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...
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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
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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
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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


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