By Oscar Nkala.
Ugandan Vice President Edward Ssekandi says the United Nations should support the joint proposal from members states of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region and the Southern Africa Development Community for the deployment of a 4000-strong Neutral International Force on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to end the war between the M23 rebel group and several militias fighting the Congolese army in the North Kivu, South Kivu and Goma regions, but only ‘as long as the mistakes of the past are not repeated.’
The security and humanitarian situation in Eastern DRC has deteriorated lately amid continuing clashes between the army and the M23 rebel group led by General Jean Bosco Ntaganda, which mutinied and eventually broke away from the Congolese Armed Forces (FAC) in April this year. M23 has been fighting intermittently since then against the UN MONUSUCO force and winning regularly against a disorganized and de-motivated Congolese national army.
Addressing the recent UN High Level Meeting on the situation in the Eastern DRC, Ssekandi said with UN support, the deployment of the proposed Neutral Intervention Force to clear Eastern DRC of its own rebels and those from neighbouring countries can end the war and create the necessary conditions for a sustainable peace process to hold.
He said the DRC has for long been a threat to regional stability, in most cases willingly under the rule of the late dictators Mobutu Sese Seko and Laurent Desire Kabila when it harboured rebel groups such as Uganda’s Allied Forces for Democracy, the Lord’s Resistance Army, the Rwandan Interahamwe and of late, ex-genocidaire Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
He said the DRC also offered sanctuary to Jonas Savimbi’s Union for the Total Liberation of Angola (UNITA) and armed enemies of Central African neighbours Congo-Brazzaville and South Sudan. Ssekandi said although the regional governments have no evidence that President Joseph Kabila’s government supports rebel groups from neighbouring countries, it continues to host regional armed groups which launch regular raids into neighbouring countries and retreat into the safety of Congolese territory when counter-attacked.
“Since the advent of President Joseph Kabila’s government to power in 2001, we do not have evidence that the Congo government has threatened its neighbours by design. However, DRC has continued to threaten the security of neighbours by default. Since the DRC government and the UN forces that are supporting it (MONUSUC) are not effectively controlling the territory of DRC, the country has continued to be home to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the ex-genocidaires of Rwanda, the extremist Paremuhutu terrorists from Burundi, the Allied Forces for Democracy and the Lord’s Resistance Army terrorists from Uganda.
“Neither the DRC government, nor the UN forces are able to remove these terrorists. Therefore, the recent proposal by the ICGLR and the Southern Africa Development Community of a Neutral International Force could provide a solution as long as mistakes, as happened in our region in the past, are not repeated,” Ssekandi said. However, he said the plan will fail as many others have done before it if the DRC government and the international forces do not eradicate regional rebels and internal armed groups operating on Congolese territory.
“This is not a favour to the neighbours, it is a right. No UN member has a right, by design or default, to allow its territory to be a threat to neighbours. In Uganda’s capacity as Chair of the ICGLR, and in an effort to resolve the situation in Eastern DRC, we have had interaction with the M-23. They submitted 21 grievances from which you can discern the frame of mind of that group. The problem of negative forces has persisted for too long in spite of the efforts of the government of the DRC and MONUSCO. It is therefore the considered view of ICGLR that a force from the region has got better prospects of bringing peace to the region. Let us support negotiations with M-23 to end their issues peacefully, if possible.”
The Ugandan VP said the process will also hinge heavily on the DRC’s ability to build its own coherent, truly national national army to ensure that the government maintains security control over its entire territory when foreign forces leave after clearing out armed rebels groups. “Let us support a UN mandate for the Neutral International Force so that they can help the DRC army to deal with the terrorists against the neighboring countries. However, DRC should build its own army. Why should it take so long to build an army? After Idi Amin, it took Uganda only two years. By the end of 1980, we already had the nucleus of an army. Without an effective army, how will the DRC territory be effectively and sustainably controlled?”
He said a coherent Congolese national army ceased to exist in the 1960s when state institutions collapsed under Mobutu and has never been organized into a disciplined national security force since then. He alluded to its fractious nature saying it is riven with tribal sub-armies, inter-ethnic strife and competing political and tribal loyalties, all of which are considered to be above the nation.
“Building a national army is ideological. You must see the people of Uganda, DRC or Somalia as your people not just members of your tribe. That is why we introduced a quota system for building our army in Uganda. The army must have a national ideology based on the knowledge that the country provides more opportunities for the people than the tribe. Without a national army, the groups who are excluded feel insecure with a sectarian army. When that sectarian army faces a challenge, it will fight an isolated battle. These basics must be grasped. I heard one UN official questioning the integration of the fighting forces (in DRC) into the national army on the grounds of ‘loyalty’. A ‘loyal’ sectarian army is the greatest liability for any system. Integration is, therefore unavoidable,” Ssekandi advised.
However, the International Crisis Group has dismissed the ICGLR call for military intervention to solve the security crisis in the Eastern DRC as ‘an unrealistic and ineffective solution.’ The group said there will be no solution to the war as long as international donors and African mediators persist in managing the crisis when they are supposed to be solving it. It added that the crisis continues to recur because all the past agreements signed to pave the way to peace have not been implemented.
“This crisis shows that today’s problems are the same as yesterday’s because the 2008 framework for resolution of the conflict has yet to be put in place. Instead of implementing the March 23, 2009 agreement between the government and the National Council for the Defence of the People (formerly led by General Laurent Nkunda), the Congolese authorities pretended to be integrating the CNDP into political institutions, while the rebel group pretended to be integrating into the Congolese army. In the absence of army reform, military pressure on armed groups only had a temporary effect and post-conflict reconstruction was not accompanied by essential governance reforms and political dialogue,” the group says in its latest update of the DRC crisis.
The DRC accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebellion, a charge which President Paul Kagame and the government in Kigali has dismissed as provocative and baseless. Instead, Rwanda has charged that it should be the one complaining because DR Congo is host to the FDLR rebels and other members of the former Rwandan army which, alongside the government’s Interahamwe militia, perpetrated the 1994 genocide. The ICG however insists that the deployment of an intervention force will not end the cycle of repetitive rebellions behind the insecurity in the Kivus and Goma regions.
“Pursuant to the peace and security architecture, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) organised in July a regional dialogue to avoid conflict between Rwanda and the DRC. Unfortunately, it seems to be promoting an unrealistic and ineffective solution by advocating for the deployment of a 4,000-strong neutral force at the border between Rwanda and the DRC. If international donors and African mediators persist in managing the crisis rather than solving it, it will be impossible to avoid the repetitive cycle of rebellions in the Kivus. The risk of large-scale violence will remain,” the ICG said.
