October 10 letter to Secretary of State

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KINSHASA 000896 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL MOPS KPKO PTER CG SUBJECT: October 10 letter to Secretary of State from Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Nkunda KINSHASA 00000896 001.2 OF 003 ¶1. Below at para. 3 is October 10 letter from rebel leader Laurent Nkunda to Secretary Rice. The letter was e-mailed to Embassy Kampala (polchief FitzGibbon) through Victor Ngezayo, a prominent Congolese Tutsi businessman from Goma who is close to the CNDP, Nkunda's political-military group. The letter is styled a "clarification" of the CNDP's October 1 statement in which the CNDP redefines its objective as "national liberation." A scanned copy of letter was also e-mailed to AF/C. ¶2. Embassy Kinshasa does not/not recommend replying to Nkunda's letter. ¶3. Following is text of CNDP letter to Secretary Rice in original English. Please note that the transcription below includes all spelling and grammatical errors as contained in the original text. Begin text Nkunda letter to Secretary Rice Bwiza, October 10th, 2008 To Her Excellency Condoleeza RICE Secretary of State of the United States of America WASHINGTON, D.C. (USA) Subject: Clarification of the CNDP's declaration dated October 1, 2008 Your Excellency In the name of the Political Direction of our Movement, we have the great honor to address this letter to you in order to explain to the Government of the United States of America the CNDP's political position. It is important to clarify the CNDP's message carried on the radio (October 2nd, 2008). Indeed, during our extraordinary congress held at our headquarters in Bwiza, territory of Rutshuru, Province of North-Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the CNDP has taken the political decision to transform itself from being alone regional political movement with legitimate grievances for eastern Congo into a political movement with national objectives. ¶1. Loss of legitimacy of Kabila Government Fundamentally, we, along with the majority of the Congolese people throughout the country, reject the irresponsible leadership and mismanagement of public affairs by the Government which has since lost all legitimacy in the eyes of the Congolese people. Since the 2006 elections, it has resorted back to oppressive, autocratic, dictatorial and brutal methods of governance, while at the same time engaging in organized looting of our country's natural resources on an unprecedented scale, to the detriment of our people. You may be informed of the two massacres of the Bakongo people committed by the State's security forces in the Bas Congo province which constitute a crime against humanity and which President Joseph Kabila publicly assumed; assassinations of civilians and members of the Political Opposition by the State's security forces; gross misappropriation of public funds by a Government which does not pay its' civil servants, doctors, teachers nor supply basic necessities like drinking water and minimal medical care; organized looting of natural resources by a small elite in power to the detriment of the national budget and the people particularly in the strategic mining and oil sectors; illegitimate unfair contracts negotiated by the Government with China and which were unanimously rejected by the Congolese Political Opposition and Civil Society. CNDP believe that by joining with other opposition groups, significant pressure can help improve governance. ¶2. Alliance with foreign armed groups undermines Kabila's legitimacy The loss of legitimacy and rejection of, the Kabila regime in the eyes of the Congolese people is particularly strong as regards the failure to resolve peacefully the crisis in Eastern DRC where the Government has failed to deliver on its' basic responsibilities of securing the people. This failure is due essentially to the criminal complicity, support and, in some cases, alliance of the Government of DRC with negative foreign armed groups who operate freely on Congolese territory, controlling huge portions of the national territory, terrorizing its' population and illegally exploiting the eastern mineral belt. These negative foreign armed groups which benefit from the safe haven provided to them by an irresponsible Congolese leadership include the Ugandan LRA who are currently very active in North-eastern DRC wreaking havoc on a Congolese population completely abandoned by their Government, the Ugandan ADF/NALU, the Rwandese ex-FAR/Interahamwe (since reorganized in Kinshasa as the FDLR) who carried out the 1994 Genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda, and the Burundian FNL. The fact is that while the Congolese Government has committed itself through various Accords, including the Tripartite+1 Agreements and the Nairobi Agreement, to disarm with force if necessary these negative foreign armed groups operating on its' territory, they have shown absolutely no political will to honor their commitments, on the contrary supporting and even allying themselves with these negative forces. This irresponsible and KINSHASA 00000896 002.2 OF 003 criminal policy pursued by the Kabila regime is the primary source of the destabilization of Eastern DRC as well as undermines the stability of the Great Lakes region, and it is simply unacceptable. ¶3. Failure of to honor International commitments As regards the particularly sensitive issue of the ex-FAR/Interahamwe (since reorganized in Kinshasa as the FDLR),one must point out the Government of DRC's failure to deliver on its' commitments made at the signing of the Nairobi Agreement with the Government of Rwanda under UN auspices, and witnessed by U.S. and E.U. representatives. You may recall the Government of DRC had committed itself to disarming the FDLR, with the help of MONUC, by June 15th 2008. The Kabila regime, after months of reassuring the International Community that it intended to fight the FDLR, instead of doing so as they had committed to under the Nairobi Agreement, did the unthinkable: they militarily allied themselves with the terrorist and genocidal military organization FDLR/ex-FAR/Interahamwe as well as local ethnic militias they had created based on a dangerous anti-Tutsi xenophobic ideology (PARECO, MONGOLS, Mai-Mai) and together, this negative alliance turned their arms against the Congolese CNDP whom they falsely accused of being composed only of Congolese Tutsis. This negative alliance has since used all means of pressure including manipulation of the population, in order to strong-arm the United Nations' Mission MONUC into supporting their negative alliance, in violation of the UN's commitment to fight the FDLR/ex-FAR/Interahamwe. Prior to these recent developments, the DRC Government had entered into a Gentleman's Agreement during negotiations between President Joseph Kabila's special envoy General John Numbi and the Chairman of CNDP General Laurent Nkunda Mihigo, under Rwandan and South African facilitation. These negotiations had resulted in an agreement to integrate the troops of CNDP and FARDC under a "Mixage" program, from which they would then jointly secure Eastern DRC and rid the region of the FDLR. This program was immediately implemented, but the DRC Government reneged on its' commitment from the moment the Brigades resulting from "Mixage" started fighting the FDLR. The reason for this sudden abandonment of its own commitments on the part of the DRC Government is the same: the DRC Government is financially, politically and militarily allied to the FDLR/exFAR/Interahamwe, and therefore on the one hand, it is incapable of disarming them, and on the other hand, it will oppose all who attempt to do so, the fundamental reason why it opposes the CNDP today. ¶4. Lack of political will to resolve underlying causes of the crisis Since the deliberate sabotage of the Mixage program by the DRC Government, and despite the organization of the Goma Conference and the signing of the Acte d'Engagement where the CNDP showed its good will in accepting to give a negotiated settlement a chance despite the fact that CNDP had military superiority over the FARDC's negative alliance, the DRC Government has shown no political will to reach a peaceful solution, nor tackle the fundamental national issues at the core of the crisis. Given the fundamental fact that the Kabila regime is allied to the FDLR, it systematically torpedoes all efforts to disarm the negative foreign armed forces operating on its' territory and foments instability on its' own territory in order to distract attention from this reality. At this point, one can question if the massive military build-up in Eastern DRC under its' configuration of a negative alliance is indeed directed at CNDP or if the final objective is to provoke Rwanda into once again entering into the DRC and thus, making the conflict a regional one in the hope that this would force the International Community into saving the failing Kabila regime. MONUC, submitting to pressure by the same Kabila regime, has lost its' neutrality and credibility as a peace-broker and peace-keeper in the DRC by taking sides and supporting, even militarily, the FARDC while fully informed of the negative alliance the FARDC has entered into. MONUC is at the same time, as the UNAMIR in Rwanda in 1994, fully and passively aware of the policy of manipulating anti-Tutsi ethnic hatred, and targeting a civilian population, pursued by the Congolese national authorities. It is in light of the irresponsible policies outlined above pursued by a Government that we have taken the political option to join hands with all Congolese citizens who aspire to improve governance, improve security for Congolese citizens and improve economic conditions in Congo. We want to be clear that CNDP now considers itself a national opposition party, not a regionally-based and focused party. We want to make political change in Congo in a peaceful manner, not through military means. However, the CNDP will defend the population in eastern Congo from attack from foreign armed groups as well as State security forces who kill and commit massive human rights violations against their own people instead of KINSHASA 00000896 003.2 OF 003 securing them. Whether it is the stand taken by the Political Opposition in Kinshasa against the regime, or the many social movements protesting bad governance, or the struggle by the Bakongo people for autonomy, or the struggle of Congolese Tustis, Nandes, Hundes, Hutus, Hemas, Lendus, etc for their legitimate rights, these are all manifestations of the same unified desire of the Congolese people to free themselves from the chains of another dictatorship in the making and to finally, for the first time in history, truly reap the fruits of security, stability, good governance, rule of law and democracy. ¶5. Recommendations for the U.S. Government and the International Community In order to promote accountability, respect of human rights and democracy in the DRC, the International Community should: ¶1. Investigate links between FARDC - PARECO - FDLR. All cooperation between the FARDC, FDLR and PARECO, military or financial, must be severely condemned and sanctioned. ¶2. Urge MONUC to maintain its legitimacy by stopping any assistance - tacit or material to foreign armed groups, even when these are allied to or supported by the DRC regime and army. In order to achieve this and clear MONUC of all ambiguous actions compromising the UN's role in DRC, clearly define a mandate of absolute neutrality for MONUC. ¶3. Investigate the opaque financing and arming of the current conflict by the DRC regime and army, including arms shipments from China, arms distribution to local and foreign armed groups by the FARDC, embezzlement of state companies' funds deviated from the national budget to finance the war in Eastern Congo and illicitly enrich Ministers and Officers involved in the conflict. ¶4. Investigate xenophobic targeting of the Congolese Tutsi minority, including arbitrary arrests, torture, killing, exclusion from jobs, looting of private businesses, properties, loss of livelihood, hate speeches inciting genocidal acts on state media, forced exile, creation of a negative military alliance by the FARDC based on a genocidal anti-tutsi ideology, etc. ¶5. Support direct political negotiations between the DRC Government and the CNDP in a neutral third - country and under conditions acceptable to both parties. Please allow us, Your Excellency, to thank you for your attention and continued commitment to stability, democracy and good governance in the DRC, particularly in Eastern DRC which is closely linked to the stability and development of the East African Community. Please accept, Your Excellency, the expression of our highest consideration. For the Political Bureau of CNDP The Chairman Signed Laurent Nkunda Mihigo Major General End text Nkunda letter to Secretary Rice BROCK