North Kivu Military Meetings Fail as CNDP Walks Out

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KINSHASA 000102 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL MOPS CG SUBJECT: North Kivu Military Meetings Fail as CNDP Walks Out ¶1. (SBU) Summary: FARDC Vice Admiral Dieudonne Etumba, with MONUC as co-chair, convened a meeting of CNDP and Mai Mai groups January 28 to establish a preliminary Technical Commission to follow up the Kivu accords, but the lone CNDP representative objected to Etumba's proposed structure as different from the one FARDC had presented January 25. Etumba reconvened the group January 29, and the CNDP representative announced that CNDP would refuse any cooperation until seven prisoners were released. When Etumba opened discussion of a timetable, the CNDP representative walked out. In follow-on meeting, MONUC Eastern Division Commander General Bikram Singh told Etumba that there would be no progress if CNDP were cornered and if there were no high-level contact by the government with Nkunda, but Etumba said contact with Nkunda was a matter for the international community. (Comment: Etumba's view on DRC contact with Nkunda may not represent the position of the senior government officials in Kinshasa. End Comment.) End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) Before leaving Goma January 27, Kivus Conference leaders Appollinaire Malu Malu and National Assembly President Vital Kamerhe told armed groups that FARDC Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Dieudonne Etumba would lead efforts to establish a military committee under the Acte d'Engagement. (They had told international facilitators the previous day that Interior Minister Denis Kalume would arrive in Goma to provide political leadership in their absence, but Kalume has not yet appeared.) Etumba convened a meeting January 28 at MONUC headquarters in Goma, with a single CNDP military officer and all but one North Kivu Mai Mai group present. MONUC co-chaired the meeting, under SRSG Doss's chief of staff John Almstrom, who had just arrived in Goma to coordinate the aftermath of the Kivus Conference, and MONUC's Eastern Division Commander Bikram Singh. FARDC and PNC officers were present in significant numbers (13) as were PARECO and Mai Mai representatives (30),leaving the CNDP officer hugely outnumbered. ¶3. (SBU) Etumba opened the meeting saying that it would set in motion the Peace and Security Technical Commission mandated under Article 2 of the Acte d'Engagement. His instructions, he said, were for the armed groups to discuss modalities, particularly the structure (organigram) and timetable (chronogram),for the Technical Commission. He said that a presidential decree would be issued formally establishing the Commission, once the structure and timetable were agreed. (Note: In the meeting of the same group the next day Etumba altered his view of the group's mission, saying it was only to set in motion an "ad hoc committee" as conceived in the last of 15 items under Article 2: "...per the timetable established by the ad hoc Commission..." This is the only mention of an "ad hoc commission" in the Acte d'Engagement.) ¶4. (SBU) The two preliminary organigrams of the Technical Commission, the one conceived by Malu Malu and the one presented to the armed groups on January 25 at an inconclusive meeting convened by FARDC Inspector General Francois Olenga, dealt only with military issues. Etumba's organigram presented a significantly different structure. While more streamlined than Olenga's, it made a major addition by dividing the Commission (per the Acte d'Engagement) into Military and Humanitarian/Social Sub-Commissions -- thereby expanding the scope of the meeting beyond its military confines. When Etumba asked for approval of the organigram, the CNDP representative, Capt. B. Masuzera (who had not been part of the CNDP delegation to the Kivus Conference),said that he could not approve it until it was cleared by his superiors, as it was different than the one that CNDP had discussed, which had contemplated only a military role. He also said that Etumba was not following the requirements of Article 2 of the Acte d'Engagement, which stated that the Technical Commission was to be "legally instituted by the government." Several Mai Mai speakers picked up on the latter point, questioning the validity of the meeting since Kabila had not issued a decree formally establishing the Commission. PARECO condemned CNDP for alleged attacks on PARECO in recent days and there were several other pointed criticisms of CNDP (including by a police representative commenting that CNDP needed to send a representative capable of flexibility),while the CNDP representative remained silent. Etumba called for a vote on his organigram, and all approved it except CNDP. ¶5. (SBU) Etumba called for resumption of the meeting on the following day. Almstrom and Singh later met privately with Etumba, Olenga, and 8th Region Commander General Vainqueur Mayala to stress that the next day's meeting needed to avoid cornering CNDP. That meeting, January 29, opened with a presentation by Almstrom, which helped give a sense of co-chairmanship and less a sense of FARDC domination. Singh spoke at length of the armed groups' need to work together to take the first step; he said that without agreeing on a forum for dealing with ceasefire violations, recriminations would continue to build and the spirit of the Kivus Conference would be KINSHASA 00000102 002 OF 003 dissipated. However, the meeting January 29 had much the same imbalance as that of January 28, with CNDP's Capt. Masuzera hugely outnumbered by Mai Mai and FARDC. ¶6. (SBU) When Etumba brought up the first item on his agenda -- the organigram which CNDP was supposed to have considered overnight -- Capt. Masuzera said that CNDP would proceed no further until seven CNDP members arrested by DRC were released. Masuzera, when questioned by Etumba, could give no names nor a specific date of arrest, except that it had occurred "during the conference" (i.e., before the signing of the Acte, Etumba pointed out),nor did he explain why he had not raised this point on the previous day. Almstrom said that MONUC's human rights office would investigate these arrests immediately. Etumba adjourned the meeting for 20 minutes, in the hope that Masuzera could obtain information on the arrests and a decision from his superiors to cease obstructing the proceedings. ¶7. (SBU) During the pause poloff asked Masuzera if he had been able to reach Nkunda (he had not); he urged Masuzera to take the initiative on his own to continue participating, noting that CNDP risked being painted as obstructionist. Masuzera was inflexible, saying that the arrestees had to be freed and that, in any case, CNDP did not view the proceedings as meeting the requirement of the Acte (establishment by presidential decree). Masuzera did get the first names of the arrestees, which he announced to the resumed meeting. He told the meeting that CNDP had raised the issue of these arrests with Kamerhe during the previous week, to no avail. Eighth Military Region Deputy Commander Col. Delphin Kahimbi said that he had complete information on the arrestees: they were not, he claimed, from CNDP but from the MRC from Ituri (Note: In fact, the MRC is headed by Bwambale Kakolele, a Nande and senior CNDP military leader allied with Nkuknda. End note.),that they had been arrested not in DRC but in Uganda for trafficking in arms on January 15, and that Uganda had "extradited" them to DRC; he said that only three of the names of those "extradited" corresponded with the names provided by Masuzera. Etumba carried on with the meeting, moving to his second objective, the endorsement of a new timetable. With the raising of this new subject, Masuzera quietly left the meeting. After much discussion of the timetable, in CNDP's absence, Etumba declared that he considered the timetable as being adopted and commented that the absence of CNDP "was not a problem." ¶8. (SBU) MONUC and the international facilitators (EU, UK, U.S.) met Etumba and Mayala after the meeting. Singh told them bluntly that there was a fundamental flaw with the proceedings. There was no point, he said, cramming the room with Mai Mai (who, Singh said, were a minor issue) while not dealing with the fundamental issue of "Nkunda's aspirations." Etumba responded that it was up to MONUC and the international community to deal with Nkunda. His only role, he said, was to set up an ad hoc committee to establish an organizational structure and timetable, after which he would return to Kinshasa and a decree would be issued establishing the Technical Commission. Those were his instructions and he would not go beyond them. ¶9. (SBU) Almstrom asked North Kivu Brigade Commander General Indrajeet Narayan for a briefing on the recent ceasefire violations. Narayan said that there had been no violations involving FARDC, but that there had been recent firing in three areas (in the north around Bambu, between CNDP and PARECO and FDLR),in the west around Mweto (CNDP and PARECO),and in the southwest near Ngungu (CNDP and PARECO). MONUC had not confirmed which side was at greater fault nor did it have information on casualties. Narayan said that MONUC would establish bases the next day at Mweto, Tongo, and Ngungu. ¶10. (SBU) On Etumba's and Mayala's departure, MONUC and international facilitators pondered the issue of contacting Nkunda. They agreed that it would be important for MONUC to meet Nkunda as soon as possible, at no less high a level than Almstrom. Singh regretted that MONUC had up to now effectively "taken sides" by refusing to have any high-level contact with Nkunda, but the signing of the Acte would, he hoped, permit a change in that policy. Almstrom said he would raise the issue immediately with the SRSG. ¶11. (SBU) Comment. Ambassador Garvelink met Tuesday evening, January 29, with Dr. Raymond Tshibanda, the Chief of Staff for President Kabila. Garvelink raised the issue of DRC contact with General Nkunda, stressing that it is important for the government to establish senior level, regular contact with Nkunda as soon as possible. Tshibanda agreed and said the senior people to be named to lead the follow-on commissions would be the appropriate people to establish contact with Nkunda. Tshibanda said those individuals would be identified by Thursday. End Comment. KINSHASA 00000102 003 OF 003 GARVELINK