Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05KINSHASA950
2005-06-10 11:20:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kinshasa
Cable title:  

NEW SECURITY SECTOR AGREEMENTS SIGNED BETWEEN

Tags:  PREL PGOV KPKO MARR CG 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000950 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/10/2015
TAGS: PREL PGOV KPKO MARR CG
SUBJECT: NEW SECURITY SECTOR AGREEMENTS SIGNED BETWEEN
BELGIUM, SOUTH AFRICA, HOLLAND, AND THE DRC

Classified By: Ambassador Roger Meece. Reason 1.4 (b/d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000950

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/10/2015
TAGS: PREL PGOV KPKO MARR CG
SUBJECT: NEW SECURITY SECTOR AGREEMENTS SIGNED BETWEEN
BELGIUM, SOUTH AFRICA, HOLLAND, AND THE DRC

Classified By: Ambassador Roger Meece. Reason 1.4 (b/d).


1. (U) Summary: Three new security sector reforms were signed
on the margins of a June 1 ceremony marking the graduation of
the third FARDC integrated brigade (reported septel). The
Belgian, South Africa, and DRC agreements provide for
additional future training, equipment and infrastructure
development. A Dutch "letter of intent" provides for a new
Euro 5 million grant channeled through South Africa, also
related to infrastructure support for further military
integration training. Related, South African military
"census" activities continue, with an implicit agreement for
European financial support as necessary to complete the key
census exercise. All represent welcome progress to spur
increased activity in the critically important security
sector during the final portion of the DRC transition
process. End summary.


2. (U) Septel reports a June 1 ceremony held in Kamina
(Katanga Province) to mark the graduation of soldiers drawn
from various former belligerent factions, trained under South
African and Belgian auspices to form the third integrated
FARDC brigade. Three security sector agreements were signed
on the margins of the ceremony by the Belgian, South African,
and Congolese Ministers of Defense, and by the Dutch
Ambassador.


3. (U) A "Joint Communique on the Arrangement between the
DRC, RSA, and Belgium" signed by the respective Defense
Ministers builds on a December 2004 "trilateral" agreement,
and provides for continued future cooperation and further
military training. In general terms the agreement provides
for the South Africans and Congolese to "keep on with the
activities linked to the integration training" in designated
centers, and the Belgian and Congolese to "ensure the
training of the leadership of the Kamina airport site and the
Kinshasa Military Academy." The agreement further provides
that Belgian and South African liaison officers will be
detailed to the other country,s working groups, and
specifies "implementation mechanisms" will be further worked

out at the expert level.


4. (U) A bilateral agreement signed by the Belgian and
Congolese Ministers commits Belgium to further
"train-the trainers" for the Mushaki, Luberezi, and Nyaleke
integration centers (in North and South Kivu),with training
to be conducted in Kamina starting July 1. The accord
further commits both countries to work to improve Kamina
infrastructure, and promises Belgian support to help equip
the new third integrated brigade. This support is further
defined as direct Belgian contributions as well as Belgian
"contacts" with other international community states to
fulfill equipment needs of this and future integrated
brigades. The bilateral accord also references Belgian
secondment of a Belgian Colonel to the GDRC,s military
integration authority (SMI),as well as a Belgian promise to
"equip and form" a Beninese battalion for deployment to MONUC
forces.


5. (U) In addition, a quite detailed "Letter of Intent" was
signed by the South African and Congolese Ministers, and by
the Dutch Ambassador on behalf of her government. The letter
in essence commits the Dutch government to provide a grant of
five million Euros to the South African government to support
Congolese Army integration. Specifically, the funds are
intended to improve living conditions in the Nyaleke and
Mushaki integration centers in North Kivu in accordance with
a previously conducted needs assessment. The letter is very
specific that the grant is to support the integration
process, and that brigades to be trained must include troops
at platoon level from a specific list of former belligerent
factions (e.g., MLC, RCD-Goma, FAC, Mai-Mai, RCD-ML). The
letter imposes a number of other specific conditions,
including human rights training, consistency with the
national integration and demobilization plans, and deployment
of troops following training to permit other new troops to be
moved into the integration training centers. The letter
notes that a separate bilateral agreement will be signed
between the Netherlands and South Africa regarding the grant
and release of funds and the obligations of both countries


6. (U) Text of all three agreements are being sent to AF/C.


7. (SBU) Related, South African-led "census" activities are
continuing based on a 30-person South African military group
assisted by FARDC officers. A large number of soldiers in
Kamina were clearly equipped with visible badges indicating
soldiers already processed through the census procedure.
Concern had arisen that this initiative might falter due to a
lack of money; however, a consensus has formed with an
implicit commitment for European funds to be available to
South Africa to permit the census activity to be completed as
quickly as possible. A successful census project is
essential to eliminate from the rolls a large number of
"phantom" soldiers, claimed for payroll purposes, and set
baselines for the overall military integration and DDR
programs. In addition, the exercise is critical to the
corresponding effort underway to regularize payment of
salaries to the military, a long-standing Congolese problem.


8. (C) Comment: The Dutch grant is fully consistent with
obvious Dutch interest in helping to foster greater South
African integration with European security sector activities.
There is, however, continuing unease and sometimes criticism
evidenced by Belgian officials regarding the South African
activities. While senior-level Belgian and South African
officials appear intent to reinforce coordinated activities,
as evidenced by the new "trilateral" cooperation extension,
there appears to be some continuing working-level
competition. The Kivu integration centers were part of a
new network established as a part of various "emergency
plans" adopted starting late 2004, but largely uncoordinated
and poorly directed. The new agreements reflect efforts to
ensure that the poor physical conditions in these centers are
brought up to some accepted minimal standard, and that more
generally the integration efforts underway in these, as well
as the Kitona and Kamina centers, are part of the overall
coordinated national integration plan. There are still
outstanding issues, for example, a sub-standard Camp Lukusa
facility in Kisangani, and a proposed new center in Mbandaka,
but the agreements signed in Kamina represent substantial
progress.


9. (U) Comment continued: Taken together, the new
agreements, the corresponding census activity, related
continuing Angolan training efforts, and the establishment of
a new EU Security Mission working in support of pay and other
security sector reform activities augur well for an increased
pace of security sector programs. All of these activities
represent substantial resource commitments by the various
partners in recognition of the critical importance of the
security sector as the Congolese transition enters a final
phase moving toward elections. End comment.
MEECE