DR Congo: President to Listen to M23 Rebels Grievances
By Staff Writer
KINSHASA--Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila says he is ready to look into the grievances of the M23 rebels, who are now in control of the country’s eastern city of Goma.
The M23 fighters whom the UN experts say are backed by both Rwanda and Uganda, entered Goma on Tuesday following fierce battles with the Congolese army that has since seen tens of thousands of residents flee the town.
Speaking after talks with his Ugandan and Rwandan counterparts, Yoweri Museveni and Paul Kagame in Kampala, Uganda, President Kabila said he would consider negotiations with the rebels. In a Joint statement released Wednesday, the three leaders called on the rebels who have threatened to march to the capital, Kinshasa, to end their offense and withdraw from the provincial capital.
"M23 must immediately stop [its] offensive and pull out of Goma," the three presidents said in the statement. "A plan to this end is being communicated to them."
The statement added that both Museveni and Kagame made it clear that “even if there were legitimate grievances by the group, they cannot accept the expansion of this war and entertain the idea of overthrowing the legitimate government of DRC.”
On Tuesday the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that demanded for the rebel movement to immediately pull out of Goma and also end to foreign backing for the group.
The 15-member council has strongly condemned the M23 advancements in eastern DR Congo and requested the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon “report in the coming days” on allegations of external support for M23, upon which it would be ready to take further measures.
On Wednesday the rebels advanced through the town of Sake 27km west of Goma and were reported to be preparing to head south to Bukavu city, about 230km south of Goma.
A commander with the rebel fighters told a crowd in a football stadium in Goma that "the journey to liberate [DR] Congo has started” in the event that saw thousands of government soldiers and police surrender to the rebels at the stadium.
The M23 movement also known as Congolese Revolutionary Army derives its name from the March 23 2009 peace deal that ended rebellions in eastern DR Congo and saw its fighters integrated into the Congolese national FARDC army.
Led by General Bosco Ntaganda, the renegade soldiers deserted their ranks in the army in April over failure by the government to honour the March 23 deal and have since been fighting government troops in North Kivu province in eastern DR Congo.
Ntaganda, nicknamed the “Terminator” has been indicted by The Hague-based International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including conscription of child soldiers during his rebellion days.
The UN has released the much awaited report by the UN Security Council’s Group of Experts, accusing both Rwanda and Uganda of backing the M23, accusations both countries strongly deny. The dossier leaked earlier last month by the Reuters news agency charges that Rwanda’s Defence Minister James Kabarebe is systematically commanding the M23.
The 44-page report, a buildup of the UN report on the conflict in eastern DR Congo published in June, asserts that both Rwanda and Uganda have been supporting M23, saying army units from both countries have helped the group expand its control of territory in Eastern DRC.
UN envoy Roger Meece during his brief of the Security Council on Wednesday referred to suspicions of international support saying that the M23 forces were well provisioned and supplied with uniforms and a variety of arms, many of which were not from existing FARDC.
He also cited reports of abuses by the rebels, including summary executions of those who stand in their way, including government and traditional leaders who fail to cooperate.
The M23 movement is believed to have 1,200 to 6,000 fighters comprised of mainly the minority ethnic Tutsis who are reportedly armed by the Rwandan government officials to fight Rwandan Hutu rebels in Congo in the conflict seen as a spillover from the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
The UN has faced criticism for failing to enforce its 19000-strong peacekeeping force to stop the advancement by the rebels, but it has defended its actions saying that they were limited by their mandate and they wanted to avoid triggering a battle.