Monday, January 12, 2009

Kivu's Four-Ring Circus Continues [Updated]

In Ring One:
Negotiations are said to be "continuing" in Nairobi between the Kabila government and the CNDP rebels, and to be focused on securing a possible cease fire.

Ring Two:
The LRA, in flight since a Uganda-led assault on their encampments in northeastern Congo on December 14, have attacked the gold-mining village of Sambia, 130km east of Dungu, in Orientale province, says IRIN, the UN OCHA news agency. The attack led to several deaths and caused almost 10,000 people to flee their homes. An OCHA briefing on the humanitarian crisis in Ituri is available here.

Ring Three:
More details are emerging from the interview Bosco Ntaganda gave to journalists last week from his home farm in Kabati, which Reuters first reported on last week. Ntaganda led an apparently unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Laurent Nkunda as leader of the CNDP, perhaps, it is thought, because Nkunda was preparing to turn him over to international authorities. Ntaganda is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes he committed in Ituri province in 2005.

Today, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting says that Ntaganda is ready to face Hague prosecutors – but not just yet. "I will go to The Hague when it is the right time," Ntaganda told IWPR during a January 8 meeting with journalists.

But first, Ntaganda said, he has to help bring peace to the Kivus. Accusing Nkunda of blocking the peace process, he offered his CNDP troops to fight alongside the Congolese army to disarm the Rwandan Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, FDLR, which he says are at the root of the problem.

It is not clear, however, how many CNDP troops Ntaganda controls. The CNDP's spokesman, who remains loyal to Nkunda, has said that Ntaganda brought no troops and no weapons with him when he arrived from Ituri.

As for the indictment against him, Ntaganda sounds fairly sanguine: "There are positive things I did in Ituri. If you ask people, they will tell you that I am the one who ended war and nobody else," he said.

It is worth remembering that Ntaganda's nickname is "The Terminator" and that there are compelling and credible accounts of him committing serious war crimes, both in Ituri and more recently in North Kivu.

Ring Four:
Rwanda's New Times provides more detail on the meeting in Kinshasa last week between Rwanda's Chief of Defence Staff General James Kabarebe and his Congolese counterpart, Gen. Didier Etumba.

The meeting is a follow-up to earlier meetings between the foreign secretaries and army chiefs of the two countries to discuss how they can operationalize their joint military plan to uproot negative forces in the volatile eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

UPDATE, 1/13: Digital Congo reports that Kabila's Cabinet met on Monday and agreed to disarm by force the FDLR and other militia groups operating in eastern Congo. Although the Congolese army lacks the capacity to disarm the FDLR on its own, a fact the Cabinet is surely aware of, this public commitment gives the government the cover to cooperate with the Rwandan army.

In general, the willingness of the region's governments to cooperate across borders in hunting down rebel movements that take refuge in each others' countries is a positive development. We saw an example of this last month with South Sudan, Congolese, and Ugandan troops tracking down the LRA, with assistance from MONUC. For the Congolese FARDC to ally with the Rwandan army in pursuit of the FLDR would be major development. Removing the FDLR from eastern Congo would eliminate one of the primary sources of instability in the region, help normalize relations between Congo and Rwanda, and constitute a major step toward peace.

2 comments:

  1. Petition Calling on UN (MONUC) to arrest NTAGANDA wantedWanted by the ICC

    The UN in Congo(MONUC) is not doing enough to arrest NTAGANDA for his committed war crimes


    The Mobilization for Justice and Peace in D.R. Congo (MJPC) announced today that it has launched a new online petition that can be signed at http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/24459.html asking concerned citizens around the world to demand MONUC to take concrete actions to arrest Bosco Ntaganda wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes.

    MONUC is currently the largest UN peacekeeping mission in the world with more than 17,600 uniformed personnel from 58 countries with an annual budget of more than $1bn.

    In April 2008, the International Criminal Court (ICC) unsealed the warrant of arrest against Mr. NTAGANDA whic was first issued on 22 August 2006 by Pre-Trial Chamber I. The Chamber concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe that from July 2002 to end of December 2003, Mr. NTAGANDA had played an essential role in enlisting and conscripting children under the age of fifteen years into the FPLC and using them to participate actively in hostilities.

    According to Amede KYUBWA, Executive Director of MJPC, "concerned citizens around the world are being asked to contribute to the arrest of NTAGANDA by putting pressure on MONUC to take whatever necessary actions to arrest this war criminal." He decried MONUC's failure to take appropriate action to arrest him despite evidence showing that they know his whereabouts. MJPC urges MONUC to treat those who have committed war crimes in Congo as criminals and refrain from helping them to be appointed to high governmental posts. "rewarding war criminals with the governmental posts does nothing else than promoting more war criminals, preventing justice to thousands of victims including children and women who have suffered at the hands of these criminals and it shamefully contradicts directly the values and principles of the U.N" said Mr. KYUBWA

    As part of its global campaign to help end the cycle of violence and impunity in Congo, MJPC lounched it first online petition in November 2008 calling for MONUC to immediately arrest notorious war criminal NKUNDA which can still be signed http://www.gopetition.com/online/23604.html. So far more than 1085 people have signed the petition, including those from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, USA, Kenya, Rwanda, France, German, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, Malawi, Burundi, Senegal, Nigeria, Spain, Japan, the UK, Venezuela, Itali, Ethiopia, China, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Uganda.

    About the MJPC.
    MJPC seeks to add a voice in advocating for justice and peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo particulary in the east of the D.R. Congo where thousands innocent civilian including children and women continue to suffer massive human rights violations while armed groups responsible for these crimes go unpunished. Visit the Online Museum of Victims of War in Congo in Congo at http://www.yoursilenceoncongo.org to see the unacceptable barbarity that you could help stop by signing the petition. For more information on MJPC and the activities, visit the wbsite www.mjpcongo.org. or call Amede Kyubwa @ 916 753 5717. The online petitions can be signed at the following addresses: for arresting NKUNDA at http://www.gopetition.com/online/23604.html and arresting NTAGANDA at http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/24459.html

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  2. MJPC to MONUC and Kabila: Enforce the ICC Arrest Warrant Against Ntaganda


    MJPC calls upon the Congelese Government and MONUC to act decisively to enforce the outstanding arrest warrant against Bosco Ntaganda.

    The Mobilization for Justice and Peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MJPC) today called on the Congolese Government and the UN's peacekeeping force in DR Congo, which is known as MONUC to act decisively to enforce the outstanding arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Bosco Ntaganda.

    Shocked and outraged by recent report by BBC that an indicted ICC war criminal is playing a leading role in the UN mission in the DR Congo, the MJPC is strongly urging the UN Security Council and the entire international community to put pressure on the Congolese Government and MONUC to enforce the ICC outstanding arrest warrant against Ntaganda as soon as possible. "While it seems absurd that the 17,000 UN troops in Congo have not yet taken steps to enforce the ICC arrest warrant against Ntagada, it is alarming and even horrifying that they are engaged incoordinating military operations with someone accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity of inconceivable magnitude", said Amede Kyubwa, Executive Director of MJPC.

    "Unlike other countries where there are ongoing investigations on cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the ICC has the power to enforce its arrest warrants in the Democratic Republic of Congo because of the 17,000 peacekeeping soldiers of the UN in the country, but so far these troops have not yet made attempts to arrest Ntaganda despite knowing his whereabouts and coordinating military operations with him. Warrant issued by the ICC must be respected and enforced by MONUC and Government of Congo" added Mr Kyubwa.


    Ntaganda is accused of several war crimes and crimes against humanity including: the massacres of 150 people in the town of Kiwanja in 2008 in his duties as military chief of staff of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), torturing and killing of hundreds of civilians of Lendu and Ngiti ethnicity between August 2002 and March 2003 when he was chief of military operations of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), slaughtering of at least 800 civilians on ethnic grounds at Mongbwalu, including the first priest killed in the Ituri conflict, Abbe Boniface Bwanalonga, killing of a Kenyan UN peacekeeper in January 2004 and kidnapping a Moroccan peacekeeper later that year, and recruiting child soldiers in the eastern region of Ituri. The MJPC is strongly urging the Congolese Government and MONUC to execute the arrest warrant issued by the ICC against Ntaganda.

    As part of its global campaign against impunity in Congo, the MJPC has set up an online petition which can be signed at http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/24459.html asking concerned citizens around the world to demand the UN in Congo Mission known as MONUC and the Congolese Government to act decisively to enforce the ICC outstanding arrest warrants against Ntaganda.


    About MJPC
    MJPC is a nonprofit organization working to add a voice in advocating for justice and peace in the DRC particulary in the east of DRC where thousands innocent civilian including children and women continue to suffer massive human rights violations while armed groups responsible for these crimes go unpunished

    For more information about the MJPC and its activities, visit http://www.mjpcongo.org. or call Amede Kyubwa @ 916 753 5717 or e-mail: info@mjpcongo.org . The online petition calling on the Congolese Government and MONUC to act decisively in enforcing the outstanding ICC arrest warrant against Bosco Ntaganda can be signed at http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/24459

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