DRC/LRA: UK SEES ARMY REFORM AS KEY TO SEXUAL AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L LONDON 001669

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR AF/C

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/20/2019
TAGS: PREL EAID MASS ZF CG RW UG SO UK
SUBJECT: DRC/LRA: UK SEES ARMY REFORM AS KEY TO SEXUAL AND
GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IMPROVEMENT, LOOKING FORWARD TO
CONTACT GROUP MEETING

REF: EMAILS LORD-AF/C

Classified By: Acting Political Counselor Daniel McNicholas, reasons 1.
4 (b/d).


1. (C) Summary. The UK sees security sector reform (SSR) and
army reform as keys to improveing sexual and gender-based
violence (SGBV) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
Foreign Office Great Lakes team leader Nne-Nne Iwuji-Eme and
DRC Desk Officer Oliver Craven told Poloff July 20. The UK
would like to focus on SSR at the October Contact Group
meeting. Priority army reform issues from the UK's
perspective are garrisoning the army, feeding the soldiers,
establishing an efficient salaries payment chain,
professionalizing training programs, and implementing proper
entrance vetting procedures. Additional issues to discuss in
the run-up to the Contact Group meeting are funding for the
2010 local elections and China and Angola's participation in
the October meeting. On regional stability, Uganda Desk
Officer Michelle Webster noted that the military-only track
to deal with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) meant that
Uganda's military presence in the area was extremely
important and questioned what Uganda's AMISOM plus-up would
mean for security in Eastern DRC, if it resulted in a
reduction in Uganda troops in the area. End summary.


2. (C) Highlighting that the UK's focus on security sector
reform (SSR) and asserting army reform are the keys to
improvements in sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in
DRC, Foreign Office Great Lakes team leader Nne-Nne Iwuji-Eme
and DRC Desk Officer Oliver Craven told Poloff July 20 that
the UK would like to focus on SSR at the October Contact
Group meeting. Given that the military is a major source of
SGBV, she said army reform and reintegration of armed groups
into the DRC army would be the best way to improvement SGBV
problems. Iwuji-Eme said agreeing SSR priorities and
establishing lines of operation for interested donors could
be a fruitful discussion for the Contact Group, especially as
a meaningful improvement in the army's operation would reduce
its usurping of local communities. The UK's SSR priorities
include garrisoning the army, feeding the soldiers,
establishing an efficient salaries payment chain,
professionalizing training programs, and implementing proper
entrance vetting procedures. Acknowledging the "structural
and systematic salary payment issues," Iwuji-Eme said the
European Commission is deploying a mission to research the
salaries payment chain and make recommendations for
improvement. She suggested that the UK might be in a
position to produce a non-paper on army reform for discussion
at the Contact Group meeting.


2. (C) Addressing other possible Contact Group meeting
topics, Iwuji-Eme said funding for the 2010 local elections
is an issue and suggested that the meeting might be a good
opportunity to put pressure on members of the international
community to fulfill their pledges to support the elections,
which would remove the Government of DRC's excuses about the
international community's lack of support - "a way to call
their bluff." She highlighted good conduct of the local
elections as an important conflict prevention mechanism for
the presidential elections the following year. She also
suggested the international community might consider holding
a donor/pledging conference as a way to improve coordination
on DRC support, especially as related to SSR. On Contact
Group meeting attendance, she indicated that it might be
beneficial to ask Angola and China to attend, as they are
both big players in the DRC, and there still remains a window
of opportunity to productively engage China on the DRC. EU
Special Representative for the Great Lakes Roeland van de
Geer had been quietly investigating China and Angola's
participation, she said without knowing how far that had
progressed.

Uganda/LRA
--------------


3. (C) Discussing regional stability more generally, Uganda
Desk Officer Michelle Webster raised Uganda's recent
announcement that the Ugandan military would be sending
additional battalions to support AMISOM in Somalia. She
questioned where those troops would come from and what the
impact on regional security would be if the Ugandan military
left the DRC and Northern Uganda completely. She noted that
the military-only track to deal with the Lord's Resistance


Army (LRA) meant that Uganda's military presence in the area
was extremely important, especially given the upcoming
elections in Sudan and other potentially destabilizing
regional events.

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