UN Report Indicates Congo Instability Fueled by Army
By Eric Sande
Kinshasa - The UN report published on Monday cites evidence that the ethnic Tutsi rebel group CNDP, which officially integrated into Congolese army and turned into a political party after the arrest of its leader Laurent Nkunda last year, has retained and even built up its independent military power.
Extensive criminal networks within Congo's army are deliberately fostering insecurity to profit from illegal mining, smuggling and poaching, says the report.
It continues by elaborating how the armed units have done so despite recent efforts to disarm illegal militias and reform the disorganized, ill-disciplined army.
A list of four places where former CNDP officers told the experts the group retains arms caches are mentioned in the report. It identifies three battalions and their commanders as "hidden" military units, absent from official army structures.
Investigators have cited several examples of militants illegally exploiting minerals and natural resources, seizing land, recruiting child soldiers and poaching endangered wildlife.
The report said Rwandan-led Hutu rebels in Congo in 2008 attempted to sell six canisters of what they said was unenriched uranium - an amount that the report said would not be enough to create even a small amount of fissile material - but could not find a buyer for more than a year and gave up.
The BBC's Thomas Hubert in Kinshasa says it quotes Congolese army and UN peacekeeping sources as saying that during the months of September and October, former CNDP officers have been recruiting to build up the numbers in their units.
In a quick denial from the military operations in North and south Kivu Maj Ekenge told BBC, "CNDP is a political party, it has nothing to do with the management of former CNDP soldiers who form an integral part of the armed forces."
At UN headquarters in New York on Monday, the Security Council renewed its arms embargo for people and groups not associated with the government, along with a travel ban and a freeze on the assets of people linked to illegal armed groups.
Insecurity in Congo's east has continued despite the end of a 1998-2003 war, displacing more than 1.27 million people and spurred on by competition for natural resources that has had a "devastating impact on security," according to the report.
The U.N. has documented numerous human rights violations and atrocities at the hands of armed groups in eastern Congo.
In October, the U.N. said more than 300 civilians were raped by militants in 13 villages between July 30 and Aug. 2. The numbers were shocking even for eastern Congo, where rape has become a daily hazard and some women have been sexually assaulted repeatedly over the years.
Endeavours have been made to professionalize the army and to bring militia groups into the organization. But those efforts are struggling.