Uganda must explain role in Congo - Kabila

 

A combination of two pictures taken on October 8, 2012 of the presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo Joseph Kabila (L) and Rwanda Paul Kagame following proceedings during the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) summit in Kampala. FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

DR Congo President Joseph Kabila has warned that he was keeping the military option on the table as a possible solution to the simmering insurrection in the eastern part of the country.

Mr Kabila, speaking to selected Ugandan journalists in Kinshasa for the first time since he became President in 2001, supported the proposed 4,000 strong neutral force.

“There is a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution and a military option will still be on the table,” he said.

The President said that his country initially proposed a neutral force to give assurances to authorities in Rwanda and DR Congo that no dissident elements from either country would be allowed to destabilise the other.

In a wide-ranging interview at his Palais De Le Nation on Monday, President Kabila raised concern about what he called Uganda’s inadequate response to allegations of its support to M23 rebel group.

He described Rwanda as the region’s “bad boy”.

Meanwhile, Rwanda’s envoy to Kampala Frank Mugambagye has accused President Kabila of exhibiting double standards.

Responding to President Kabila’s criticism of Rwanda as the “bad boy” in the region, Mr Mugambagye told the Daily Monitor in a telephone interview on Monday that the DR Congo leader was unclear.

Restore order

Mr Mugambagye said as a member of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), the DR Congo “knows that ICGLR member-countries are looking for a solution to the conflict”. “We have made our position very clear. They are baseless (the accusations) and it is surprising that people can continue to use these claims,” he said.

Responding to DR Congo allegations that Uganda was aiding M23, the minister in-charge of International Affairs, Mr Henry Okello Oryem, re-affirmed that Kampala could not insert itself back in the Congo conflict because the last time the country intervened to help to restore order, it was instead implicated in allegations of plundering and looting.

Mr Oryem said he was confident that the ongoing engagement between the M23 rebels and the authorities in Kinshasa would yield stability and peace in eastern Congo.

“We are confident as Uganda we are not involved and to the contrary, the representatives of M23 were invited to Uganda by President (Yoweri) Museveni under his chairmanship of ICGLR with the representatives of Kinshasa,” Mr Oryem said.

He added: “They were here; they have started engaging each other. We learnt our lesson the last time we were in Congo.”

Meanwhile, President Museveni at the weekend received a special envoy of President Kabila at his country home in Rwakitura in western Uganda.

According to a State House statement, President Museveni and Mr Raymond Tshibanda, who is also the DR Congo’s minister of Foreign Affairs, International and Regional Cooperation and Francophony “delved into matters pertaining to their countries’ relations”.

GUILTY AS CHARGED!

Kagame and his generals are backing DRC rebels

Windhoek ‑ A leaked United Nations special report identifies Rwanda Defence Minister, General James Kabarebe, as the commanding officer of a major rebel movement in the DRC, indicating that President Paul Kagame and his government are behind much of the instability in the SADC member state.

SADC Heads of State and Government in August said Rwanda must stop fomenting instability in the DRC, with President Kagame repeatedly denying his involvement in the emergence of a rebel group calling itself March 23 (M23) and which has been fighting government forces for months.

But now a second UN-commissioned report has fingered President Kagame, who remains a key US and British ally in the region since they tacitly backed his and Uganda’s sponsorship of rebels in the last DRC war in 1998.

The newest UN group of experts report was leaked to the media and will be made public in November.

It serves as a psychological and moral boost for the DRC and those countries that are ratcheting up a diplomatic offensive aimed at securing international isolation of Rwanda through UN-backed sanctions and a minerals trade embargo.

The UN experts report singles out General Kabarebe as the brains behind the M23 rebel group, which has been fighting government forces in North and South Kivu since April this year.

The group started as a rag tag collection of mutineers from the national army, but it has rapidly metamorphosed into a well-organised and significantly equipped military force of more than 2 000 soldiers potent enough to face off with DRC army deployments and securing strategic points in the traditionally volatile eastern region of the country.

This quick escalation in activities carried out by the rebels indicates some sort of external backing.

The M23 rebel group is ostensibly led by the renegade general, Bosco Ntaganda, who is known as “Terminator”.

Gen Ntaganda mutinied from the DRC army earlier this year and is on the International Criminal Court’s wanted list.

A rebel named Sultani Makenga is cited by the UN experts as Gen Ntaganda’s second-in-command and is reportedly in charge of operations and co-ordination.

Rwanda Defence Minister Gen Kabarebe is nailed in the report as directly involved in providing M23 with military support. The report adds that he has in the past facilitated – and still could be facilitating - recruitment of fighters, transfer of weapons and ammunition, and use of his contacts in the DRC army to organise serving soldiers to mutiny and join the rebels.

“M23’s defacto chain of command … culminates with the Rwandan Minister of Defence General James Kabarebe,” the UN report states.

Gen Ntaganda and Makenga are said to “receive direct military orders from the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) Chief of Defence Staff General Charles Kayonga, who in turn acts on instructions from Minister of Defence James Kabarebe”, the UN report adds.

Uganda is also accused of supporting the rebels by supplying M23 with arms.

“Both Rwanda and Uganda have been supporting M23. While Rwandan officials co-ordinated the creation of the rebel movement, as well as its major military operations, Uganda’s more subtle support to M23 allowed the rebel group’s political branch to operate from within Kampala and boost its external relations,” the report says.

The Uganda and Rwanda armies assisted the rebels to take over Rutshuru in July and a Congolese army base of Rumangabo, it is alleged.

“According to several M23 soldiers, RDF troops provided the rebels with heavy weapons such as 12.7mm machine guns, 60mm, 91mm and 120mm mortars, as well as anti-tank and anti-aircraft launches ahead of the attack.

“RDF Special Forces in Rutshuru also aided the rebels and fired 13 rounds on a FARDC (DRC national army) combat helicopter during the takeover of Kiwanja,” the UN report says.

The DRC government says that the 53-year-old Gen Kabarebe is closely allied to President Kagame and his involvement in the war in the eastern parts of the country has the full blessings of the Rwanda government.

Rwanda Opposition Leader Sentenced to 8 Years

KIGALI, Rwanda (Reuters) — Rwanda’s high court on Tuesday sentenced a leading opposition politician to eight years in prison, in a case widely viewed as a test of the nation’s democratic limits and the independence of the judiciary. The opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire, had faced six charges and was found guilty of two: conspiring to harm the country through war and terror, and minimizing the 1994 genocide that tore apart the nation. The opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire, had faced six charges and was found guilty of two: conspiring to harm the country through war and terror, and minimizing the 1994 genocide that tore apart the nation.

      

But critics accuse him of being authoritarian and trampling on news media and political freedoms. He rejects the accusations.

“Political space in Rwanda barely exists, I would say, for opposition parties in the real sense of the word,” said Carina Tertsakian, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch.

Phil Clark, a lecturer at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, said the prosecution of Ms. Ingabire sent a message to other Rwandan political groups.

“I think this verdict will certainly cause concerns that if they contest they may find very serious charges brought against them as well,” he said. “It sends a warning to other parties who may want to run in future elections.”       

She was accused of transferring money to Hutu rebels and of questioning why no Hutu victims were mentioned alongside Tutsi victims in a genocide memorial. More than 800,000 people were killed in the country when a Hutu-led government and ethnic militias went on a 100-day killing rampage in April 1994, indiscriminately killing Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Ms. Ingabire, a Hutu, returned to Rwanda in January 2010 from exile in the Netherlands to take part in presidential elections but was barred after being accused of crimes linked to genocide denial. The vote was won overwhelmingly by President Paul Kagame.

Iain Edwards, Ms. Ingabire’s British lawyer, argued that the evidence against her was fabricated and that some of the charges were against Rwanda’s Constitution.

Mr. Kagame’s final presidential term expires in 2017. He has led his country’s recovery from the 1994 genocide, receiving praise for his efforts to transform Rwanda into a middle-income country by 2020.

But critics accuse him of being authoritarian and trampling on news media and political freedoms. He rejects the accusations.

“Political space in Rwanda barely exists, I would say, for opposition parties in the real sense of the word,” said Carina Tertsakian, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch.

Phil Clark, a lecturer at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, said the prosecution of Ms. Ingabire sent a message to other Rwandan political groups.

“I think this verdict will certainly cause concerns that if they contest they may find very serious charges brought against them as well,” he said. “It sends a warning to other parties who may want to run in future elections.”

Rwanda opposition leader sentenced to 8 years in prison on charges of treason, genocide denial

KIGALI, Rwanda — A Rwandan court sentenced the country’s top opposition political leader to eight years in prison on Tuesday for treason and on a charge stemming from this central African nation’s murderous ethnic attacks 18 years ago — genocide denial.
The opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire, returned to Rwanda in 2010 after living abroad for 16 years and quickly visited the country’s genocide memorial, where she asked why Hutus killed in the violence were not recognized like the minority Tutsis were. She had planned to run for president but instead was arrested.
More than 500,000 Rwandans, mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were killed in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. In the wake of that violence, the government set out to de-emphasize ethnicity. Many in the country now identify themselves simply as a Rwandan, not a Hutu or Tutsi.
The government accused Ingabire — who has had contacts with the FDLR, a group of Hutu fighters in Congo — of trying to raise an armed group, a charge Ingabire denied. The court on Tuesday acquitted her on charges of promoting ethnic division, genocide ideology, creating an armed group, and complicity in terrorist acts.
Ingabire’s lawyer, Iain Edwards, said Ingabire will appeal the court’s ruling.
“That’s the problem I have with this government. If you talk about ethnicity, they say you are a divisionist,” Ingabire said in a 2010 interview with The Associated Press after she was put under house arrest. “I think the better solution is you talk about it and find a solution.”
The government’s chief prosecutor, Martin Ngoga, responded that Ingabire’s statements were not simply a free-speech issue because she could incite Rwanda “to once more explode” as it did in 1994.
President Paul Kagame has been lauded by the international community for leading Rwanda through nearly two decades of peace, for advancing women’s rights and for leading the country to strong economic growth. But the court’s sentence reinforces the view by political analysts that opponents of Kagame have little space to operate in post-genocide Rwanda.
Human Rights Watch criticized the guilty verdict as the culmination of a “flawed trial that included politically motivated charges.”
“The prosecution of Ingabire for ‘genocide ideology’ and divisionism illustrates the Rwandan government’s unwillingness to tolerate criticism and to accept the role of opposition parties in a democratic society,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The courts should not be used for such political purposes.”
Human Rights Watch said it can’t comment on the veracity of the charges relating to Ingabire’s alleged collaboration with armed groups, but expressed concern that some of the evidence used to convict her appears to be unreliable.
Though Rwanda appears serene on the surface, Ingabire’s political party — FDU-Inkingi — calls Kagame a dictator. The party urged Rwandans to remain calm and “to get ready for the day to march until freedom is won.”
“This is a conclusion of a long chapter of hope that the current dictatorship would understand how important peace, genuine unity and sustainable reconciliation are,” a statement from a party leader Boniface Twagirimana said.
Judge Alice Rulisa, speaking for a three-judge High Court panel, said Ingabire was given a lighter sentence because she had written a letter to Kagame asking for leniency. Edwards, the lawyer, said Ingabire admitted to no crimes in the letter.
The trial began in September 2011 and wrapped up in April. Four co-defendants all implicated Ingabire in collaboration with armed groups.
The prosecution had requested a total of 35 years on the two charges. The court said it gave credibility to Ingabire’s argument that she had been out of the country for so long that her statements and speeches were out of touch with reality when she returned to participate in the 2010 presidential election.
Ingabire withdrew from her case in April, citing a lack of an independent judiciary.
Twagirimana told AP after the ruling that Ingabire should appeal to a court outside Rwanda, such as the African Court on Human and People’s Rights.
Ingabire’s co-accused, four men who are all former members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), were also handed lighter sentences Tuesday after they pleaded guilty on all charges and pleaded for leniency from the court.

Rwandan minister commands Congo rebels, says UN reportReport says Rwanda sends direct orders – as well as arms – to M23 insurgents in east of Democratic Republic of Congo

Rwanda 's defence minister is commanding M23 rebels in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a UN report that also accuses Rwanda and Uganda of arming the group and sending troops to help it launch a deadly attack on UN peacekeepers.


The UN security council's group of experts say in a confidential report that Rwanda and Uganda – despite their strong denials – continue to support M23 rebels in their six-month fight against Congolese government troops in North Kivu province.
"Both Rwanda and Uganda have been supporting M23," says the 44-page report, which Reuters saw on Tuesday.
"While Rwandan officials co-ordinated the creation of the rebel movement as well as its major military operations, Uganda's more subtle support to M23 allowed the rebel group's political branch to operate from within Kampala and boost its external relations," it says.
Bosco Ntaganda, a former Congolese general wanted by the international criminal court for alleged war crimes, controls the rebellion on the ground and M23 leader Sultani Makenga is in charge of operations and co-ordination with allied armed groups, the UN report says.
Both Ntaganda and Makenga "receive direct military orders from RDF [Rwandan army] chief of defence staff General Charles Kayonga, who in turn acts on instructions from minister of defence General James Kabarebe", it says.
Uganda and Rwanda have denied the accusations of involvement from the UN experts, who monitor compliance with sanctions and an arms embargo on the Congo. They delivered their report to the security council's Congo sanctions committee earlier this month.
"Rwandan officials exercise overall command and strategic planning for M23," the report says. "Rwanda continues to violate the arms embargo through direct military support to M23 rebels, facilitation of recruitment, encouragement and facilitation of FARDC [Congolese army] desertions as well as the provision of arms and ammunition, intelligence, and political advice."
"UPDF [Ugandan army] commanders sent troops and weapons to reinforce specific M23 operations and assisted in M23's recruitment and weapons procurement efforts in Uganda," it says.
Nearly 500,000 people have been displaced as a result of the fighting. M23 has proven so resilient that one senior UN diplomatic source told Reuters that Rwanda had effectively annexed mineral-rich eastern Congo thanks to the rebel force.
The UN peacekeeping chief, Hervé Ladsous, said last month that the rebels had set up de facto administration in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, controlling the people and collecting taxes.
The rebellion is also being funded by traders in Rwanda who are profiting from tin, tungsten and tantalum smuggled across the border from mines in the eastern DRC, according to the UN experts' report.
Their interim report published in June made similar accusations against Rwanda but with far less detail. Kigali reacted furiously, saying it was one-sided and contained false allegations.
Rwanda has backed armed movements in Congo over the past two decades, citing a need to tackle Rwandan rebels operating out of Congo's eastern hills.
The new report says M23 expanded its control of Rutshuru territory with extensive foreign support in July 2012 and took advantage of a recent informal ceasefire "to expand alliances and command proxy operations elsewhere".
The experts say units of the Ugandan and Rwandan armies "jointly supported M23 in a series of attacks in July 2012 to take over the major towns in Rutshuru territory, and the [Congolese army] base of Rumangabo".
During the attacks, the rebels killed a UN peacekeeper and fired on a UN peacekeeping base at Kiwanja.
"According to several M23 soldiers, RDF troops provided the rebels with heavy weapons such as 12.7mm machine guns, 60mm, 91mm and 120mm mortars, as well as anti-tank and anti-aircraft launchers ahead of the attack," the report says.
"RDF special forces in Rutshuru also aided the rebels and fired 13 rounds on a FARDC combat helicopter during the takeover of Kiwanja."
Ugandan military spokesman Felix Kulayigye rejected the report.
"Where's the evidence for their claims? Some of those so-called experts came here and did not interview anyone," he said. "Where's their authentic facts to back those claims? Those accusations are absolute rubbish, hogwash."Olivier Nduhungirehe, a senior Rwandan diplomat at the country's UN mission, made a similar denial, which he sent to Reuters on Sunday. He said the UN experts had been "allowed to pursue a political agenda that has nothing to do with getting at the true causes of conflict in the eastern DRC".
The Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, reiterated Rwanda's denials at a high-level meeting in New York last month that both he and the Congolese president, Joseph Kabila, attended.
The group of experts said multiple intelligence sources corroborated its findings.
"Various South African Development Community [SADC], European, Ugandan, and Burundian intelligence agents also confirmed the group's findings concerning Rwandan violations of the [arms] embargo," the report says.
It adds that the Rwandans have stepped up recruitment for M23, which has around 1,250 soldiers.
"M23 faces challenges in carrying out independent operations and controlling heavily guarded positions due to troop shortages," says the report.It says the Rwandan army has targeted Rwandan demobilised soldiers and civilians and Congolese refugees in recruiting for M23, while the rebels themselves have stepped up their use and recruitment of child soldiers. Since May, the experts say, M23 has recruited some 250 children and killed dozens who tried to escape.
"Furthermore, certain M23 commanders have ordered the extrajudicial executions of dozens of recruits and prisoners of war," the report says.
"M23 uses boys on the frontlines as cover for advancing units, often after a week of training. Others act as porters, intelligence operatives and bodyguards. The rebels use young girls as cooks and as commanders' wives."

Nominations for 2012 Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought presented by MEPs

Five nominations for the 2012 Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought were presented at a joint meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Development committees and the Subcommittee on Human Rights on Tuesday. They are Ales Bialiatski, Joseph Francis, a group of Rwandan opposition members (Victoire Ingabire, Déogratias Mushayidi, Bernard Ntaganda), Pussy Riot and two Iranian activists (Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi).
The nominees were each presented by their "sponsors", i.e. a political group or a group of at least 40 MEPs. The winner of the Sakharov Prize will be chosen in October and awarded €50,000.


The nominations are:

• Ales Bialiatski, a human rights defender from Belarus.

• Joseph Francis (Pakistan), founder of the Center for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement.

• Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Déogratias Mushayidi and Bernard Ntaganda, three Rwandan opposition representatives.

• Pussy Riot, a Russian punk group (represented by Nadezhda Andreyevna Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina).

• Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi, two Iranian human rights campaigners.

"The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought seeks to honour individuals or organisations for their efforts on behalf of human rights, democracy and freedom of expression and their struggle against intolerance and oppression", noted Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Elmar Brok.


"This is not just a routine operation, but an opportunity which allows all members to see the candidates for the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought; freedom, which all too often is under attack from various sides", said Human Rights Sub-Committee Vice-chair Joanna Senyszyn (S&D, PL).
Next steps


The Foreign affairs and Development committees will vote on three finalists on 9 October and the Conference of Presidents will decide on the Laureate on 26 October. The laureate will be invited to the joint meeting of Foreign affairs and Development committees and the Human Rights Sub-committee on Monday 10 December in Strasbourg. The award ceremony will be held in plenary session on 12 December.

Kagame Likened To Mugabe

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KIGALI, 12 Oct 2012 - A senior opposition leader in Rwanda has likened that country’s leader Paul Kagame to Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe who wants to rule forever.

Boniface Twagirimana, vice-president of the United Democratic Forces party, said Kagame was a dictator just like Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

Twagirimana said Kagame was determined to rule for as long as he could. He was responding to a pledge by Kagame that he will step down in 2017 after serving a second term in office.

"Maybe they will change the constitution so he can continue. I think he would like to rule for 20, 30, 50 years like Robert Mugabe," Twagiramana said.

"President Kagame is a dictator. He's operating like he's still in the forest as a rebel. He's not a president for the whole country, only RPF members. He doesn't want to open the political space to allow freedom of expression." Mugabe has ruled for 30 years and does not seem to be ready to step dwon despite his advanced age.

Just like Mugabe, Kagame is accused of stifling democratic space in his tiny central African country. Western powers including the European Union and the United States have stopped aid to Rwanda.

On his part, Kagame claims the West should not impose its own notions of democracy on Africa

The Western powers have often clashed Kagame over his tight and dictatorial grip over Rwanda. But most recently they accused him of supporting armed rebels operating in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mugabe does not see eye to eye with Western leaders who accuse him of being a dictator and poor leader who has run a once promising country into a basket case.

Mugabe castigates the West accusing its leaders of interfering into the internal affairs of Zimbabwe in a bid to remove him from power and replacing him with their ‘puppet’.

Ironically, the Rwandan President said Mugabe was now a liability to Zimbabwe and Africa at large.

Kagame accused fellow African leaders for not doing anything to help solve the crisis inside Zimbabwe. He said African leaders have let down the people of Zimbabwe.

“There is a failure by African countries to support the process in Zimbabwe,” Kagame told journalists in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital in 2009. “The first impression is that there are some serious problems.”

Kagame was speaking during his regular meetings with members of the local and international media at Village Urugwiro on Wednesday.

Kagame seized power in 1994 after his then rebel forces stormed Kigali to end 100 days of bloodletting which left almost one million Rwandans dead.

Hollande pledges to promote democracy at Africa summit

FRENCH PRESIDENT François Hollande has pledged to recast France’s relationships with its former colonies in Africa after repudiating the colonial era as an historical “mistake”.
On the eve of a visit to the Democractic Republic of Congo, where he will today join more than 70 world leaders for the biennial Francophonie summit, Mr Hollande said he would promote democracy in Africa and bring an end to opaque patronage networks between Paris and autocratic regimes on the continent.
Francophonie, a group of French-speaking or francophile states that latterly has focused on cultural and linguistic diversity, is meeting in the DR Congo for the first time in the organisation’s 35-year history.
“Times have changed,” Mr Hollande said in a television interview. “We are defining a new policy. France now wants to respect its counterparts while at the same time telling them the truth.”
Mr Hollande’s itinerary is replete with symbolism. He will go to Kinshasa without any company executives in his entourage – a shift from the business-focused African trips of his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.
Opinions were divided in Paris on whether Mr Hollande should attend the summit given Congo’s dire human rights record. He will attend the opening day’s events and then leave immediately.
In pre-summit interviews he has sharply criticised Kinshasa’s record. En route to the summit, Mr Hollande stopped over in Senegal, where in 2007 Mr Sarkozy made one of the most controversial speeches of his presidency by arguing that Africans had “too rarely entered history” and making uncritical allusions to colonialism.
“I am not giving a speech to erase a previous one. I am giving a speech to write a new page with Africa, because France and Africa have historical ties,” Mr Hollande said. “But [there are] also mistakes that need to be recalled, which is the case with colonisation and the slave trade.”
France’s colonial involvement in Africa formally ended in the early 1960s, but it has continued to exert direct and indirect influence over ex-colonies through an informal patronage system known as “Françafrique”, which Mr Hollande, like Mr Sarkozy before him, promised to end.
The shift in French-African relations is partly due to France’s changing economic priorities, with a greater focus on burgeoning markets in Asia and Latin America, as well as increasing competition for influence and business in Africa. France remains a huge investor and a major military force in Africa, however, with troops stationed in Djibouti, Senegal, Chad and Côte d’Ivoire.
Mr Hollande will also use the trip to defend a UN Security Council resolution allowing African powers to intervene in Mali, where Islamist militants have taken land covering the two thirds of the country’s north. “I think there will be a desire at the security council to launch this intervention force, but I must be very clear: it’s up to the Africans to decide,” he said.
Organisers see the Francophonie conference as an opportunity to move closer to a solution to the ongoing rebellion in Congo’s east.
Kinshasa has accused neighbouring Rwanda of backing rebels there in order to maintain control of a black market trade in Congo’s rich minerals deposits, a claim vehemently denied by the Rwandans. The choice of host reflects demographic changes in the French-speaking world too. Francophonie estimates that by 2050, about 85 per cent of the world’s 715 million French speakers will be in Africa.

Kagame defies UN condemnation over backing for Congo warlord's insurgency

 

Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, remained defiant in the face of growing international condemnation of his country's military meddling in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Kagame rejected allegations at the UN on Thursday that Rwanda was supporting a deadly rebel insurgency in the east of the DRC, saying: "Solving the crisis will be impossible if the international community continues to define the issue erroneously."
The rebel militia M23, led by Bosco Ntaganda, a warlord wanted by the international criminal court, has been fighting government soldiers in eastern Congo's North Kivu province since April. An estimated 470,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.
On Thursday, Kagame and the DRC president, Joseph Kabila, met Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, and member states on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York.
"Most participants strongly condemned all forms of external support to the M23 and other negative forces in the DRC, and demanded the immediate and permanent cessation of such support," a summary of the meeting said. "Some participants cautioned that those supporting the M23 could also be held accountable.
"They stressed … the urgency of constructive engagement and dialogue between the DRC and Rwanda."
Despite Rwanda's robust denials, a senior UN diplomat told Reuters that in private the Rwandan government was "a bit embarrassed, to say the least, and this could be one of the reasons behind the lull [in fighting] in the Kivu". He said if Rwanda withdrew support then the M23 group, which numbers about 1,500 fighters, "could be subdued".
This week Rwanda's biggest aid donor, the EU, joined several countries in partially freezing its financial support until the issue of Rwandan support for the rebels is resolved.
Mark Simmonds, Britain's minister for Africa, told the UN summit: "There can be no possible justification for such support, whether in terms of military hardware, or strategic advice. It must stop.
"And there can be no impunity for those who violate human rights. They must be brought to justice."
France said it would support sanctions against M23 and warned neighbouring states against supporting the group. "The M23 is benefiting from external support, including from neighbouring DRC states," said Yamina Benguigui, the French minister for the Francophone countries. "Nothing can justify the support of an armed rebellion led by war criminals. All support of M23, whatever it is, must stop."
Earlier this year a report by experts of the UN security council's sanctions committee accused Rwanda's defence minister, James Kabarebe; its chief of defence staff, Lieutenant General Charles Kayonga, and a Kagame military adviser, General Jacques Nziza, of being "in constant contact with M23". The DRC has asked for the security council to impose sanctions on the three men.
The UN said it was working with east and central African states on their proposal for a neutral force to tackle the M23 and other armed groups in eastern Congo.
The UN peacekeeping chief, Hervé Ladsous, told Reuters: "It is something that generates interest, but we are short of a real concept of operations – who would be in, who would do what, who would pay – and this is why more work needs to be done."
Meanwhile, up to 12 people were killed in a series of night-time shootings and grenade attacks in the eastern Congolese city of Goma, raising fears that M23 is planning a new offensive.
Witnesses told Reuters on Thursday that panic was spreading and youths equipped with torches and whistles had started organising watches to protect their neighbourhoods after dark.
Alexander Essomé, the Goma-based spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission, said: "For the past two weeks we have seen scores of killings, attacks with guns, lootings, illegal entering into NGO [aid group] houses, I can't even count them."
Bosco Ntaganda, leader of the devastating DRC insurgency, is reportedly in 'constant contact' with senior Rwandan military figures. Photograph: STR/Reuters

French president outlines new approach to Africa

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — French President Francois Hollande attempted to make right France's relationship with Africa on Friday, honoring its contributions to world history during his first trip to the continent since winning office. His deferential tone, his diplomatic remarks and the air of modesty he projected marked a dramatic contrast to his predecessor. Ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy came to Senegal five years ago and gave a speech that was viewed as deeply insulting to Africans whom he said had "not yet entered into history." By contrast, the 58-year-old Hollande, who defeated Sarkozy in in May, described Senegal as having not only a "great country," but also one that had made important contributions to French history. He reminded the audience at the whitewashed presidential palace, and later on the floor of the national assembly, that Senegal's first president, Leopold Sedar Senghor, was part of the committee that drafted the text of the French constitution. And he paid homage to the African soldiers, many conscripted by force, who died in France's imperial wars, including in Indochina and Algeria. "Between France and Senegal, there's a history. There's a language that we both speak. There's a culture that we share and that both of our people contributed to," Hollande said in the garden of the neoclassical palace, in one of the many remarks that focused on the similarities between the two nations. "I didn't come to Africa to impose my way, or to deliver a lesson on morality," he added later, in a speech to parliament. "I consider Africans as my partners and as my friends." Analysts say he chose Senegal for his first visit to the continent due to the country's democratic credentials and because of the need to heal the damage inflicted five years ago. He also chose it because Senegal is expected to play a central role in the planned military intervention in neighboring Mali, whose north is now under the de facto control of al-Qaida-linked rebel groups. "What is happening in the Sahel for the past several months — in Mali — is that terrorists have structured themselves, have installed themselves. It's not simply a menace for West Africa," said Hollande. "It's a major issue for the security of the entire continent — and Europe," he said. Pushed by France, the United Nations Security Council is scheduled to vote Friday on a plan to back an African-led military intervention in northern Mali. Accompanying the president in Dakar on Friday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius appeared confident the resolution would pass. "If no one is against it ... it is already approved, and the window expires in the next few hours. So we can say that this hurdle has already been surmounted," he told reporters. For the Senegalese though, what is front and center is the memory of Sarkozy's 2007 speech which bruised egos across the continent. "The drama of Africa is that the African man has not fully entered into history ... They have never really launched themselves into the future," Sarkozy said. "The African peasant only knew the eternal renewal of time, marked by the endless repetition of the same gestures. ... In this universe where nature rules everything ... there is neither room for human endeavor nor the idea of progress." He was accused of arrogance, of racism and of perpetuating the colonial relationship with Africa. Shocked, some of the people attending his speech delivered at Dakar's largest public university grabbed their bags and walked out. "Sarkozy came with contempt. Hollande is coming to clean up," says Yero Dia, a political analyst who is a frequent commentator on TV debate shows in Senegal. "But for me it's not about Sarkozy, nor about Hollande. It's about us — Africans. It's like the horse and the rider. Whether it's Mitterand, or Chirac, or Sarkozy or Hollande, what remains constant is the system. ... and nothing will change until Africans stop behaving like the horse and letting France be their rider." Read more: http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/French-president-outlines-new-approach-to-Africa-3942152.php#ixzz298GHle4U

U.N. Report Alleges Rwanda Aids Rebels in Congo

UNITED NATIONS—A final report from an independent United Nations body asserts Rwanda continues to back a rebel army in eastern Congo despite international condemnation of its alleged involvement in the conflict, as Rwanda steps up its rebuttal of the findings. The report, which will be delivered to the U.N.'s sanctions committee Oct. 12, says Rwanda hasn't lessened its training and recruiting of troops for the rebel group, called M23, nor ceased providing arms and logistical aid, in violation of sanctions prohibiting such support, according to Rwandan government officials who have reviewed it, M23, which the report estimates currently has about 1,250 soldiers who deserted Congo's national army, continues to make territorial gains, the report says according to the officials. The Rwandan government denounced the findings in the final report, calling them groundless and based on rumor. It will deliver to the sanctions committee Friday a scathing analysis of the procedures behind the report from a Washington law firm, Akin Gump, charging the U.N. body that compiled it with bias and not giving the government proper opportunity to respond to the allegations. The M23 rebellion, which began in April, has led to hundreds of deaths in the volatile, mineral-rich area near the shared border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and displaced hundreds of thousands, according to humanitarian groups. Rwanda's alleged involvement has also heightened concerns the fragile peace between the two countries in place since 2009 could be broken. The two nations have been at war on and off since the mid-1990s, primarily in two provinces in eastern Congo called the Kivus. The allegations, which prompted a handful of countries to suspend or delay aid totaling more than $90 million to Rwanda after they first came to light in June, come just as the country is expected to be elected as a nonpermanent member of the U.N.'s powerful Security Council, for a two-year term beginning in 2013. The U.N.'s General Assembly is scheduled to vote on the matter next week. A Rwandan government official who reviewed the final report said the Group of Experts, the team commissioned by the U.N. to investigate the matter in Congo, "has adopted a kitchen-sink strategy, collating every available piece of rumor and hearsay evidence hoping that the sheer volume of accusation would make up for a complete absence of material evidence to prove their case." In a late-September interview in New York, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said,"We're talking about a Congo problem, but everyone wants to blame us." In its review to be delivered to the U.N. sanctions committee Friday, Akin Gump, the law firm hired by the Rwandan government, takes direct aim at the authors of the U.N. independent report, primarily its coordinator Steve Hege, calling him biased against Rwanda and therefore "unfit to continue in his current position." It also says the group didn't provide Rwandan officials with sufficient opportunity to address the findings before they were submitted to the U.N., in several updates in recent months as well as the final report to be delivered Friday, nor did it include what the government did submit. Mr. Hege declined to comment, citing U.N. policy. An earlier addendum from the Group of Experts said, "The Group has made extensive efforts to engage with the Rwandan government regarding its findings, with some limited success." It added that during an official visit in mid-May by the group to Kigali, the Rwandan capital, the government "didn't receive them in any substantive meetings to discuss these issues." At a meeting earlier this week in Kampala, Uganda of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, regional heads of state agreed to move forward with a plan to deploy a neutral force of 4,000 troops, under the auspices of the U.N. and African Union, to combat the rebel group in eastern Congo.