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Cablegate: Monuc's Kivus Conference Report -- Third Day Of

Published: Mon 14 Jan 2008 04:16 PM
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SUBJECT: MONUC's Kivus Conference Report -- third day of
plenary is devoted to North Kivu delegates
Note: The following report was prepared by MONUC (pls protect) and
was shared with U.S. team in Goma. End note.
1. (SBU) Under the moderation of Azarias Ruberwa, today's plenary
started with speeches by governors Didier Manara (Maniema province)
and Medard Autsai (Orientale province). Both presented their
respective provinces, which they portrayed as places where ethnic
groups coexisted peacefully, as examples to be followed by the
Kivus. The governors also pointed out the important economic
benefits peace in the Kivus would bring. Governor Autsai said that
the continuation of conflict in the Kivus would be an insult to all
those who had perished during the war and called upon the delegates
to use the historic chance of the Conference to find a path towards
peace.
2. (SBU) The rest of the day's proceedings were almost entirely
devoted to presentations from all the communities across North Kivu
(the same is planned for South Kivu's communities tomorrow).
Azarias Ruberwa choose not to impose time limits on any of the
presentations, seeming to judge instead that the opportunity to
address the Conference itself represented a valued, and cathartic
experience for the communities - through their designated
representatives. Today's proceedings therefore took on the air of
an impromptu "truth commission". According to feedback from a
variety of observers, Ruberwa's moderation seems to have been
appreciated by the inter-ethnic audience as largely fair and
tolerant.
3. (SBU) A major recurring issue, brought up by the quasi-totality
of community representatives, was that of their under-representation
in government bodies -- both at national and provincial levels, in
the civil service as well as in the security sector (army, police,
and intelligence services). Though Conference organizers had from
the start been careful to assert that DRC government institutions,
now legitimated via elections, were not to be "negotiated," nearly
all community representatives nevertheless demanded more seats in
the full gamut of government institutions. These demands did not
come solely from groups typically considered as demographically
small -- some of whom appear to have credible claims of under, or
non-representation (the Tembo and Watalinga, a Nande sub-group, can
be cited as examples here) -- but also from demographically larger
groups (the Hutu are a case in point). In addition, some community
representatives (Hutu, Mbuba) decried the "Nande domination" of
North Kivu (and called for the province to be split in two), which
the Nande representative vehemently rejected.
4. (SBU) Predictably, land rights and rights to natural resources
promise to be contentious issues as well and tensions were already
apparent today. For example, the Hunde representative presented
what many considered an extremist position that only they should be
entitled to live in the lands that they control. Another case in
point was the discord expressed by the general audience when the
Tutsi representative demanded that their refugees and uprooted
customary leaders be allowed to return to Walikale, Rutshuru,
Masisi, and Lubero inter alia, by the same token making the
contentious implication that they considered (parts of) these areas
to be "historic territories" for Tutsi.
5. (SBU) Another characteristic shared by nearly all speeches was
their denunciation of the discriminations and rights violations
their respective communities face, faulting in part the State (and
its failure to establish its authority), in part the international
community (and its failure to provide an adequate response), in part
Rwanda (for failing to settle its conflicts on its own national
soil), and in part each other. As an offshoot of the last point,
there were several calls for a process of inter-community dialogue
and reconciliation throughout the day.
6. (SBU) Safi Adili, President of the Tutsi Community of North Kivu
and member of the Conference's "Comite des Sages" (Wise Men's
Group), had at first intended to speak on behalf of the Tutsi.
However, Conference Bureau President Malu Malu protested, explaining
this represented a conflict of interest. Adili eventually agreed,
and his prepared statement was read by another Tutsi community
member instead.
7. (SBU) The statement overall proved to be fairly controversial,
both in the way it depicted the causes of Tutsi grievances and
insecurity, and their potential remedies. One reason cited to
justify why the Tutsi have "taken up arms in self-defense" included
the "plan" on the part of various regimes in Kinshasa to
"exterminate the Tutsi community". References to several waves of
deportation of Tutsis and of an alleged 1967 alliance between
Habyarimana and Mobutu to "destabilize" the Tutsi community were
KINSHASA 00000040 002 OF 002
also made; the 1994 influx of up 2 million Rwandan refugees was
characterized as "another ploy to exterminate the Tutsi". Some of
the recommendations aired included demands that the GDRC adopt and
implement a specific national policy to ensure the protection of
Tutsi and their free circulation throughout the country, for
instance.
8. (SBU) Several other speakers delivered speeches at the end of
the day: the representative from the "Barza inter-communautaire" (a
federation of all North Kivu communities), Seraphin Ngwej, President
Kabila's roving ambassador, and Tim Shortley, Senior Advisor for
Conflict Resolution to US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi
Frazer.
9. (SBU) In another emblematic gesture echoing that of Vital
Kamerhe in yesterday's plenary, at the end of the afternoon, Malu
Malu asked the CNDP delegation to come to the front of the hall and
present themselves so that everyone would know that they too had
been included and were participating in the Conference. The entire
delegation did so, to polite applause from the hall. The CNDP
delegates were reportedly encouraged by this experience.
10. (SBU) Although the atmosphere of the conference remained calm,
the initial program was hardly respected and almost all of the
speakers did not follow their time limits. This results in further
delays in the Conference schedule, relegating the South Kivu
presentations to tomorrow, and those of the armed groups probably to
Sunday.
11. (SBU) In other meetings held on the margins of the Conference,
the External Facilitation, accompanied by MONUC, met for a second
time -- at their request -- with representatives of PARECO and three
other North Kivu Mayi Mayi factions (Kifuafua, Kasindiens, and
Mongols). While these delegations confirmed that, when their turn
comes, they intended to make declarations to the Plenary that they
are "now determined to make peace," much of their discussion with
the Facilitation revolved around their security concerns at the
conference, their doubts about the fidelity of the governments of
Rwanda and of the DRC, their concern that the FDLR issue should be
resolved definitively but not through force, and their continuing
deep mistrust of the Tutsi community.
12. (SBU) In an evening meeting with Foreign Minister Mbusa
Nyamwisi, the Minister confirmed that in response to the Rwandan
Government's complaint that it had not been properly invited, via
Note Verbale, to the Conference, he had spoken with a member of the
President's office to indicate that an invitation in the proper form
was now being issued and that he hoped that they would seize the
opportunity to attend.
Garvelink
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