EASTERN DRC NOTES - MAY 13: GDRC MEETING WITH

UNCLAS KINSHASA 000465 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL MOPS PHUM PREF KPKO CG SUBJECT: EASTERN DRC NOTES - MAY 13: GDRC MEETING WITH KIVU ARMED GROUPS, AMIDST ADDITIONAL THREATENED DEFECTIONS FROM THE MARCH 23 AGREEMENT REF: KINSHASA 463 ¶1. (U) The items contained in this report consist principally of spot information from various sources. This report is not exhaustive, nor can all the information contained therein be confirmed at this time. First Meeting between Kivu Armed Groups and the GDRC -------------- -------------- ¶2. (U) The first official meeting of the national monitoring committee of the March 23 agreement took place in Kinshasa on May ¶12. Presided over by Minister of International and Regional Cooperation Raymond Tshibanda, the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the modalities for implementing the agreement. The issues addressed reportedly included the transformation of the armed groups into political parties, release of prisoners, and the recently promulgated amnesty law. Amidst Additional Defections... -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Reftel outlined the declared intention of a number of North Kivu Mai-Mai groups to suspend their recognition of the March 23 agreement and to withdraw their fighters from the FARDC. We recently received a copy of a letter signed by purported representatives of the South Kivu armed groups (with the exception of the FRF),addressed to National Coordinator of the Amani Program Father Apollinaire Malu Malu, likewise announcing their intention to withdraw their fighters from the FARDC. Their cited grievances include the GDRC's failure to release certain prisoners and to provide for the costs of disengagement and other allowances, as well as discrimination against the armed groups in choosing representatives for the monitoring committee and for the military hierarchy overseeing Operation Kimia II. ¶4. (U) According to media reports, however, the commanders at the integration sites in South Kivu have declared that there have been no cases of desertion thus far. Additionally, at least one of the purported signatories reportedly denied signing the document in the first place, while an Amani Commission representative in South Kivu stated that the signatories are not in command positions within their groups. Comment -------------- ¶5. (SBU) As reftel noted with respect to the declaration from the North Kivu groups, this threat from the South Kivu Mai-Mai could also be nothing more than a bluff. In any case, the issue of greater concern continues to be the progress made towards effectively dismantling the CNDP and the threat that it has posed to Congolese national security. Blustering from the Mai-Mai, while not irrelevant, is necessarily of secondary interest, unless it occurs in a context in which certain elements of the CNDP could use this as an excuse to withdraw from the integration process. As previously reported, this process has been carried out in a haphazard fashion at best - with many newly integrated fighters finding to their displeasure that being an FARDC soldier often equates to being neither paid nor fed nor quartered. Therefore, a threat of a reversal of the process, with mass desertions from the FARDC and a return to the bush, cannot be dismissed. GARVELINK