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US blocks military aid to Rwanda over alleged backing of M23 child soldiers

Rwandan government condemns sanctions, which also apply to Burma, Central African Republic, Sudan and Syria

David Smith, Africa correspondent
theguardian.com, Saturday 5 October 2013 02.46 AEST



Rwanda's military denies any link to the use of child soldiers by M23
rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photograph: Reuters

The US has sanctioned Rwanda .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/rwanda .. over of its alleged support for a Congolese rebel group that sends child soldiers into battle.

The decision to block US military aid was condemned by Rwandan officials but endorsed by the country's political opposition for "bringing the Kigali regime to account".

The Rwandan government has been accused by the UN of backing the M23 rebel group .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/17/rwanda-minister-leader-congo-rebels-kabarebe .. in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/congo (DRC), a charge it denies.

The sanctions also apply to the Burma, Central African Republic, Sudan and Syria. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said: "Under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, we have just announced those countries that are being sanctioned under that act, and Rwanda is one of those countries.

"Our goal is to work with countries that have been listed to ensure that any involvement in child soldiers, any involvement in the recruitment of child soldiers, must stop. In this case, it was related to M23, and we will continue to have discussions with the Rwandan government on that issue."

Marie Harf, a state department spokesperson, added that Rwanda was sanctioned because of its "support for the M23, a rebel group which continues to actively recruit and abduct children" and to threaten the stability of DRC.

Rwanda will not receive US international military education and training funds, which help train foreign militaries, nor US foreign military financing, which funds the sale of American military material and services, Harf explained.

The US has had close military ties with Rwanda since president Paul Kagame .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/paul-kagame 's Rwandan Patriotic Front came to power after the 1994 genocide. The country's army is regarded as one the most disciplined and efficient in the region.

The M23, which accuses the Congolese government of failing to honour a 2009 peace deal, is fighting the Congolese army and a UN intervention brigade near the Rwandan border. In July, Human Rights Watch said it had documented dozens of cases of forced recruitment by M23 forces .. http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/07/22/dr-congo-m23-rebels-kill-rape-civilians .. since March, including of children.

The UN's group of experts has reported that the M23 is receiving "direct support" from the Rwandan military .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/04/rwandans-congo-rebels-un , including when it briefly captured the major city of Goma last year. Rwanda claims no conclusive evidence has been produced.

The issue has created a headache for western donors .. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/magazine/paul-kagame-rwanda.html .. who previously heaped praise on Kagame for transforming the shattered country into a development success story. Some have partially frozen aid .. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/nov/30/uk-withholds-aid-rwanda-congo-drc .

On Friday, the Rwandan military criticised the US decision to withhold aid. "It is surprising that Rwanda would be liable for matters that are neither on its territory nor in its practices," said the army's spokesman, brigadier general Joseph Nzabamwita. "As a long-term partner of the Rwanda defence forces, the United States .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/usa .. has ample evidence that our forces have never tolerated the use of children in combat.

"Rwanda's commitment to a sustainable solution that seeks to bring an end to the DRC conflict and its consequences, including the use of child soldiers, remains unchanged. The collaboration between the government of Rwanda and the United States remains strong, particularly in the field of peacekeeping, and Rwanda will continue to hold its forces to the highest standards of professionalism and discipline."

He added that the "decision to include Rwanda among states that use child soldiers is not based on evidence or facts".

But the move was applauded by Kagame's Rwandan critics. Three groups – FDU-Inkingi, the Amahoro Peoples Congress and the Rwanda National Congress – said in a joint statement .. http://www.fdu-rwanda.com/en/english-rwanda-opposition-commends-us-sanctions-against-the-rwandan-regime-for-recruitment-of-child-soldiers-in-drc : "We commend the efforts of the United States government to have taken the lead in bringing the Kigali regime to account for the horrendous human rights abuses committed in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"We call upon the United States government and other members of the international community to impose comprehensive and targeted sanctions against the Kigali regime."

The groups also called on the UN security council to impose sanctions against the Rwandan government for supporting the M23 "as well as for other human rights abuses, war crimes and crimes against humanity".

The UN fighting force has made gains against the M23 and reduced the threat to Goma as peace talks continue, but deadly violence continues to flare. This week Human Rights Watch urged the UN security council to adopt a resolution .. http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/10/03/un-security-council-address-rights-abuses-dr-congo .. requiring Rwanda to end all support to the M23 and impose sanctions on senior Rwandan officials involved.

The watchdog quoted a woman from Rutshuru in eastern DRC as saying she was raped by an M23 rebel fighter who said to her: "We also had wives, but they stayed in Rwanda. So that's why we rape you." After the woman was raped, the fighter shot her in both thighs, Human Rights Watch reported.

Kagame recently expressed frustration at constantly being blamed for the instability in eastern Congo. "It's like, you know, the world has decided, for Congo, you ask Rwanda. Why? I don't understand," he told Reuters .. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/30/us-un-assembly-rwanda-kagame-idUSBRE98T0RR20130930 .. on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York.

"My question always is, why doesn't the country, the state of Congo, deal with the issues themselves? They should be the ones telling the world nothing is working, or what they think can work for them. I cannot be the one to keep being asked to answer what should work for Congo. This is a serious problem."

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/oct/04/us-military-aid-rwanda-m23-child-soldiers

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M23 (militia) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M23_%28militia%29

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Congo-Kinshasa: Ntaganda Asks to Be Released From ICC Detention
By Wairagala Wakabi, 19 September 2013
http://allafrica.com/stories/201309200256.html?viewall=1

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Painting by Cheri Samba

Lokuta eyaka na ascenseur, kasi vérité eyei na escalier mpe ekomi. Lies come up in the elevator; the truth takes the stairs but gets here eventually. - Koffi Olomide

Ésthetique eboma vélo. Aesthetics will kill a bicycle. - Felix Wazekwa
Saturday, August 31, 2013

Fact-checking the recent M23 escalation

After a month of relative calm, fighting resumed between the M23 and the Congolese army on August 21. The fighting took place around 15km north of Goma, around the town of Kibati. The M23 held the high ground on either side of the road going north from Goma toward Rutshuru. Yesterday, August 30, the M23 announced that they were withdrawing their troops from the frontline toward Kibumba to the north.

Who started the fighting and why?

According to United Nations and diplomatic sources, the M23 launched the attack against the Congolese army. This is based on reports provided by United Nations troops, who are on the frontline. But fighting has been ongoing north of Goma since at least July, when the M23 attacked the outskirts of this town of half a million, and throughout the past eight months of peace talks in Kampala the Congolese army has continued to nettle the M23.

The reason behind the escalation is more difficult to parse. Most likely, the M23 is worried about the lack of progress in peace talks in Kampala, which have been stalled for many months now. There is a certain urgency about the fighting, as well: the UN Intervention Brigade is almost fully operational, and the UN drones will soon be patrolling the skies, as well. So the best guess is that the M23 is trying to force a compromise in Kampala. If that is true, then their withdrawal to Kibumba is a blow to them––as long as they threatened Goma directly, the M23 had real leverage.

Who has been shelling Rwanda and Goma?

Since August 22, a series of artillery shells have fallen in Goma and Rwanda, killing civilians on either side of the border. (The Rwandan government chronology of events is here.) The UN has now told the press that at least some of the mortars that fell in Rwanda came from M23 positions. According to one UN official in Goma I spoke to, their troops could observe the trajectory of the mortars.

Given that some of the fighting at Kibati took place within one kilometer of the Rwandan border, it is possible that other mortars were Congolese army mistakes. For the mortars that fell in Rubavu town in Rwanda, however, that would be unlikely, as these landed behind FARDC positions. Here, it was either a case of FARDC firing into Rwanda on purpose or they came from M23 positions.

In the case of Goma, where the majority of the fatalities have occurred (seven compared with one in Rwanda), most accounts from the UN suggest that these were M23 mortars––some UN troops have seen or heard the mortars flying overhead. In some of the cases, it is difficult to imagine that the M23 mistakenly hit populated areas, as there were no military installations in the line of fire.

What has the UN been doing?

In the past week, there have been many mentions in the press of "the UN's most robust peacekeeping mandate." While this is to a certain extent hyperbole––the UN blue helmets in the Congo have always had part of a Chapter VII mandate, and have always been able to use deadly force to protect civilians in imminent danger (and in the case of Ituri in 2005 the UN has gone on the offensive in the past); the current mandate just makes it explicit that that means taking offensive action.

But the UN force certainly has a lot of expectations weighing on it, in particular on the 3,000-strong Intervention Brigade. After fighting began and mortars hit Goma, the population took their anger out on the UN, trashing vehicles and claiming the UN was idling standing by while civilians were being killed. One demonstration on August 24 turned violent, and two protestors were killed––some claim the UN is responsible for this.

This is certainly a low point of UN popularity in the Congo, but the recent fighting may change this. Over the past ten days, the UN has engaged its air force, artillery, and infantry in the fighting against the M23. The Intervention Brigade did much of the fighting, but other contingents (Egyptian, Jordanian, Indian, Nepalese) were also involved. There is a good UN summary posted here (h/t Timo Mueller). To give an idea how heavily the UN stepped in, on August 24 UN attack helicopters fired 216 rockets and 42 flares on M23 positions in Kibati. Meanwhile, South African snipers have killed at least six M23 rebels, according to the South African government. The UN also suffered their first casualty at the hands of the M23, a Tanzanian peacekeeper killed by a mortar shell.

The UN's robust response is in part due to the new mandate and the Intervention Brigade. In part, it may also be due to the new leaders of the UN mission. The new Special Representative of the Secretary-General (i.e. the head of the mission) Martin Kobler (Germany) arrived in the country in August and has distinguished himself already by visiting an FARDC field hospital close to Goma. A new Force Commander, General Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz (Brazil) also recently arrived.

Has Rwanda supported the M23 in the fighting?

Rwanda's support to the M23 had decreased early this year, leading the UN Group of Experts to issue much milder criticism of Rwanda in its interim report in July, and foreign donors had unfroze most of the aid suspended last year. However, recruitment by the M23 in Rwanda has continued throughout, as evidenced by Human Rights Watch and UN reporting.

The most recent fighting appears to have triggered renewed Rwandan support to the rebels, according to UN and diplomatic sources. According to one such source, the M23 launched an attack on FARDC positions in the night of August 22/23, leading UN military observers to believe that the M23 had night-vision equipment. The UN mission has also reported to the Security Council that Rwanda has provided such support. A diplomat told me that his country, a Security Council member, had also confirmed Rwandan support to the M23 in the recent fighting and had spoken with authorities in Kigali about this. According to the same source, most important donors in Kigali were on the same page in this regard.

This means that Rwanda's recent threats to invade the Congo (tanks and troops were deployed on Friday to the border) due to the cross-border shelling is not likely to receive much sympathy from their donor allies. Whether these donors, however, will act on their beliefs, however, is another matter. Given that the M23 has now withdrawn to the north and fighting has at least temporarily ceased, that escalation is unlikely to take place.

Posted by Jason Stearns at 7:41 PM

http://congosiasa.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/fact-checking-recent-m23-escalation.html