UN Security Council sanctions M23 Congo rebel leaders after they overrun besieged city of Goma

Published Tuesday, November 20, 2012

UN Security Council sanctions M23 Congo rebel leaders after they overrun besieged city of Goma
UN Security Council puts sanctions on Congo rebels
By PETER JAMES SPIELMANN | ASSOCIATED PRESS | 28 minutes ago in
             
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to sanction the leaders of Congo's M23 rebel force, which hours earlier occupied the eastern Congolese city of Goma as U.N. peacekeepers stood by without resisting.
But it did not name two countries accused of supporting the Congo rebels: Rwanda and Uganda.
The council demanded that the M23 rebels withdraw from Goma, disarm and disband, and insisted on the restoration of the crumbing Congolese government authority in the country's turbulent East.
The resolution adopted imposes targeted sanctions, including a travel ban and assets freeze, on the M23 rebel group leadership. Individual nations are supposed to enforce the sanctions and report to the council.
The resolution also calls for an immediate end to external support to the rebels and asks the U.N. secretary-general to report on the allegations of foreign support while expressing its readiness to take appropriate measures.
It took the rare step in a resolution of singling out two M23 commanders by name: Innocent Kaina and Baudouin Ngaryu, and called for the council's sanctions committee to review their activity and unnamed other individuals.
Unnamed in the resolution were Rwanda and Uganda, which have been identified as supporters of the M23 rebellion by a U.N. panel of experts' report due out Friday and leaked to the AP.
Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that an advance copy of the report that it has reviewed names Rwanda and Uganda as supporting M23.
"Sadly, this resolution fails to name Rwandan officials known by the U.N. to have supported M23's atrocities from day one," said the U.N. director for Human Rights Watch, Philippe Bolopion. "Despite its influence on Rwanda, in public the U.S. government has been inexplicably silent," he added.
Rwanda's representative spoke to the council after the vote to deny that his country is involved in the Congolese rebellion. Uganda has previously denied involvement.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/apArticle/id/DA2M3BPG3/

DR Congo: US Should Urge Rwanda to End M23 Support

DR Congo: US Should Urge Rwanda to End M23 Support

Sanction Rwandan Officials Backing Abusive Congolese Rebels

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

• 
  Displaced people cross the border from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) into Rwanda, as seen from Gisenyi, November 20, 2012, as M23 rebels advance on Goma.
  © 2012 Reuters

The US government's silence on Rwandan military support to the M23 rebels can no longer be justified given the overwhelming evidence of Rwanda's role and the imminent threat to civilians around Goma. The US government should support urgent sanctions against Rwandan officials who are backing M23 fighters responsible for serious abuses.
 

Tom Malinowski, Washington director.

(Washington) – The United States government should publicly support sanctions against Rwandan officials backing the armed group M23, which has been responsible for widespread war crimes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. M23 rebels, whose commanders have been implicated in serious abuses, captured the city of Goma on November 20, 2012.

"The US government's silence on Rwandan military support to the M23 rebels can no longer be justified given the overwhelming evidence of Rwanda's role and the imminent threat to civilians around Goma," said Tom Malinowski, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. "The US government should support urgent sanctions against Rwandan officials who are backing M23 fighters responsible for serious abuses."

Rwandan military support for the M23 rebels has been evident in their offensive that began on November 15, Human Rights Watch said. Several civilians living near the Rwandan border told Human Rights Watch that they saw hundreds of Rwandan army soldiers crossing the border from Rwanda into Congo at Njerima hill, Kasizi, and Kabuhanga in apparent support of M23 fighters. Human Rights Watch has also documented several incidents in which Rwandan and Congolese soldiers fired across the border from either side between November 16 and 20.

A draft of the final report of the United Nations Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo, soon to be published, alleges that the Rwandan government has provided "direct military support to M23 rebels" and that the "M23's de facto chain of command includes General Bosco Ntaganda and culminates with the Rwandan Minister of Defense General James Kabarebe." Ntaganda is on the UN sanctions list and is sought on arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Human Rights Watch has independently established that the Rwandan army has regularlyprovided significant military support to the M23, including overseeing operational planning, providing weapons and ammunition, recruiting at least 600 people in Rwanda to fight for the M23, training new recruits, and deploying Rwandan army troops to eastern Congo in direct support of M23 rebels.

Over the past seven months, Human Rights Watch has documented widespread war crimes by M23 rebels in eastern Congo, including summary executions, rapes, and forced recruitment, including of children. Rwandan officials may be complicit in war crimes through their military assistance to M23 forces throughout this period, Human Rights Watch said.

The draft UN Group of Experts' report says that, "Rwandan officials coordinated the creation of the rebel movement as well as its major military operations" and "provided military support to M23 through permanent troop reinforcement and clandestine support by RDF [Rwandan Defence Forces] special units." The Group of Experts found that "RDF commanders operated alongside M23 and provided logistical support during the July 2012 operations which enabled the capture of Bunagana, Rutshuru, Kiwanja and Rumangabo." During these operations, "the rebels killed one [UN] peacekeeper at Bunagana and fired on the [UN peacekeeping] base at Kiwanja," the report states.

The Group of Experts also documented support to the M23 by commanders of the Ugandan People's Defence Force. While stating that "Rwandan officials exercise overall command and strategic planning for M23," they note that "senior Government of Uganda officials have also provided support to M23 in the form of direct troop reinforcement in DRC territory, weapons deliveries, [and] technical assistance."

"The fall of Goma to the M23 magnifies the security risks to civilians in eastern Congo," Malinowski said. "As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the US should press for sanctions that target not only the M23 but the foreign officials backing their atrocities."

The Group of Experts has recommended individual sanctions against several Rwandan and Ugandan officials named in its report.

The M23's latest offensive began on November 15 with M23 rebels fighting UN peacekeepers and Congolese army forces as the rebels progressed toward Goma. By the early afternoon of November 20, after heavy fighting in and around Goma, the M23 had taken control of key areas of Goma. Congolese army soldiers had fled the town, while UN peacekeepers were still present.

Human Rights Watch has received reports of at least 11 civilians killed and dozens of others wounded during the fighting in and around Goma since November 15. An estimated 80,000 people are newly displaced in the area around Goma, including an estimated 60,000 who were in a displacement camp about 10 kilometers outside Goma, according to the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs.

"The US should endorse all measures that would enable UN sanctions against Rwandan officials who are assisting the M23," Malinowski said. "All parties to the conflict should take urgent measures to protect civilians and stop abuses."

Background on the M23
The M23 is largely made up of soldiers who took part in a mutiny from the Congolese army between late March and May 2012. Many were previously members of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), a former Rwanda-backed rebel group that integrated into the Congolese army in January 2009. Bosco Ntaganda, who was then a general in the Congolese army, initially led the mutiny. In May, Col. Sultani Makenga, a former colleague of Ntaganda in the CNDP, announced he was beginning a separate mutiny. In the days that followed, Ntaganda and his forces joined Makenga. The new armed group called itself the M23. The M23 claimed the mutiny was to protest the Congolese government's failure to fully implement the March 23, 2009 peace agreement (hence the name M23), which had integrated them into the Congolese army.

Some of the M23's senior commanders have well-known histories of serious abuses, committed over the past decade in eastern Congo as they moved from one armed group to another. They have been responsible for ethnic massacres, recruitment of children, mass rape, killings, abductions, and torture. Before the mutinies, at least five of the M23 leaders were on a UN black list of people with whom the UN would not collaborate due to their human rights records.

Ntaganda has been wanted by the International Criminal Court since 2006 for recruiting and using child soldiers in Ituri district in northeastern Congo in 2002 and 2003. In July, the court issued a second warrant against him for war crimes and crimes against humanity, namely murder, persecution based on ethnic grounds, rape, sexual slavery, and pillaging, also in connection with his activities in Ituri.

Human Rights Watch has documented numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity by troops under Ntaganda's command, as well as by other M23 commanders, including Col. Makenga, Col. Innocent Zimurinda, Col. Baudouin Ngaruye, and Col. Innocent Kayna.

On November 12, 2012, the UN Security Council added Makenga to its list of individuals under sanctions, including an asset freeze and a travel ban. On November 13, the US imposed sanctions on Makenga, which includes an asset freeze and forbids American citizens from undertaking any transactions with him.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/11/20/dr-congo-us-should-urge-rwanda-end-m23-support

THE TRAGEDY OF GOMA

From: Theogene Rudasingwa <notification+kjpdwjkm@facebookmail.com>

To: Itahuka <205659112806009@groups.facebook.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 12:15 AM
Subject: [Itahuka] THE TRAGEDY OF GOMA

12:15am Nov 20 Theogene Rudasingwa| THE TRAGEDY OF GOMA For the last several months Rwandans, Congolese, Africans and the international community have watched as the predictable drama from Kagame's regime plays our once again in the Kivu region of Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. With the birth of M23, the Kigali regime re-engineered the mutation of an old proxy force ( CNDP) into a new one with the same agenda: 1) weaken DRC 2) loot its natural resources 3) pretend that Rwanda can now solve the problem by paying lip-service to negotiations 4) deceive the world that Rwanda is after Rwanda armed groups , especially FDLR and 5) use this presence in DRC to manipulate the international community against looking at the problems within Rwanda itself. In all this President Kagame's trademarks remain deception, total disregard for human life, and disrespect to the international community. First, where is Africa in all this? It is African countries, notably through African Union, that chose Rwanda to represent the continent at the UN Security Council. Like Rwanda, DRC has been bleeding for several years, and has lost 6 millions of its citizens due to Kagame's wars of plunder and killings. Can't Africa save DRC and Rwanda from the most vicious and brutal dictator since Idi Amin? Second, the United Nations has a peacekeeping operation in DRC: over 20,000 personel and an annual budget of close to 1.5 billion US dollars. What is the United Nations doing in DRC if it cannot defend a small African city like GOMA, women and children? The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has become too close to President Kagame that he has lost objectivity in dealing with the crisis in DRC. In 2010, when the Mapping Report was published, Ban Ki -Moon hurriedly packed his bags and went to Kigali to beg Kagame not to pull out Rwandan troops from Sudan. The Mapping Report has been shelved. Now as the Goma drama unfolded, Ban Ki-Moon called Kagame, pleading that the later ( Kagame) "use his influence" to stop the advance of M23 on Goma> Incredible! It is the same United Nations that has rewarded Kagame with a seat on the Security Council, and is now failing to hold him and his officers accountable for the violations of international law. What is the stand of the United States and British Governments on the unfolding tragedy in Goma. Rwanda has invaded a neighboring country and violated DRC's sovereignity and territorial integrity. President Kagame's regime is brutal and dictatorial at home, and belligerent in the Great Lakes region. Washington and London have been Kagame's allies since 1994, and friendship with powerful nations has made him more intransigent and willing to undertake costly risks. It is important for Washington and London to re-evaluate their relationship with Kagame to avoid the "French-Rwanda" disease. In the early 1990's France was able and yet unwilling to read the signals showing the last days of a regime, committed sins of omission and commission, and has regretted since. France was capable of playing a good influence through a friendly regime of President Habyarimana. It chose not to. The consequences were catastrophic. Washington and London have a narrow window of opportunity to stop and reverse their unquestioning policies towards Rwanda's Paul Kagame. Failure to do so in the short and medium term will contribute to even worse tragedies in Rwanda and the Great lakes region. The tide of change may not seem evident to the uncaring, distracted or biased eyes. President Kagame is now the butcher of Rwanda and DRC. He will certainly go. The question is: will he do so peacefully or with unprecedented bloodshed in Rwanda and the region? If Washington and London cannot help Rwandans and Congolese to end this bloodshed and human suffering, at least they should not make matters worse by keeping silent or supporting Kagame as he puts the whole region on fire. It is time for Washington and London to make a choice. The Rwandan and Congolese people must, as a matter of urgency and survival, work together to save themselves and their motherlands. Rwandans and Congolese people must seek the solidarity of Africans in the struggle against a minority clique under Kagame's rule. Rwandans and Congolese must seek partners in the international community who regard respect for human rights, peace, freedom and shared human progress as cornerstones of international relations. It is highly probable that by the time I wake up Goma will be in the hands of Rwanda's troops masquerading as M23. Afterall, Rwanda has deployed its special forces, and almost a division of its armed forces, its equipment and other resources to take Goma. Rwanda may be then enticed to take Bukavu in South Kivu, or even be lured into DRC's tempting belly. Even then, Kagame must know this: it will be a futile exercise since, like all his ventures in DRC, he will be forced to abandon it, leaving with bags of coltan, diamonds and gold, and behind him a trail of blood, tears and sweat of Rwandans and Congolese. DRC will, sooner than later, prove to be Paul Kagame's Achilles heel. Theogene Rudasingwa

[Video] Ministers deny 'profound error' on Rwanda aid

----- Forwarded Message -----
>From: SYLVERE KARURANGA <Sylvere@hotmail.com>
>To: "youthdemocrats@yahoogroups.com" <youthdemocrats@yahoogroups.com>; raya <raya-network@yahoogroups.com>
>Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 1:31 AM
>Subject: [RAYA-Network] Ministers deny 'profound error' on Rwanda aid
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>http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_commons/newsid_9770000/9770795.stm
>
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>Ministers deny 'profound error' on Rwanda aid
>The government has dismissed claims that its decision to reinstate aid to the Rwandan government was a "profound error of judgement".
>International Development Secretary Justine Greening was summoned to the despatch box on 19 November 2012 to answer an urgent question on UK aid to Uganda and Rwanda by her Labour counterpart Ivan Lewis.
>Mr Lewis highlighted recent reports of heavy gunfire and shelling in eastern Democratic Republic Congo, north of the regional capital, Goma, as fresh fighting broke out between UN-backed government troops and the M23 group of rebels.
>The UN accuses Rwanda and Uganda of backing the M23 rebels in the DRC - allegations both countries deny.
>But Mr Lewis told MPs: "The government's policy on this crisis has been nothing short of shambolic, and has seriously undermined the international effort to send a unified and unequivocal message to the Rwandan government that their actions are entirely unacceptable."
>He demanded to know why Ms Greening's predecessor as international development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, had agreed to unfreeze aid to the Rwanda government worth £16m on his last day before becoming chief whip.
>The Rwandan government had not yet acceded to a demand from Prime Minister David Cameron that they publicly condemn the M23 rebels, Mr Lewis noted.
>But Ms Greening said she was "disappointed" by the shadow secretary of state's comments, which she described as an attempt to "politicize" a complex matter.
>The majority of UK aid to Rwanda was dispensed via non-governmental agencies and was therefore not affected by the recent controversy, the international development secretary told MPs.
>"Labour has no ability to really criticise us in relation to, a, tracking results of our aid, and, b, being clear about whether it is being spent appropriately or not," she declared.
>"Whenever we have needed to take action to curb aid, we have indeed done that."
>Foreign Secretary William Hague had discussed the M23 rebels with the Rwandan foreign minister, she told MPs.
>Ms Greening said the decision on whether the next tranche of aid to the Rwanda government would be released would not be taken until December.
>The UK announced on Friday that it is cutting all aid to the Ugandan government after an investigation into corruption.
>The Ugandan auditor reported last month that millions of dollars had been transferred from Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi's office into private accounts.
>A Ugandan official told the BBC he was "not happy" with the UK's decision, acknowledging that money had been stolen from his office but denying any involvement.
>Ms Greening told MPs that the Uganda decision was "distinct" from the M23's activities in the DRC.
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Congolese Rebels Penetrate Goma and Take Airport

Congolese Rebels Penetrate Goma and Take AirportBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 20, 2012 at 7:17 AM ET
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GOMA, Congo (AP) — A rebel group created just seven months ago seized the strategic provincial capital of Goma, home to more than 1 million people in eastern Congo, and its international airport on Tuesday, according to a rebel spokesman and witnesses.Enlarge This Image
James Akena/Reuters
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Explosions and machine-gun fire rocked the lakeside city as the M23 rebels pushed forward on two fronts: toward the city center and along the road that leads to Bukavu, another provincial capital which lies to the south. Civilians ran down sidewalks looking for cover and children shouted in alarm. A man clutched a thermos as he ran.
By early afternoon the gunfire had stopped and M23 soldiers who are believed to be backed by Rwanda, marched down the potholed main boulevards, unimpeded. Their senior commanders paraded around the town in all-terrain vehicles, waving to the thousands of people who left their barricaded houses to see them.
The United Nations peacekeepers, known by their acronym MONUSCO, were not helping the government forces during Tuesday's battle because they do not have a mandate to engage the rebels, said Congolese military spokesman Olivier Hamuli, who expressed frustration over the lack of action by the peacekeepers.
"MONUSCO is keeping its defensive positions. They do not have the mandate to fight the M23. Unfortunately, the M23 did not obey the MONUSCO warnings and went past their positions (at the airport). We ask that the MONUSCO do more," he said.
The rebels are believed to be backed by neighboring Rwanda, which is accused of equipping them with sophisticated arms, including night vision goggles and 120 mm mortars. Evidence is mounting of the role played by the neighboring country and on Friday, the United Nations Group of Experts is expected to release its final report, detailing the role Rwanda has played in the recruitment, financing and arming of the new rebel movement.
On Tuesday, Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende said that Rwandan soldiers had crossed into Goma, hiking over footpaths across a volcano that looms between the two countries.
"Goma is in the process of being occupied by Rwanda," said Mende, speaking from Congo's distant capital of Kinshasa. "We have people who saw the Rwandan army traverse our frontier at the Nyamuragira volcano. They have occupied the airport and they are shooting inside the town. Our army is trying to riposte but this poses an enormous problem for them — this is an urban center where hundreds of thousands of people live," he said.
A Congolese colonel, who was at the frontline in Goma before the city fell, said that the soldiers he saw were Rwandan. Neither his claim nor Mende's could be independently verified.
M23 rebel spokesman Col. Vianney Kazarama confirmed that they had taken the airport and the city. "We are now inside the city of Goma," he said.
Goma, a city of low-lying buildings, many topped by rusted corrugated roofs, was last threatened by rebels in 2008 when fighters from the now-defunct National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP, stopped just short of the city. Their backs to the wall, the Congolese government agreed to enter into talks with the CNDP and a year later, on March 23, 2009, a peace deal was negotiated calling for the CNDP to put down their arms in return for being integrated into the national army.
The peace deal fell apart this April, when up to 700 soldiers, most of them ex-CNDP members, defected from the army, claiming that the Congolese government had failed to uphold their end of the deal. They charged that they were not properly paid and equipped and that the government has systematically discriminated against ethnic Tutsis, which make-up the majority of their ranks.
Although M23 is tapping in to long-held grievances regarding the marginalization of Tutsis in Congo, analysts and country experts say the real reason for the rebellion is over control of Congo's vast mineral riches, a good chunk of which is concentrated in North Kivu province, where Goma is located, as well as neighboring South Kivu, of which Bukavu is the capital.
Germany, which is a member of the U.N. Security Council, called on the rebels to halt their military action immediately. Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement that he called on Congo's neighbors, a reference to Rwanda and Uganda which are accused of backing M23, to not do anything to worsen the crisis. "I expect of Congo's neighboring states that they refrain from doing anything which further exacerbates the situation," Westerwelle said.
Over the weekend, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called Rwandan President Paul Kagame and asked him to call the M23 leaders and ask them to stop their advance, according to a statement issued at U.N. headquarters in New York. In January, Rwanda will assume a seat on the United Nations Security Council, creating a diplomatic minefield in light of what is happening in Goma.
If the rebels succeed in taking Bukavu, it will mark the biggest gain in rebel territory since at least 2003, when Congo's last war with its neighbors ended.
Jean-Claude Bampa, who lives near the road to Sake, the first town on the drive to Bukavu, spoke on the telephone over loud gunfire in the background. "I can hear gunshots everywhere, it is all around my home," he said on Tuesday morning. "We are stuck inside and are terrified. I pray this will be over soon."
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Callimachi reported from Dakar, Senegal.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/11/20/world/africa/ap-af-congo-fighting.html?ref=world&_r=0