DR Congo: M23- " The final performance and the main man lies in state"

New Vision ( Uganda ) reports

Congo, M23 rebels peace signing delayed

The leader of the DRC delegation Raymond Tshibanda arrives at State House Entebbe with delegation for peace pact with M23 rebels. PHOTO BY PETER BUSOMOKE newvision

A ceremony to formally end Congo's bloodiest conflict in a decade was delayed on Monday by an 11th-hour spat between the government and M23 rebels over whether the document should be entitled a peace agreement or a vaguer declaration.

I blogged yesterday that Kinshasa holds all the cards, the remnants of M23 will have to comply with Congolese wishes, that is the reality when you lose. I think the Congolese position is remarkably generous, this document should include in the title the words " unconditional surrender. " 

M23 gave up their 20-month insurgency last week after the Democratic Republic of Congo's army, backed by a U.N. force, routed them from their last hilltop hideouts along the eastern border with Rwanda and Uganda.

Other rebels still roam the vast country and stability remains a distant prospect in a region with rich underground deposits of gold, diamonds and other precious minerals.

The deal between the Kinshasa government and M23 was due to be signed in the Ugandan city of Entebbe at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) but was suddenly delayed, with no one knowing whether the hold-up would last for hours or days.

I suspect the Congolese government is using the delay as a means of showing their displeasure with Uganda's decision to grant asylum to the M23 leadership. At the end of the day the whole exercise serves only to enhance Museveni's prestige on the international stage.  

"The stumbling point is the parties cannot agree on whether they are signing a peace agreement or a declaration. They agree on the content, but not the title. The Congolese government says it came here to sign a declaration," Uganda's junior foreign affairs minister, Okello Oryem, told Reuters.

The Congolese government might be saying it came to sign a declaration and the title of that declaration will be whatever the Congolese government wants it to be. For my money the Kinshasa is sending a very clear message. 

Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said "there's no deal tonight", but could not say when it would happen.

I suspect it will happen when there is very little or no political capital or kudos available to Uganda by the signing.

Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende said Kinshasa was willing to sign a document but not one called a peace deal. "It's as if M23 still exists, it's as if it is legitimating them despite them being a negative force," he said.

I bet he said it with a straight face as well. Something I couldn't have done. 

"We are ready to sign a declaration of engagement between the government and former members of the rebel group known as M23," he said in Kinshasa. Bertrand Bisimwa, the head of the M23 political wing, declined to comment.

It may of registered with Bisimwa that he is the former head of the political wing of the former rebel group M23. It might also have occurred to him that he has failed catastrophically since assuming the presidency of M23 after the factional fighting earlier this year.


Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and envoys from the African Union and M23 as well as Western diplomats waited for more than two hours for the ceremony to start but the Congolese government delegation did not enter the room. 

I have no idea if Museveni is attending CHOGM ( Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting )  but if he is he will have to leave fairly soon. It is an event he would seem unlikely to miss, that may give us an indication of when an agreement may be signed.

All in all I rather suspect Lambert Mende has out thought and out manouvered everyone and with the added bonus of making all the VIP's in Kampala look like a bunch of clowns. Take a bow that man. 

DR Congo: " Jaw jaw is better than war war "

New Vision reports

M23 rebels, Kabila agree to talks in Kampala

By Raymond Baguma

The Congolese M23 rebels have agreed to hold peace talks with the Congolese government led by President Joseph Kabila in Kampala.

According to the Associated Press, Bertrand Bisimwa, the spokesman for the M23 political branch, the group will come to Uganda for talks.

The Congolese interior minister, Richard Muyej Mangez, told the French news agency AFP that negotiations would open “in the next few days,” although he gave no specific start date.

According to AFP, Mangez said the Congolese government would send a “full team”, including leaders of key institutions, civil society leaders and members of the national assembly and senate.

This comes after M23 withdrew from Goma last week and the return of the Congolese army, under the oversight of Uganda and Rwanda.

Uganda’s chief of defence forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, is presently leading military chiefs to assess progress made to implement resolutions of the recently held International Conference on the Great Lakes Region Heads of State meeting.

The M23 leader, Jean Marie Runiga, said he had been contacted by the Ugandan government about the imminent Kampala peace talks, but the group is yet to receive details of the programme.

Runiga said the rebels were “ready” for talks, which are expected to include demands for major political reforms in the country.

He also said the closure of the Uganda-Congo border at Bunagana could affect the travel of the M23 delegation to attend the Kampala talks.

However, efforts to get comments from Ugandan officials were unsuccessful by press time. State ministers Oryem Okello (international affairs) and Asuman Kiyingi (regional affairs) did not answer their phones

And

Gen. Aronda in DRC to assess peace progress

By Raymond Baguma & Agencies

The Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, is in Goma, along with military chiefs from DR Congo and Rwanda to assess progress of efforts aimed at ending the conflict there.

The military chiefs are assessing the progress made in implementing resolutions of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) heads of state meeting that took place in Kampala last week.

According to Rwanda’s New Times newspaper, Gen. Aronda on Monday chaired a meeting in Goma, which was also attended by Congolese Lt. Gen. Didier Etumba and Rwanda’s Lt. Gen. Charles Kayonga, who have been overseeing the withdrawal of the M23 rebels. They have withdrawn and been replaced by the Congolese army and police.

During the meeting, the defence chiefs received reports on M23’s withdrawal from Goma. The reports were presented by the UN peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO) and the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism that comprises ICGLR member states and is commanded by Uganda’s Brig. Geoffrey Muheesi.

Speaking to New Vision in a phone interview on Tuesday, the M23 president Jean Marie Runiga said he had been contacted by the Ugandan government that negotiations were scheduled to begin in Kampala today.

However, Runiga requested Uganda to reopen its border in Bunagana in order to enable the group travel to Kampala for imminent talks with the Congo government.

However, efforts to get comments from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kampala were unsuccessful by press time. Neither the foreign affairs state minister Oryem Okello nor the permanent secretary, James Mugume, answered their phones.

Runiga also said the closure of the border could affect the travel of the M23 delegation to attend the imminent negotiations in Kampala with the Kinshasa government.

However, Oryem told the New Times on Tuesday that behind-the-scenes consultations are in progress and peace talks will begin soon after consultations with different parties are over. The consultations centre on how the meetings should run.

Neither story tells us anything substantive. But both are positive news. Getting the border open should be a priority. Friday negotiations seems a bit rushed to me. Also the size of the DR Congo delegation seems ridiculous. I am not sure if it is to flatter or intimidate.