Report: Rwandan support for M23 rebels In Congo continues

Good People,

M23 showed open mutiny and rebellion against the foreign constituted authority and in the Government Army of Congo. This is a serious case of injustice and it is seen to have played against all forms of International Treaty, United Nation policy establishment to compliance of Human Rights crime, violation and abuse of territorial boundary sovereignty.

Consequently, United Nations Resolution for Legal Rights have been discriminately dispensed failing determination for securing mutual Peace for common good of all. UN also failed to strive to provide fair balanced monitoring support to justify the same following sanctions on M23 mutiny that proved inadequate and as a result, it created opportunity for M23 second plague incursions threatening invasion on Congo Government territorial sovereignty.

Charges against Sultani Makenga, who is accused of masterminding killings and recruiting child soldiers were completely inadequate and M23 seems to enjoy preferences of security protection from United Nations because of the cordial relations between Kagame and Museveni with UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon; which is why, there is need to unearth possible irregularities that fed M23 to evoke or instigate aggression on DRC Congo.

Though, Washington announced sanctions against Sultan Makenga, freezing his assets in US jurisdiction and forbidding any US citizen from doing business with him, including accusing him of attacks on civilians and the recruitment of child soldiers, we must determine that Ban-Ki-moon is not in conflict of interest.

 

However, Congo people have all rights to stand their ground and protect themselves in ways and means to secure their peace and protect their people against any type of Mutiny or invasion of the kind by going after their aggressor and driving them out of their country completely.

In a show-case, sometimes last year in 2012, Kenya Government Army went after the Somalis Al-Qaeda and Al-shabaab assailants, wiping them out and getting rid of them from Kenya into the deepest end of their stronghold and weakened and destroyed their base. This destroyed and reduced the power of insurgences.

Keeping the momentum was very important and this is what Congo people must maintain while on the other side, we must go after UN Secretary-General to explain himself why he has failed to implement effectiveness of UN intervention which showed very poor results when it comes to protecting African human rights also, with providing safety to environmental climatic pollutions both in Africa and the world from Industrial emissions.

Getting to tackle the root cause of the problem will be our thesis mission statement to fix conflict ressolution on both DRC Congo and the great lakes of East Africa.

Sincerely,

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

Report: Rwandan support for Congo rebels continues

NICK LONG 3 hours ago Politics

GOMA, Congo (AP) — The M23 rebel group in eastern Congo continues to receive significant support from neighboring Rwanda despite ongoing abuses including killings, rape and forced recruitment of children, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch.
The report released Monday said the group has summarily executed at least 44 people and raped at least 61 women and girls since March.
M23 rebels killed 15 civilians on April 25-26 and at least another six in mid-June as payback for suspected collaboration with Congolese militias, Human Rights Watch said. Other civilians allegedly killed by M23 fighters in recent months include a man shot dead for refusing to hand his sons over to the movement, a motorcycle driver who refused to give them money and recruits caught after trying to escape.
The abuses have continued in recent weeks, the rights group said. Earlier this month, four M23 fighters gang-raped a 12-year-old girl out fetching water.
United Nations experts and other observers have long accused Rwanda of backing the rebels, something the government of President Paul Kagame has consistently denied.
A United Nations expert panel reported in June that Rwanda's support for M23 had declined in recent months, but HRW said the group still received training and supplies and was able to recruit in Rwanda.
"It does appear the support is more limited than it was last year, but what we have documented in terms of support is still quite significant," said HRW researcher and report author Ida Sawyer.
The M23 rebellion was launched in April 2012 by a group of Congolese army mutineers who claimed a March 23, 2009 agreement to integrate them into the army had not been respected by the government.
The group seized control of the strategic city of Goma on the border with Rwanda last November but withdrew in exchange for a promise of peace talks which have repeatedly stalled.
M23 spokesman Kabasha Amani dismissed HRW as a "very partisan" organization on Tuesday.
"It's not a report, these are just rumors," Amani said. "We have grown used to this. It isn't the first time they've said these things."
The report comes amid fresh rounds of fighting between M23 and Congo's army, including clashes 14 miles north of Goma on Monday.
___
Associated Press writer Robbie Corey-Boulet contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal.

Rights group says Rwanda continues to support Congo rebels despite ongoing rights abuses

Published July 23, 2013

Associated Press

GOMA, Congo – A new report from Human Rights Watch says the M23 rebel group in eastern Congo continues to receive significant support from neighboring Rwanda despite ongoing abuses including killings, rape and forced recruitment of children.
The report released Monday says the group has summarily executed at least 44 people and raped at least 61 women and girls since March.
A United Nations expert panel reported in June that Rwanda's support for M23 had declined in recent months, but HRW said the group still received training and supplies and was able to recruit in Rwanda.
The report comes amid fresh rounds of fighting between M23 and Congo's army, including clashes 14 miles north of Goma on Monday.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/07/23/rights-group-says-rwanda-continues-to-support-congo-rebels-despite-ongoing/#ixzz2ZyXCC6NR

Congo Tells of M23 Rebel Abuses

Dec 12, 2012 8:53 AM EST

Civilians say the M23 fighters committed horrific crimes during their occupation of Goma. William Lloyd George reports.

On the evening of the M23’s departure from Goma, Congo, the city’s civilians were secretly excited to finally see the rebels leave. “We’re terrified of the M23,” one motorbike-taxi driver told me, as we swerved down a potholed road past U.N. peacekeepers. “They just cause problems. It is time they left.”

A “pro-M23” march, scheduled for the day before the departure, demonstrated the city’s lackluster support for the rebels. In a city of 1 million, only 100 people turned up, most of them street kids. “As you can see, we just want them to leave,” one shop owner whispered timidly as the march went by.

The next day, to the relief of many, M23 soldiers bundled onto trucks, marking the end of an occupancy that started Nov. 20 and lasted more than a week. The M23—named after a peace agreement in March 23, 2009, between leaders of a former rebel group, the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), and the Congolese government—started their recent insurgency in April of this year, claiming that the government had not stuck to its original agreement. Although the M23 have not retreated to the agreed 15 miles outside Goma—they are still two and a half miles from the city center—talks with the Congolese government have commenced in neighboring Uganda.

Humans-rights groups, though, are concerned that the peace talks could result in the integration of the rebels—whom they accuse of war crimes—into the national Army. “No agreement should lead to the reintegration of M23 commanders who are suspected perpetrators of serious human-rights abuses into the Congolese Army,” says Theo Boutruche, Amnesty International’s Congo researcher. “There is a critical need not to repeat the same mistakes made in the past.” Despite the M23 leaders’ vows to protect civilians, research done by human-rights groups in the region is starting to unearth a very different picture. “The M23’s claim that civilian protection is their priority does not stack up with our findings on the ground,” says Boutruche. Amnesty International documented a range of human-rights abuses supposedly committed by the M23, including unlawful killings of people who refused to collaborate, forced recruitment of children, and rape.

“M23 commanders belong in only one place: behind bars. They should not be reintegrated once again into the Congolese army or running gold mines,” says Scott Campbell, Africa chief at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Campbell argues that there has been no change in the M23 leaders’ attitude towards human rights since they were blacklisted for their war crimes during a previous rebellion as the CNDP. “Their military leaders have a total disregard for children, women, and human life in general,” says Campbell. One possible difference, says Campbell, is that the M23’s leaders have attempted to cloak themselves with a civilian leadership at the negotiating table. “The United States and others should not be so easily duped”.

The body of a Congolese Army soldier lies on the ground in front of a tank left by government troops in Goma, Congo, on Nov. 21. (Phil Moore/AFP/Getty)

Amnesty International documented a range of human-rights abuses supposedly committed by the M23, including unlawful killings of people who refused to collaborate, forced recruitment of children, and rape.

A Human Rights Watch team investigating in and around Goma told me that M23 troops have committed various human-rights abuses during their occupation of Goma, including summary executions, rapes, forced recruitment, and looting. The group claimed that at least 15 civilians were killed by the M23, and the team is still trying to verify a number of other allegations. In one incident, Human Rights Watch said, soldiers from the M23 raped a 10-year-old girl so badly on Dec. 1 on the outskirts of Goma that she died from the wounds the next morning. In another reported human rights abuse case, fighters allegedly looted a family home and took the father away to transport the stolen goods. When the man’s four-year-old daughter asked the M23 fighters where they were taking her father, they shot her in the head. The M23 fighters also forcibly recruited medical personnel from the military hospital and took them to a training camp north of Goma. In another incident, two young men who tried to escape after being forcibly recruited were caught and stabbed to death by M23 fighters. Other civilians were taken by M23 fighters and it remains unknown whether they were killed, forcibly conscripted, or managed to escape alive.

Some of those killed were accused of opposing the M23 or supporting militia groups allied to the Congolese army. As one local human-rights activist put it, “It seems they are using their time in Goma to punish those who they know have stood up against them in the past.” Many of the human-rights defenders who have been monitoring abuses committed by the M23 since April have received death threats via texts and phone calls in recent months. The Human Rights Watch team reported that M23 soldiers were looking for a civil society leader who had spoken out against the M23’s abuses. When they didn’t find him, they reportedly shot and killed one of his colleagues instead. As a result of the harassment, dozens of human rights activists have gone into hiding or managed to leave the province.

On the evening of the M23’s departure from Goma, Congo, the city’s civilians were secretly excited to finally see the rebels leave. “We’re terrified of the M23,” one motorbike-taxi driver told me, as we swerved down a potholed road past U.N. peacekeepers. “They just cause problems. It is time they left.”

A “pro-M23” march, scheduled for the day before the departure, demonstrated the city’s lackluster support for the rebels. In a city of 1 million, only 100 people turned up, most of them street kids. “As you can see, we just want them to leave,” one shop owner whispered timidly as the march went by.

The next day, to the relief of many, M23 soldiers bundled onto trucks, marking the end of an occupancy that started Nov. 20 and lasted more than a week. The M23—named after a peace agreement in March 23, 2009, between leaders of a former rebel group, the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), and the Congolese government—started their recent insurgency in April of this year, claiming that the government had not stuck to its original agreement. Although the M23 have not retreated to the agreed 15 miles outside Goma—they are still two and a half miles from the city center—talks with the Congolese government have commenced in neighboring Uganda.

Humans-rights groups, though, are concerned that the peace talks could result in the integration of the rebels—whom they accuse of war crimes—into the national Army. “No agreement should lead to the reintegration of M23 commanders who are suspected perpetrators of serious human-rights abuses into the Congolese Army,” says Theo Boutruche, Amnesty International’s Congo researcher. “There is a critical need not to repeat the same mistakes made in the past.” Despite the M23 leaders’ vows to protect civilians, research done by human-rights groups in the region is starting to unearth a very different picture. “The M23’s claim that civilian protection is their priority does not stack up with our findings on the ground,” says Boutruche. Amnesty International documented a range of human-rights abuses supposedly committed by the M23, including unlawful killings of people who refused to collaborate, forced recruitment of children, and rape.

“M23 commanders belong in only one place: behind bars. They should not be reintegrated once again into the Congolese army or running gold mines,” says Scott Campbell, Africa chief at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Campbell argues that there has been no change in the M23 leaders’ attitude towards human rights since they were blacklisted for their war crimes during a previous rebellion as the CNDP. “Their military leaders have a total disregard for children, women, and human life in general,” says Campbell. One possible difference, says Campbell, is that the M23’s leaders have attempted to cloak themselves with a civilian leadership at the negotiating table. “The United States and others should not be so easily duped”.

The body of a Congolese Army soldier lies on the ground in front of a tank left by government troops in Goma, Congo, on Nov. 21. (Phil Moore/AFP/Getty)

Amnesty International documented a range of human-rights abuses supposedly committed by the M23, including unlawful killings of people who refused to collaborate, forced recruitment of children, and rape.

A Human Rights Watch team investigating in and around Goma told me that M23 troops have committed various human-rights abuses during their occupation of Goma, including summary executions, rapes, forced recruitment, and looting. The group claimed that at least 15 civilians were killed by the M23, and the team is still trying to verify a number of other allegations. In one incident, Human Rights Watch said, soldiers from the M23 raped a 10-year-old girl so badly on Dec. 1 on the outskirts of Goma that she died from the wounds the next morning. In another reported human rights abuse case, fighters allegedly looted a family home and took the father away to transport the stolen goods. When the man’s four-year-old daughter asked the M23 fighters where they were taking her father, they shot her in the head. The M23 fighters also forcibly recruited medical personnel from the military hospital and took them to a training camp north of Goma. In another incident, two young men who tried to escape after being forcibly recruited were caught and stabbed to death by M23 fighters. Other civilians were taken by M23 fighters and it remains unknown whether they were killed, forcibly conscripted, or managed to escape alive.

Some of those killed were accused of opposing the M23 or supporting militia groups allied to the Congolese army. As one local human-rights activist put it, “It seems they are using their time in Goma to punish those who they know have stood up against them in the past.” Many of the human-rights defenders who have been monitoring abuses committed by the M23 since April have received death threats via texts and phone calls in recent months. The Human Rights Watch team reported that M23 soldiers were looking for a civil society leader who had spoken out against the M23’s abuses. When they didn’t find him, they reportedly shot and killed one of his colleagues instead. As a result of the harassment, dozens of human rights activists have gone into hiding or managed to leave the province.

M23 rebels withdraw Dec. 1 from Goma. Hundreds of Congolese M23 rebels began a withdrawal as promised under a regionally brokered deal after a 12-day occupation of the city. (Phil Moore/AFP/Getty )

A mechanic and a motorbike-taxi driver were also reportedly assassinated by M23 rebels for their role in an anti-Rwandan protest earlier in the year.

“These abuses stand in stark contrast to the image the M23 leaders seek to promote, with declarations proclaiming their movement to be orderly, disciplined, and respectful of human rights and with grand visions for a ‘reformed’ Congo,” says Ida Sawyer, Congo researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Yet they are not surprising. The M23’s fighters have committed widespread war crimes since they mutinied from the Congolese Army eight months ago, and its leaders have been responsible for some of eastern Congo’s worst atrocities over the past 15 years.”

Human-rights groups also say that abuses were committed not only during the M23’s control of Goma, but since the M23 was created this past spring. The groups have reported countless cases of forced recruitment and harassment of local populations. According to one local activist, the M23 have repeatedly stolen from civilian communities in Rutshuru. “They have no respect for the people who end up living around their camps,” said the activist, who wished to remain anonymous over fears of reprisal. “They do what they want, take what they want.” In one of the worst reported cases, the M23’s fighters allegedly attacked a family in the village of Chengerero, in eastern Congo, on July 7. A 32-year-old woman said that the rebels broke down her door, beat her 15-year-old son to death, and abducted her husband. Before leaving, she said, the M23 fighters gang-raped her, poured fuel between her legs, and set the fuel on fire.

A group of displaced Congolese gather around fish being smoked in Mugunga, in the eastern Congo, on Nov. 23. Fighting between M23 rebels and government troops in Sake caused tens of thousands to flee the area and take refuge in Mugunga. (Phil Moore/AFP/Getty)

The M23’s leaders claim to have started their latest rebellion because the government did not stick to past agreements, and they claim to be fighting against the corruption and bad governance of the Congolese government. While corruption is rife, and the Congolese army troops have also terrorized local communities, the M23’s claims have been met with skepticism. A U.N. group of experts has said that the Rwandan government has been supporting the rebels--financially, logistically and with weapons--and that they have sent Rwandan army troops into Congo to fight alongside the M23. “Senior Rwandan military officials, who may be complicit in war crimes through their support to the M23, should be sanctioned, and foreign governments should publicly press Rwanda to stop support for the M23,” says Human Rights Watch’s Sawyer. Rwanda has backed numerous other rebellions in eastern Congo, in part to maintain control over the fertile land and rich mines in eastern Congo's Kivu provinces—mines also of interest to the M23 leaders—and the ability to smuggle minerals across the border to Rwanda.

Another theory is that Kigali had increased its attempts to arrest the International Criminal Court–indicted former CNDP leader, Gen. Bosco “Terminator” Ntaganda, which led him to desert the Congolese Army and possibly form the M23. While the M23 leaders have vehemently denied any involvement with Ntaganda, he is still believed to be involved in the group’s affairs.

Despite the M23’s efforts to distance themselves from past atrocities, it appears they will soon have the same reputation that the CNDP made for itself. “Same wine, different bottle,” quipped one diplomat. For many human-rights groups, even if the talks do succeed, the lack of willingness by either side to vet those committing human-rights abuses has led to something of a lose-lose situation for human-rights defenders.

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