Rwanda's support to M23: Satellite photos were damning==UN

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/un-investigation-implicates-rwanda-in-backing-rebels/article5580664/?service=mobile&post_id=100000333970481_115112018652324#_=_

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UN investigation implicates Rwanda in backing rebels

GEOFFREY YORK

JOHANNESBURG — THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Last updated Friday, Nov. 23 2012, 1:06 AM EST

Displaced families flee renewed fighting between the Congolese Revolutionary Army (CRA) and Congolese army in Mugunga, near Goma November 22, 2012. Congolese troops were fighting back on Thursday against rebels who rejected calls from African leaders to quit the eastern city of Goma, captured earlier this week. Thousands of people fled the area of clashes around the town of Sake, as M23 rebel fighters rushed from Goma to reinforce their positions there against a counter-offensive by the army. Locals said the prisoners escaped as the Congolese Revolutionary Army overran the town on Monday. (REUTERS)

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The satellite photos were damning. In the dense forest, under the shadow of a volcano, a well-trodden trail can be clearly seen from the sky, leading directly from a Rwandan military base across the border to a headquarters of Congo's M23 rebel militia.

The 15-kilometre trail, up to four metres wide, was used to transport military supplies and recruits from the Rwandan military to the rebels who dramatically captured the key city of Goma in eastern Congo this week, United Nations investigators say.

• Rebels eye strategic town of Bukavu after vowing to seize all of Congo
• AFRICA Goma's fall leaves Congo afraid of score settling and all-out war
• Congolese rebels penetrate Goma, take airport

The satellite images are among dozens of pieces of evidence gathered by UN investigators revealing how Rwanda violated an arms embargo to give direct help to the M23 rebel militia in the Democratic Republic of Congo, allowing the rebels to seize a huge swath of the mineral-rich region and severely weaken Congo's national government, which the rebels have vowed to topple.

"There are no economic or migratory activities which would otherwise explain the existence of such trails," a team of UN experts noted dryly in a report on their investigation.

"If they are not frequently used, the dense forest would cover these trails in a little over a month," it noted.

Rwanda's crucial support for the M23 rebels is the latest chapter in a long and bloody history between Rwanda and Congo. Since the late 1990s, its tough and battle-hardened military has played a key role in supporting a series of Congolese rebel groups, allowing it to gain strong influence and economic power in the eastern regions of one of Africa's biggest and most war-torn countries.

Its aid to the rebels, ranging from troop reinforcements and weapon supplies to financial and logistical support, is pivotal in explaining the stunning advances of the M23 rebel group in recent months.

The rebels, with an estimated 3,000 fighters in their ranks, are far from a typical ragtag militia. Wearing crisp, new camouflage uniforms, and armed with sophisticated equipment such as night-vision gear and 120-millimetre mortars, the rebels swept into Goma this week, overwhelming the city's defences, humiliating the Congolese army and pushing aside the UN peacekeeping force in the strategic city.

The rebels are now surging southward, toward Bukavu, another strategic city and the capital of South Kivu province. On Thursday, they were advancing steadily on a road to the south, forcing Congo's army into retreat. By capturing Bukavu and Goma, the rebels would be in a strong position to dominate most of eastern Congo.

Rwanda has denied the UN allegations. But there is a growing international consensus that the conclusions of the UN investigators are correct. In a key breakthrough on the issue, the British government announced on Thursday that it accepted the accuracy of the UN report and it threatened to cut off future aid to Rwanda as a result.

"We judge the overall body of evidence of Rwandan involvement with M23 in the DRC to be credible and compelling," said a statement by British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

"We will be studying the implications of this report in full, but these allegations will necessarily be a key factor in future aid decisions to the government of Rwanda."

The 204-page report of the UN investigators was presented on Wednesday to the UN Security Council, which is wrestling with how to respond to the rebel capture of Goma. The United States, a close ally of the Rwandan government, has vetoed any attempt to name Rwanda specifically as the key supporter of the rebels, but that stand might now be changing, according to some reports.

The UN investigators also found evidence that the rebels had received military help from Uganda, which – like Rwanda – has a history of interfering in eastern Congo. But the biggest assistance to the rebels has come from Rwanda, the report said. It said the rebels are unofficially under the command of Rwanda's Defence Minister, General James Kabarebe, along with an indicted war-crimes fugitive, General Bosco Ntaganda – known as "The Terminator."

The evidence cited in the UN report is detailed and exhaustive. It includes radio intercepts of communications between Rwandan and rebel commanders, scores of interviews with former M23 rebel fighters (including 26 Rwandans), photos of grenades used in Goma that are routinely used in the Rwandan army but not used by Congo's army, and captured Rwandan identity documents from Rwandans who were conducting intelligence operations with the rebels in Congo.

"Rwandan officials have provided military support to M23 through permanent troop reinforcements and clandestine support through special forces units," the report said.

The investigators also found that M23 rebels have been recruited in Rwandan villages, while former members of other militias have joined the rebellion by travelling through Rwandan territory, and funds for the rebels have been collected by members of Rwanda's ruling party.

"Officers of the Rwandan armed forces have also furnished the rebels with weapons, facilitated the evacuation of casualties to Rwanda and shared communication equipment with M23," the report said.

http://news.yahoo.com/un-report-accuses-uganda-leaders-brother-congo-151002914.html

UN report accuses Uganda leader's brother on Congo

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA | Associated Press – 23 hrs ago

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KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A new U.N. report that accuses the Rwandan military of commanding and supporting rebel forces in eastern Congo also charges that the brother of Uganda's long-serving president actively backs the movement.

Salim Saleh, 52, is a retired army general, a former Cabinet minister, a legendary bush-war fighter, and a businessman once implicated by the U.N. in the plunder of Congo's natural resources. But in Uganda Saleh, who is known to his family as Caleb Akandwanaho, is best known as President Yoweri Museveni's scandal-prone sibling, an intriguing figure for researchers and academics interested in a country that, like Rwanda, has a long history of meddling in the internal affairs of its vast western neighbor.

Okello Oryem, Uganda's deputy foreign minister, has described the charges against Uganda as "a heap of rubbish" and Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi has dismissed the report in an official response to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as the work of "amateurs or malicious actors dressed up as 'experts.'"

The U.N. Group of Experts, however, said Saleh is now "principally responsible for the support provided within the Ugandan armed forces to M23."

Saleh did not respond to a request for a comment.

The report, published on the U.N. website Wednesday, shows evidence of Uganda's alleged support for the Congolese rebels, including pictures of the houses in Kampala occupied by the rebels as well as intelligence documents linking some Ugandan military officers to the rebels. Other prominent Ugandans named in this regard include Lt. Gen. Kale Kayihura, the police chief, as well as Brig. Patrick Kankiriho, a senior army officer who commands Ugandan forces near the border with Congo.

The highly anticipated report from the U.N. Group of Experts said both Rwanda and Uganda have "cooperated to support the creation and expansion of the political branch of M23 and have consistently advocated on behalf of the rebels. M23 and its allies include six sanctioned individuals, some of whom reside in or regularly travel to Rwanda and Uganda."

"While Rwandan officials have coordinated the creation of the rebel movement and its major military operations, the more subtle support of Ugandan military officers has allowed the political branch of the rebel group to operate form Kampala and boost its external operations," the report said. "The limited assistance provided by officers within the Uganda People's Defense Forces to M23 has nevertheless been decisive in its seizure of principal towns in Rutshuru."

M23 is made up of hundreds of officers who deserted the Congolese army in April. Since then the rebels have occupied vast swaths of territory in mineral-rich eastern Congo, and their capture of Goma this week put pressure on President Joseph Kabila to negotiate with the rebels, who accuse his government of failing to honor the terms of a 2009 peace deal that incorporated them into the national army. The rebels took Goma without much of a battle, with the Congolese army fleeing in disarray and U.N. peacekeepers holding fire.

M23 rebels are threatening to march toward the Congolese capital of Kinshasa and then topple Kabila, who on Tuesday flew into Uganda for emergency talks with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Museveni. Kabila said on Wednesday he is now willing to negotiate with the rebels.

The three presidents said in a joint statement released at the end of their talks in Kampala that they resolved to force M23 rebels to give up Goma and make a retreat.

"Even if there are legitimate grievances by the mutineering group known as M23, (the presidents) cannot accept the expansion of this war or entertain the idea of overthrowing the legitimate government of (Congo) or undermining its authority," the presidents' statement said.

Ugandan officials do not deny that representatives of M23 have been freely coming to Kampala in recent times, a fact cited in the U.N. report, but they say that the rebels visited Uganda for separate peace negotiations that Congolese officials were aware of. M23 rebels have been openly meeting with Ugandan Defense Minister Crispus Kiyonga, according to Oryem, the deputy minister of foreign affairs.

Uganda has threatened to pull its forces out of all peacekeeping operations in Africa, including in war-torn Somalia, if the U.N. officially publishes the experts' report. It remains to be seen if Uganda will act on this threat, but some analysts believe this will not be the case.

The U.N. experts say their indictment of Uganda is the result of ten investigative expeditions to the east African country and multiple interviews with government officials, diplomats, military officials, intelligence officials, and other knowledgeable sources. The report says M23 rebels are recruiting in Uganda with the support of Ugandan officials and that the rebels have procured weapons and ammunition from Ugandan army officers.

M23: A glimpse of what DRC expects

http://therisingcontinent.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/m23-a-glimpse-of-what-drc-expects/

M23: A glimpse of what DRC expects
Posted on November 22, 2012 | Leave a comment
M23 public meeting in Goma after the capture of Goma provincial capital of North Kivu – BBC picture
When these rebels capture a city or a location, populations are always called for public meetings.
The rebels explain them that they are their liberators.
They proclaim marvelous promises for things people have missed under previous corrupt, undemocratic, and criminal administrations. 
Development is on the agenda. It's heaven coming to earth.
The pattern is the same from the Lwero triangle in Uganda, Kagitumba in Rwanda, and Kitona in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
After the meetings, it's the extermination of all elements that political strategists of the rebels judge that they could in the future jeopardize the consolidation of their authority in conquered territory.
In some areas it is systematic cleansing of any human lives because they are destined for specific better projects.
Over the years I have had tens of testimonies of how millions of innocent people have died and continue to die in the Great Lakes region.
It's not that the world does not know what is happening. And with the new technology, they cannot pretend they are not aware of the atrocities being committed which seem endless.
The clip you can watch by clicking here, was taken by Olivier Mitima, a courageous citizen reporter in Goma who captured the incident on Wednesday 21st November 2012 after that M23 had just declared the previous day to the people of Goma that they were coming to liberate them, and that they will be marching to Kinshasa.
Should we blame these rebels for what they are doing to civilians, or have done for all these years? Yes we must.
But most importantly, even their commissioners Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda could not be blamed enough.
The most responsible in the overall tragedy of Congolese and other populations of the Great Lakes region are US and UK governments which don't consider them as human beings worth living as long as economic interests of these two nations are preserved.
The two countries are ensuring that MONUSCO becomes inefficient. How? By not letting it do what it is there for: bringing and maintaining peace.
Otherwise there is no other explanation one can come up with to justify the persistent impunity of Rwandan and Ugandan presidents despite so many conclusive investigations from international experts about their responsibilities in the death of so many lives over so many years.
The latest final report of the UN Group of Experts points at high rank authorities among the Rwandan government and administration. It also shows Ugandan officials have been helping the rebels.
As the US representatives at the UN have constantly covered up the ongoing on-slaughter of Congolese, their country bears significant responsibility for the continuous suffering of concerned populations in the region.

RDC: Nous avons nos raisons pour dire non aux gouvernements en place dans nos pays

[VIDEO] RDC: Nous avons nos raisons pour dire non aux gouvernements en place dans nos pays

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjNb7Ee1wDQ

Suddenly, the British government changes policy on Rwanda

http://blogs.channel4.com/lindsey-hilsum-on-international-affairs/suddenly-the-british-government-changes-policy-on-rwanda/1117

Thursday 22 Nov 2012

Suddenly, the British government changes policy on Rwanda

Until now, the Foreign Office has been reluctant to blame the government of its ally President Paul Kagame (pictured below) for the surge in fighting in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This week two things changed. First, the M23 rebels, who are backed by Rwanda, seized the town of Goma. Then the UN came out with a report which alleges not only that Rwanda supports M23, but that its minister of defence, James Kabarebe, actually commands them.

"We judge the overall body of evidence of Rwandan involvement with M23 in the DRC to be credible and compelling.

"We will be studying the implications of this report in full, but these allegations will necessarily be a key factor in future aid decisions to the government of Rwanda," said a statement signed by Foreign Secretary William Hague and Development Secretary Justine Greening.

It's a big departure. In a much criticised decision, the former Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell signed off on £8m in aid to Rwanda on the last day of his tenure at the department. A further £21m due in December now looks in doubt.

Rwanda has grown at 7 per cent per year for the last decade and DFID loves the government's efficiency.  "By 2020, the government of Rwanda aims to complete the country's transformation from a poor, post-conflict nation to a thriving, middle income, regional trade and investment hub," says the DFID website.

"Rwanda uses aid very well, both in terms of the results it achieves and accounting for its use."

All of which is true, but Rwanda's success is partly built on DR Congo's failure. The Rwandan exchequer benefits from minerals which have been illegally mined in DRC and smuggled over the border.

After Hutus who had taken part in the genocide of Tutsis in 1994 fled into Kivu, the Rwandan Patriotic Front government has seen the eastern DRC as its legitimate zone of influence, and a security buffer. "The de facto annexation of north Kivu is well underway," said an international aid official in Goma.

The Rwandan government says the UN has a campaign against them, which started when UN troops failed to stop the genocide of 1994. They accuse their accusers of bad faith or bias, and deny all involvement with M23. The west, they say, is to blame for what's happening in Congo. But now even Rwandans who support the RPF are beginning to ask questions.

"I tired of defending arrests of journalists, of jailing opposition leaders because you disagree with them," wrote Rama Isibo, a Rwandan journalist who has always supported the government. "I tired of defending our right to attack Congo, knowing the millions who suffer as a result.

"I tired of explaining to my western expat friends why no independent opinions were allowed on public media. I tired of explaining that fear that is unspoken, the looking over your shoulder when you speak."

Follow Lindsey on Twitter via @lindseyhilsum