Just-landed Goma officer's first impressions of the Congo's

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000046 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR PREF PHUM CG SUBJECT: Just-landed Goma officer's first impressions of the Congo's wild, wild east ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Goma-based poloff arrived in Goma December 16 after a week of consultations in Kinshasa. This account of first impressions is informed and prejudiced by his prior service as Rwanda desk officer from 1989-1991, as DRC desk officer from 1999-2001 and as Africa watcher in Paris from 2001-2005. That background notwithstanding, poloff has been mildly surprised by a lingering perception of USG favoritism towards Rwanda, as well as suspicions of current U.S. motives in eastern DRC. These motives are described as ranging from favoring the breakup of the Congo to a grab for the country's mineral resources. End summary. Balkanization -------------- ¶2. (SBU) A Bunia-based Congolese contact pressed poloff about the nature and purpose of the U.S. presence in Goma. After hearing poloff's response, the contact told us that it was generally believed that the U.S. planned to establish a presence in the East with a view either to separate the region from the rest of the country or to make it subordinate to Rwanda. The outsiders -------------- ¶3. (SBU) North Kivu Vice-Governor Feller Luhaichirwa, receiving poloff for a largely ceremonial courtesy call, embarked on an increasingly animated recapitulation of the last fifteen years, all of which had brought misery on the people of the region. Without citing the U.S. in particular, Feller blamed the Mobutu regime and the international community for not disarming Rwandan refugees in camps around Goma, instead providing them with the necessities of life, which resulted in these outsiders exacerbating already-existing tensions in the region. Feller, a Hunde, expressed sympathy for the population pressures in Rwanda, but said that pending a solution which would enable Rwandans to return home, humanitarian relief for Rwandan refugees should be organized in less densely populated parts of the Congo. Going further, he said that Congo has plenty of land where Rwandans might immigrate and settle as a partial means of alleviating their land pressures, but that this shouldn't happen in North Kivu (and particularly not in Masisi),which is already overpopulated. Women -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Meeting with the head of a Congolese women's NGO, poloff heard that the condition of women in Zaire/Congo had been deplorable at least since Mobutu. But the influx of outsiders in 1994, the ascendancy of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (ADFL) in 1997, and the Rwandan invasion of 1998 had been disastrous for the local population and for women in particular. Property was seized, belongings were looted and, of course, there is now widespread rape. The NGO is trying to assist the victims, she said, expressing in understated, but unmistakable terms her outrage at the ability of the perpetrators to escape what is left of the Congolese justice system. ¶5. (SBU) Comment: Poloff frequently recounts to those he meets that Secretary Powell's first meetings with foreign heads of state were with Presidents Kagame and Kabila on successive days in January 2001 and, citing French academic Gerard Prunier, that Kagame took from his encounter an understanding that U.S. policy was not tilted in his favor. Poloff also notes that Hubert Vedrine, the French Foreign Minister at the time, remarked on the "convergence" of U.S. and French policy on the Great Lakes region. Asked by the local TV station following his meeting with the Vice-Governor, whether he had a message for the people of Kivu, poloff responded that the Secretary's visit was a demonstration of KINSHASA 00000046 002 OF 002 U.S. concern and solidarity with the Congolese people and that our presence in Goma was part of an effort to better understand the political, economic, and social challenges they confront. However, in meetings held so far, particularly with long-time humanitarian workers, the perception that U.S. policy is skewed in favor of Rwanda is common. Poloff's first impression is that there is a great deal of work to be done to convince the population of Eastern Congo that U.S. policy and its presence in Goma are in their best interests. End comment. GARVELINK