] and I am still here.”

There are 18,000 regular MONUSCO troops, 3000 Intervention Brigade troops with the right mandate for the job ( ie the ability to shoot first and between the eyes ) as well as FARDC ( Congolese Army ). 

FDLR was formed by the remnants of the Forces armées rwandaises (FAR), the national army of Rwanda, and the Interahamwe, a Hutu Power militia that drove the genocidal ideology and led the 1994 genocide. After 20 years in neighbouring DRC, the armed group has survived by recruiting from the local population. Even so, its strength has diminished from more than 10,000 to about 2,000 over the years, according to some estimates.

I am guessing they are the true believers in their insane ideology of racial hatred.  

Although the FDLR has made several vain appeals for talks with Kigali over the years, some of its leaders have never fully renounced their Hutu Power ideology – which provided the genocide’s “logic” and their ambitions to seize power by force in Rwanda. 

You don't negotiate with terrorists. You accept their unconditional surrender or eliminate them. It is that simple and much as I oppose the current Rwandan regime Kigali is correct not to accept anything short of surrender. That said guarantees for the safety of those who opt to surrender should also be in place.

“We are called criminals by Rwanda” 

Nzabonimana’s roughly six-year-old daughter - he will not say whether the mother is Congolese or Rwandan - rests her head in his lap, her nose streaming from an infection. The only evidence of humanitarian assistance in Bishongera are some faded NGO logos and a water pump. “After 20 years I still feel like a visitor here [in the DRC]… The only thing we want is to look for our rights. They are not here in Congo.” 

What rights. The right to a life that he presumably denied to those murdered in the Rwandan Genocide and has continued to deny to those Congolese civilians murdered by the FDLR.

A construction engineering graduate, he served four years with FAR and has spent the last 20 years with FDLR. 

In other words he has wasted his life to date.

“The general question I always ask myself is why we are called criminals by Rwanda. When the genocide happened I was fighting the RPF [Rwandan Patriotic Front], an invading force. The solution is negotiations between FDLR and [President Paul Kagame’s] Rwanda… Why were there negotiations with M23, but no negotiations with FDLR. I cannot go back to Rwanda. I will be imprisoned or killed,” Nzabonimana said.

You are called a criminal because you are a member of a criminal organisation.   

Bishongera is one of four villages on the about 14km path to Tshai from Tongo where the FDLR’s North Kivu commander, General Ntawugunka “Omega” Pacifique Israel, is thought to be based with more than 1,000 soldiers. 

The objective, the FARDC major said, “is for FDLR to surrender with their weapons. So they can be returned to their county [Rwanda]. Dispersing them is no good. It will be very difficult to bombard Tshai because of the mix [of civilians and FDLR fighters].” 

So force the FDLR out of Tshai. Garrison the town. Those FDLR who remain arrest or accept their surrender and return them to Rwanda under the agreed surrender mechanism.
An FDLR defector, taken into custody by FARDC in Tongo, Céléstin Ibaka*, told IRIN the FDLR did not want to fight the FARDC and “if attacked we will run.” 

I suspect that it isn't just FARDC they don't want to fight. My feeling is the rank and file don't want to fight at all anymore. Take advantage of that and offer a attractive alternative.

In March 2014 the FARDC captured Kilometre Nine, an FDLR bush-base of about 20 soldiers on the Virunga National Park road between Kalangera and Tongo. After a 25-minute fire-fight, with the support of Malawian troops, the position was overrun and two FDLR soldiers killed, according to FARDC.

I can't imagine defeats of that nature do much for FDLR morale. The combined forces arrayed against the FDLR brings to mind the famous words of Theodore Roosevelt: “If you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.” 

Decreasing FARDC-FDLR collaboration?
 
In the past FARDC has had “discreet alliances” with FDLR, Christoph Vogel, a DRC researcher based at the University of Zurich, told IRIN, but from a high point 10-15 years ago “the long-term trend of this collaboration appears to be decreasing… 

“More recently, with FARDC struggling to get rid of the M23, interactions between FARDC and FDLR certainly increased again, but the co-option politics of the Congolese army go much farther than that - also APCLS, Nyatura, and other militias have been serving as anti-M23 proxies,” he said. However, “it would be wrong to speak of a systematic FARDC-FDLR collaboration.”

The reality is that FARDC have evolved from a highly unprofessional force into a reasonably effective military organisation in the Eastern DR Congo. 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.
   
It would seem reasonable to assume FARDC will continue to improve in terms of its conduct. The collaboration argument has long been used by Rwanda to justify to justify everything from the now defeated M23 through to military invasions of sovereign DR Congo territory. Rwanda is the only voice bemoaning FARDC / FDLR collaboration and the world has grown tired of Rwandan bullshit. 

“Regardless of the actual ties between Rwanda and M23 [or its predecessors Congrès national pour la défense du people, CNDP, and Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie, RCD], the presence of these militias can be seen as a facilitating element for FARDC-FDLR collaboration,” Vogel said. 

The FARDC view of FDLR was not monolithic, he said, and there were those maintaining “cordial relations with senior FDLR figures”, while others were “ferociously” against them; a third category “while not necessarily being supportive of FDLR, demand that Rwanda should negotiate with FDLR just as the DRC negotiated with M23. Needless to say, Rwanda would not accept this.” 

Well I wouldn't describe the DR Congo / M23 Kampala Peace Talks as a negotiation. 
" I am of the opinion that Kinshasa are just going through the motions at the Kampala peace talks and so it would now seem are M23. The real issue is that there is nothing for either side to talk about. This much vaunted political solution has failed yet again, neither side is participating in good faith that leaves a military solution on the table." 

The Rwandan position is that it will accept the surrender of FDLR rebels and rehabilitate them on an individual basis. That is reasonable and might even work.

Deadlock in anti-FDLR operations 

Whether there was some political deal between Kinshasa and Kigali about the fates of M23 and FDLR “is hard to speculate,” but “MONUSCO and the UN Security Council may have given assurances to the Rwandan government that they will not only tackle M23 but also FDLR. 

I will speculate on whether there was a Kinshasa / Kigali deal. There was not. It is a certainty that both the UN and MONUSCO gave an assurance to Rwanda that the FDLR would be eliminated but I doubt they bothered discussing the fate of M23 with Rwanda.

“The current deadlock in anti-FDLR operations puts the credibility of both MONUSCO and FARDC in peril and bears a risk of souring bilateral exchange as Rwanda currently commemorates the 20th anniversary of the genocide,” Vogel said.

Again MONUSCO and its offshoot the Intervention Brigade owe Rwanda nothing and Rwanda has no right to set the timetable. MONUSCO should move against the FDLR when they are ready and will win.

Munga said that in the past, before FARDC was put on an operational footing in Rutshuru against FDLR, the FARDC greeted and drank together with the FDLR “during the days of M23”, and provided the armed group with ammunition and food. But this had since stopped. “When they were drinking together they [FARDC] used to joke: `The FARDC helped return M23 to Rwanda. Now we must help the FDLR return to Rwanda’.”

A small problem with the above joke, it doesn't fit in with the timing of events on the ground. In other words I doubt that any collaboration between FARDC and the FDLR occurred after the defeat of M23 which is the only way that that joke can work.

When unfounded rumours in January 2014 swept through eastern DRC that Kagame had died “the whole [Tongo] population celebrated. FARDC celebrated more than FDLR,” he said.

True. Given Rwanda's interventions in the eastern DR Congo that should surprise no one. Six million Congolese have died largely as a result of Rwandan invasions both directly and indirectly through proxies such as M23.

Rwanda / NZ: " To this orphan of heartbreak, disillusioned and scarred A refugee, refugee. "

Stuff reports 

Returning to Rwanda 'too dangerous'

TWENTY YEARS: Joseph Kimenyi had hoped to take his children to Rwanda by now, but ongoing tensions in the area make it impossible.

The last drive Palmerston North man Joseph Kimenyi made to Kilgali International Airport lives on behind his eyelids.

Thousands of mutilated corpses didn't just line the familiar road, they covered it. Many were bloated.

"There was no way to pass them by. We just had to close our eyes and drive over them," Kimenyi said.

It is reminiscent of the portrayal of Paul Rusesabagina journey across Kigali in the film Hotel Rwanda, the realisation that they are driving over bodies is mind numbing.

On Sunday it will be 20 years since the worst mass-murder event of modern times was triggered in Rwanda - a three-month massacre that left 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus dead.

It was a lesson for the world and unfortunately one that we failed to learn from if one was to look at the current situation in the Central African Republic. Our failure to act against the Rwandan regime 20 years ago is one of the direct causes of the Congo wars that have killed a further 6 million people. Only now is the world catching up with the remnants of the genocidal  regime and the civilian Hutu militia known as the Interahamwe, the FDLR will be defeated soon by the Congolese Army ( FARDC ), MONUSCO, and the Intervention ( Africa ) Brigade.

It forced Kimenyi, a Hutu himself and son of Rwanda's first president Dominique Mbonyumutwa, to repatriate to Kenya and then New Zealand with his family two years later.

The night the genocide began, Kimenyi, managing a fleet of 400 cars for the United Nations in Kigali, dropped a cohort of Bangladeshis off at Kigali Airport and drove back to the UN compound to finish his shift.

"Gunshots started to be fired and I was waiting for them to stop so I could go home but it just got worse and worse," Kimenyi said.  

It is a familiar story, one that you will hear repeated throughout both Rwanda and the DR Congo. It is an interesting historical footnote that whilst the UN Security Council dithered New Zealand was in the presidency and attempted to prevent it only to be frustrated by the permanent members of the council. Former NZ Deputy Prime Minister Jim McLay recounts:

" As the death count grew, our Ambassador, Colin Keating, pressed hard for the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda to be strengthened, and for the Council to declare this atrocity as genocide.

As the Council’s President in April 1994, we even had to threaten to hold a public debate to shame certain countries for their refusal to acknowledge what was happening.

In the end, mainly because of the unwillingness of some of the Council’s permanent members, those efforts were unsuccessful and 800,000 innocent people were butchered – many with jungle knives."

New Zealand is in the running for a non permanent seat on the UN Security Council later this year. I hope the world remembers the efforts of a small South Pacific nation to help Rwanda, destined to failure though they were.

Kimenyi could not go home. He was holed up in the sandbagged five-storey compound eating biscuit rations until May 18, more than a month after fighting began, when he was transported by the UN to the airport and then Kenya.

Twenty years on Kimenyi, now 58, wishes he and his adult-age children could go back to his former country. See the mountains, walk the streets, reprogramme the memories.

That is not possible under the current Tutsi-led government, which he says is still marginalising the Hutu population and silencing those abroad who speak up about it.

Paul Kagame's regime is little better ( if at all ), than that of the genocidaires who he displaced. One only needs to look at his treatment of Victoire Ingabire to realise the levels of domestic oppression he continues to inflict on the Rwandan Hutu population. The actions of his government and other African regimes in the Great Lakes Region surrounding the eastern DR Congo have exceeded even the colonial atrocities of the west. That the west has only just started to act to restrain Kagame is in itself an indictment upon us.    

"I had hoped that those who took over power would have learned from the mistakes of other governments. I had thought it would be five, maybe 10 years, but now 20 has gone by and still there's problems."

They haven't and all that can be said for that failure to learn, is that a repeat of the 1994 insanity is far more likely because of that. I blogged this stupidity from Rwanda's UN Ambassador Eugène-Richard Gasana back in January.

" Meanwhile, 20 years after the Genocide, the UN for the first time yesterday used the phrase “genocide against the Tutsi” in reference to the 1994 killings that claimed the lives of one million people, instead of the “Rwandan genocide”.

That is a mistake. Many Hutu also died because they would not participate in the genocide. Their sacrifice should never be forgotten. Racism should be fought wherever it happens, the perpetrators of the Rwandan Genocide like the Nazi's will face justice. The world owes the murdered nothing less, both Tutsi and Hutu. 

The label “Rwandan genocide” is mainly associated with groups and individuals who attempt to distort the history of the Genocide, including those who deny that Tutsis were the principal targets during the 100-day killing spree.

Bullshit. Again a lie covered with a truth. No one denies that Tutsi were the principal target I just refuse to see people in terms of racial identity. Will New Times next be asking for ethnicity to be included on identification documents ? That is the road of ethnic separation that idiotic statements such as " groups and individuals who attempt to distort the history of the 

Genocide"  will take Rwanda down, a road it should never travel again."

Gasana is a fool in a nation that is governed by fools. Tomorrow should not be about Tutsi or Hutu, it should be a day for the world to reflect on our failing of both the Tutsi and Hutu who were murdered by the Interahamwe thugs and for Rwanda it should be about reconciliation. I have little hope either will happen.  

The Manawatu Standard spoke to Kimenyi in 2010 after a BBC correspondent contacted him to tell him his father's body had been dug up.

After his death in 1986, Mbonyumutwa was buried at Democracy Stadium in Gitarama - the place where Rwanda's Hutu leaders announced the Tutsi monarchy would be abolished.

The exact location of Mbonyumutwa body's is unknown but he is understood to have been moved to a public cemetery. Kimenyi said that was just one example of the government's attempt to rewrite history to exclude the suffering of Hutu during the genocide.

Paul Kagame and his merry men thugs will ultimately fail. As Jason Stearns at Congo Siasa reminds us, " Lokuta eyaka na ascenseur, kasi vérité eyei na escalier mpe ekomi."

"There's still no acknowledgement of the Hutu that have put their lives at risk to protect Tutsi.

Remember Victoire Ingabire who now is rotting in a Rwandan gaol for trumped up charges that there is absolutely no evidence of her committing, her principle crime was opposing Kagame and being a Hutu. 

" Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza  arrived in Rwanda on the 16^th of January 2010, From the airport she went straight to the memorial of the genocide to pay respect to Tutsi victims of genocide. She made a speech in which she called for justice to bring to book those who committed genocide against Tutsi and those who committed other crimes including war crimes and crimes against without fear or favour, irrespective of ethnic or political affiliation. She considered equitable justice as a solid foundation for national reconciliation and durable peace and development. After this speech she was accused of having and spreading  Genocidal ideology, negationism and divisionism." 

"It is heartbreaking for me - there can't be reconciliation if the government continues to change our history.

"I feel I have to make a choice. Do I let myself be silenced or do I speak and face the consequences?"

It is a real fear the Kagame regime has undoubtedly informants within the Rwandan diaspora, New Zealand might well be too much of a stretch for Kagame but Joseph Kimenyi would be at risk anywhere in Africa and one of the consequences he now faces is that his country of birth is now for the foreseeable future out of his grasp.

Kimenyi said his criticism of the government was far easier for him to do in New Zealand than if he were in Rwanda but he could never be certain of his safety.

Again that is true Kagame would be insane to attempt anything in New Zealand and if he did his agents would almost certainly be caught but it is not unreasonable to question Kagame's sanity.

"That's why I'll probably never get back to Rwanda. I do wish to go back some day. The weather is beautiful."

Rwanda's loss is our gain.

Hat Tip Ambrose Nzeyimana

Rwanda: " Singing psychedelic praises to the depths of a china bowl "

New Times Rwanda reports

FDLR in spotlight as Security Council meets

                                                        FDLR fighters in one of their bases in the DR Congo.

The UN Security Council (UNSC) will today assess the approach used by its peacekeeping mission in the DR Congo (Monusco) in fighting negative forces, especially the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in eastern DR Congo.

One would have to say that MONUSCO would have very little to fear from this meeting. I have no idea why there is any special notice being made of the FDLR. One gets the feeling that once again the Rwandan Government is attempting to spin the story for its own purposes.

 Members of the Security Council, including Rwanda, are due to meet in New York to consider reports and consultations by Martin Kobler, the UN special envoy to DR Congo, and head of Monusco, as well as Mary Robinson, the Secretary General’s special envoy to the Great Lakes Region.

 The session comes barely a week after media reports indicated that Monusco and the Congolese army (FARDC) are attacking strongholds of  FDLR, a terror group largely responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Attacking the FDLR and removing them from Congolese territory ( or incorporating them into the environment on a permanent basis at a molecular level ) has always been an objective of MONUSCO. That is something that the Rwandan regime, still smarting from the defeat of its own rebel group M23, seems to have considerable trouble with.

 A press officer at Rwanda’s Mission to the UN told The New Times on Thursday that they are aware of latest reports about attacks against FDLR and plan to address concerns to Kobler. 

 “We are concerned that these so-called attacks against FDLR only seem to surface when Kobler is about to address us at the Security Council and after that, we do not hear anything else,” Chantal Uwizera, the press attaché at Rwanda’s Permanent Mission to the UN, said in an e-mail.

Rwanda has a legitimate interest in the outcome of the MONUSCO, FARDC and Intervention ( Africa ) Brigade but they seem to think they should have some sort of operational role as well. Rwanda really needs to STFU.

 “We want to know how  Kobler intends to address the FDLR issue. He has on several occassions said that attacking FDLR is difficult, because they travel in a pack with women and children yet Monusco has a mandate to protect civilians,” Uwizera said.

The chances of Kobler taking a blind bit of notice of the Rwandan position I would put at slightly below zero. Rwanda seems to be under the misapprehension that it is a non permanent member of the security council to represent Rwandan concerns to the council. Let me remind Kigali that it holds one of two African seats and its function is to represent Africa.

 Western media last Sunday broke news that the Congolese army, FARDC, and Monusco carried out joint operations against the militia. 

However, there are no reports on causalities or any indication that this is a sustained military operation.

That is a very telling statement and another reason why nothing and I emphasis nothing you read in New Times Rwanda should be believed. Like the Rwandan administration or more probably at the behest of that administration they are liars. Al Jazeera reports: 

Colonel Felix Basse, the military spokesman for the Congo mission, known as MONUSCO, said on Wedesday that UN troops had deployed in the Virunga National Park in North Kivu province and were backing a Congolese offensive against the Hutus' FDLR.

"Since Sunday, we have deployed our men and we have had contact with FDLR in that zone," Basse said, adding that two rebels had been killed in the fighting so far."

Or in other words New Times Rwanda have published today ( 14/3/14 ) a report that fails to acknowledge casualties reported two days ago by Al Jazeera.

 Kobler on Wednesday tweeted that: “The operations aim at neutralising the FDLR and its allies. They will also help re-establish State authority.”

 Friday’s meeting comes at a time when Monusco’s current mandate has only 16 days left to expire. The mandate ends on March 31. 

There is no doubt it will be renewed. There is an irony here that it will be renewed in no small part due to its success in defeating the Rwandan proxies M23.

The renewal of the Mission’s mandate will not be discussed since this is a meeting for the UNSC aimed at assessing the UN mission’s report and the one  about the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework (PSC) for the DR Congo and the region.

 But in the next few days, the Security Council is expected to start negotiating a draft resolution for mandate renewal. The draft resolution must be adopted before March 31. 

 The PSC for the DR Congo and the region was signed by 11 African leaders on February 23,2013. 

Rwanda was a signatory yet it armed M23 and supported them while they committed crimes against humanity, war crimes not to mention the numerous breeches of Congolese law that they committed.

Supporting mandate renewal 

France, being the penholder on DR Congo, will propose a draft Security Council resolution to experts of the other 14 UNSC members, with negotiations likely to take place in the course of next week.

 As regards the renewal of the mandate, Uwizera said: “We support the renewal since there is still a threat of instability in the DR Congo.” 

At least Chantal Uwizera can read the international under currents and adapt to them, it is a great shame that the Rwandan administration and the Rwandan head of mission to the UN can't. If Rwanda voted against the renewal they would join North Korea in the credibility stakes, a country they are not so dissimilar to.

 “However, emphasis should be put on FIB (UN Force Intervention Brigade) to be able to effectively implement its mandate in a neutral way. For instance, the FIB used force against M23 rebels but has been silent on FDLR, even though the last resolution mandates it to neutralise all armed groups,” Uwizera added.

It is always amazing how fools take that extra step. Uwizera really needs to have a read of something other than the Rwandan standard response to absolutely anything relating to absolutely anything which is of course to lie.

 Commanded by Tanzanian General, James Mwakibolwa, the FIB is a special brigade under Monusco, authorised by the Council on March 28, 2013 through Resolution 2098. 

It is the first UN peacekeeping unit specifically tasked to carry out targeted offensive operations to neutralise armed groups threatening State authority and civilian security, with or without FARDC support, in eastern DR Congo. Comprising 3,069 peacekeepers (in addition to nearly 20,000 other Monusco troops),  the special brigade helped defeat the Congolese M23 rebel group last year. 

  Resolution 2098, among others, requests the Secretary General to report to the Council every three months in coordination with his Special Representative for the DR Congo on the implementation by Monusco of its mandate, including on deployment, readiness and activities of the FIB and all other UN forces.

FAEDC the Africa Brigade and its parent MONUSCO will get the job done. The FDLR are soon to be corpses awaiting burial. I have no problem with that, they richly deserve that fate. The timing of the operation is for FARDC and MONUSCO to decide not Rwanda, that Rwanda still fails to grasp this should surprise no one.

DR Congo: " Russian roulette in the waiting room Empty chambers embracing the end "

New Vision reports:
UN gunships strike ADF base in Congo  

KINSHASA - UN gunships targeted a base of the Ugandan Muslim rebel group ADF-Nalu in the eastern DR Congo for the first time Saturday, the UN force said.

The Congolese army had in recent weeks taken the lead in the drive to root out ADF-Nalu, one of the oldest but lesser known armed organisations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Also one of the most brutal. In September last year it was becoming apparent that the ADF like all the rebel groups in the Kivus were hell bent on booking appointments with the FARDC / MONUSCO / Intervention ( Africa ) Brigade alliance.

" I suspect that the ADF haven't thought through the consequences of this little bit of murderous adventurism. I hope the price that is extract in return is so high that we will never again have to read about these pricks."

What has been impressive is the way the alliance has waited and not allowed any of the rebel groups killers or the respective governments they are allegedly trying to overthrow stampede them into precipitous action.   

A statement from MONUSCO, the UN mission in the country, said two attack helicopters struck an ADF base northeast of Beni at 1255 GMT.

Beni is a remote town in North Kivu, a restive resource-rich province that borders Rwanda and Uganda.

"This operation, conducted with great precision, helps achieve a clear goal: bringing an end to ADF's recent attacks against the civilian population," said MONUSCO chief Martin Kobler, quoted in the statement.

The advantage of taking your time and planning, time spent in preparation is rarely wasted time in a military context. I think the less clear goal is the elimination of ADF or put more crudely providing them with an opportunity to discuss their crimes against humanity more directly with Allah than prayer allows.

The FARDC regular army launched its offensive against ADF-Nalu on January 16 and announced in mid-February that it had inflicted severe losses on the rebels.

Good.

Backed by a newly-formed UN intervention brigade with an unprecedented offensive mandate, the Congolese army notched up a rare military victory against the M-23 Tutsi rebel group.

FARDC was a joke but that is not the case now. From Jason Stearns at Congo Siasa: 

" 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."

The ADF-Nalu was next on the list.

Actually they almost certainly were not next on the list, that dubious honour fell to the FDLR. I suspect that the ADF went out of their way to try and provoke a confrontation before the alliance was ready. The FDLR fools have responded to being relegated to third in line for elimination by issuing a suicide note that I suspect will be read and responded to as soon as this mess is cleaned up.

MONUSCO has vowed to help Kinshasa rid the region of the myriad rebel groups running amok in one of the continent's most impenetrable regions.

The key difference between M23 and both the ADF and the FDLR is that M23 had a bolt hole in the form of Uganda and Rwanda, thus their defeat was without the universally fatal consequences that will result from the elimination of the ADF and FDLR. Given that both are sustained by a philosophy of genocide one religious and one racial there deaths will represent no loss to humanity.

ADF-Nalu stands for Allied Democratic Forces-National Army for the Liberation of Uganda. It is one of the oldest but lesser known rebellions based in North-Kivu and is considered the only Islamist organisation in the region.

The Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group said in a report last year the rebel group had "shown remarkable resilience attributable to its geostrategic position, its successful integration into the cross-border economy and corruption in the security forces".

I suspect that both its resilience and success have come to a sudden stop.

ADF-Nalu is led by Jamil Mukulu, a Christian convert to Islam, and has never really managed to take its fight against Yoweri Museveni's regime to Uganda.

Some observers have voiced concern that it could become a link in the growing network of radical Islamist groups in East Africa.

Not anymore. I think that radical muslim groups would do well to have a think about the situation in the Central African Republic, the elimination of the CAR Muslim population is well underway and radical Islamist killers are responsible for creating the conditions in the CAR that caused this. It is an exportable 'cause' far more so than radical Islam in an African context.