Goma Report September 5: CNDP Captures Katsiru

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000734 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL MOPS PHUM PREF KPKO CG UN, EUN SUBJECT: Goma Report September 5: CNDP Captures Katsiru ¶1. (SBU) Summary: CNDP launched a three-pronged attack at dawn September 5 and drove FARDC out of Katsiru. The International Facilitation team has urged FARDC and CNDP to begin urgent military talks to get forces back to positions held two weeks ago. CNDP insists on such talks taking place at Kimoka, turning down proposal to be helicoptered to the MONUC-controlled airport for talks, while FARDC refuses Kimoka. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) After a series of skirmishes in the Rutshuru area beginning August 28, responsibility for which was mixed, CNDP on September 5 staged a three-pronged attack on FARDC positions in a different theater: the JTN-Katsiru area north of Kitchanga. North Kivu brigade assesses clear responsibility is with CNDP, in the larger context of skirmishes since August 28, during which there were numerous provocations by FARDC. It is evident that CNDP's preparations for attacks on FARDC positions in and around Katsiru were well underway at the time of U.S. discussions with CNDP held in Kirolirwe the previous day, September 4, when senior CNDP political and military officials promised that CNDP would seek to reduce tensions and return to the disengagement working groups. ¶3. (SBU) The day opened with a report from 8th military region deputy commander Colonel Delphin, passed to Eastern Coordinator Alpha Sow, that CNDP forces had launched a dawn attack on FARDC positions east of CNDP-held Mweso; that FARDC had withstood the first attack, but that CNDP was launching further attacks. Given a series of outlandish claims by Col. Delphin over the past eight days, the facilitation team tended to discount this newest report. North Kivu brigade commander Brigadier General Rawat invited Col. Delphin on a helicopter tour of the area. Within a few hours it had become clear that Col. Delphin's claim was largely correct. The brigade sent out patrols from its bases at both Katsiru (then FARDC-controlled) and from Kitchanga (CNDP center). In a pattern that has become familiar in the Rutshuru sector, the patrol sent out from Katsiru was immediately blocked by the local stone-throwing populace (perhaps instigated by FARDC),but the patrol from Kitchanga got through to the area of fighting. North Kivu brigade determined that CNDP had launched three platoon-level attacks prior to 6:00 am to the northwest and northeast of Katsiru, crossing the informal "buffer zone" through and north of the JTN tea plantation. FARDC withdrew to the north eight kms. to Kihindo, near the FARDC base at Nyanzale, suffering casualties (number undetermined) who were evacuated by the North Kivu brigade. The exchange of fire largely ceased by 13:30. ¶4. (SBU) North Kivu brigade had more than the usual difficulties reaching CNDP telephonically. POLOFF and Deputy Eastern Coordinator M'hand Ladjouzi separately reached CNDP Goma representative (residing in CNDP-held territory near Kimoka since August 28) Bertrand Bisimwa, who said that the CNDP had detected a significant build-up of FARDC forces north of Kitchanga and elsewhere and decided to react. He said that CNDP was also outraged that, he claimed, the 8th region commander had ordered that cellular contact with the CNDP area around Kitchaga and Kirolirwe be cut September 4. He said CNDP would be willing to have discussions with FARDC on ways to reduce tensions (not, he said, on the larger issues of disengagement),but only at Kimoka. (Note: MONUC has built a negotiating facility at Kimoka, at the edge of the area of CNDP control north of Sake, but the CNDP has not withdrawn four kms. north of the facility as it had agreed to do, and the government has refused to attend any discussions there.) ¶5. (SBU) The facilitation team met on the afternoon of September 5 and agreed that both sides needed to be pressed urgently to pursue talks to reduce tensions and get back to positions held prior to August 28. It was hoped, given the government's objections to Kimoka, that CNDP might accept having a military team helicoptered for talks at the MONUC-controlled air terminal in Goma, probably the most secure place in the Kivus. ¶6. (SBU) Subsequently, the team met with General Etumba, accompanied by 8th region commander General Mayala, Col. Delphin, and a host of other FARDC officers. MONUC's Eastern Division deputy commander Col James Cunliffe and North Kivu commander General Rawat reviewed the day's events around Katsiru. Col. Delphin took issue with their low assessment of the number of the forces employed by CNDP (a few platoons),saying that CNDP had attacked with three battalions (albeit small battalions of only 300 men each, maximum). Characteristically, Col. Delphin shared lurid raw intelligence suggesting that CNDP was hatching a plan to attack northward as far as Butembo. He said that FARDC had known for five days that CNDP was moving two-thirds of its forces located in its southwestern area of control (Ngungu to Kingi) north to Kitchanga and, as it had earlier communicated to the facilitation team, had supposed that KINSHASA 00000734 002 OF 002 CNDP's intention was to send these forces east to attack the Rutshuru corridor via Tongo. Instead, they had attacked northward at Katsiru. ¶7. (SBU) The facilitation team proposed to General Etumba that military talks be undertaken at once with CNDP to cease hostilities and remove forces to where they had been two weeks earlier. Etumba said he was amenable to such talks, so long as they did not open up a framework outside the Goma/Amani peace process. Mayala said he was ready to go. The team said it hoped that the location of such talks would not be an impediment, noting that the CNDP sought to have them at Kimoka. Several FARDC officers spoke up in adamant opposition to the idea of Kimoka as venue. The team then proposed that talks be held at the MONUC-controlled airport. FARDC accepted. Etumba said it was high time for the international community to condemn CNDP's aggression in the clearest terms. ¶8. (SBU) However, several evening conversations with CNDP's Bisimwa produced no forward movement from CNDP: CNDP, he said, would not yield on its insistence on talks at Kimoka, or alternatively Addis Ababa or Nairobi. GARVELINK