EUSECS WORK WITH THE INTEGRATION PROCESS IN NORTH

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 00040 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/30/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL MOPS PHUM PREF CG SUBJECT: EUSECS WORK WITH THE INTEGRATION PROCESS IN NORTH KIVU Classified By: Ambassador William J. Garvelink for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: According to the North Kivu team head of the European Security Mission in the DRC (EUSEC),Jean-Louis Pecheux, money to pay all FARDC soldiers in North Kivu for the month of March has arrived in Goma. However, most of the newly integrated troops have still not been paid for January or February. An additional problem is that EUSEC has not yet provided IDs for the newly integrated troops in North Kivu. Pecheux lamented the acute lack of transparency within the FARDC and Ministry of Defense and their systematic failure to communicate or coordinate with international partners. He also said that the FARDC is entirely unprepared for distributing IDs, paying, or feeding the soon-to-be integrated troops in South Kivu. End summary. March FARDC Salaries Paid... -------------- ¶2. (C) According to the North Kivu team head of the European Security Mission in the DRC (EUSEC),Jean-Louis Pecheux, there is both good news and bad news with respect to the recurrent problem of non-payment of FARDC salaries. The good news is that the money to pay all FARDC soldiers in North Kivu for the month of March has arrived in Goma. Payment of troops has already begun in Walikale and Masisi, and should begin imminently in Rutshuru and the Grand Nord. ...But Still Waiting for January and February Paychecks -------------- -------------- ¶3. (C) The bad news, however, is that most of the newly integrated troops have still not been paid for January or February. Moreover, March salaries will only be paid to soldiers physically present on payday. EUSEC thinks this condition will be used to avoid paying certain soldiers and will facilitate graft. Also, "new" troops will only receive the basic FARDC salary of $40, regardless of rank, while "old" troops will be paid according to rank. While there is a plan to give new officers a bonus, it is not clear if and when this will happen, nor how much the bonus would be. IDs for FARDC -------------- ¶4. (C) An additional problem is that EUSEC has not yet provided IDs to the newly integrated troops in North Kivu (Note: EUSEC has otherwise done a census of the whole FARDC, taking biometric data in the process, which will be imbedded in a unique ID they intend to issue to each soldier. This census has also formed the basis for payment of salaries. End note). For the moment, salaries are currently being paid on the basis of lists provided by the brigade commanders. EUSEC does intend to ID the new soldiers, but is waiting until it becomes more clear where they will actually be deployed. ¶5. (C) In parallel with EUSEC, a GDRC government entity (Structure Militaire d'Integration - SMI),with bilateral support from South Africa, has also been trying to ID the whole of the FARDC, including the newly integrated troops in North Kivu. They also issue ID cards to the soldiers they register, but without biometric information. However, this effort has proceeded haphazardly, and they do not have a good idea to which units the soldiers actually belong. ¶6. (C) Pecheux lamented the acute lack of transparency within the FARDC and Ministry of Defense and their systematic failure to communicate or coordinate with international partners -- the duplicative problem of having both EUSEC and South Africa support parallel, uncoordinated ID processes is a case in point. Pecheux also said that the FARDC is entirely unprepared for issuing IDs, paying, and feeding the soon-to-be integrated troops in South Kivu. ¶7. (C) Comment: The FARDC did a poor job of tracking and paying its soldiers even before the integration process commenced, which has only swelled the army's ranks. Failure to solve the core problems of pay, lodging, and housing will, at best, encourage looting and other abuses of the local population. It could, however, have repercussions even beyond this if newly integrated soldiers decide they have had enough of life within the FARDC and return to the bush in large numbers, perhaps re-establishing their old formations. EUSEC and other groups are scrambling to meet the needs of *********************** * Missing Section 002 * ***********************