VZCZCXRO8961
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #0118/01 0351452
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 041452Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7466
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000118
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL MARR CG RW
SUBJECT: Joint Monitoring Group Task Force - Goma, February 1, 2008
1. (SBU) Summary: The Rwandan delegation to the Joint Monitoring
Group Task Force meeting in Goma February 1 announced that Rwanda
had completed its comprehensive (but never final) list of 6,400
genocidaires. It criticized the DRC for falling behind on its FDLR
plan. MONUC/DDRRR reviewed its outreach to FDLR but cautioned that
persuading FDLR combatants to return to Rwanda would not be a quick
process. End Summary.
2. (SBU) Midway through a six-hour meeting of the Task Force of the
Nairobi Accord's Joint Monitoring Group February 1 in Goma, half of
which was devoted to wrangling over minutes, the Rwandan delegation
announced that Rwanda had completed a comprehensive list of 6,400
genocidaires. It said that the list fulfilled the requirement of
the Nairobi communique (genocidaires of all categories) but was not
a final list, nor would there ever be a final list. It noted that
Rwanda was not required, in its interpretation of the Nairobi
communique, to submit this list until the DRC had placed disarmed
ex-FAR/Interahamwe in cantonment, but said that the Rwandan
government had nevertheless decided to take this move in the spirit
of fullest implementation of Nairobi. It added that the list had
been delivered two days earlier to the Congolese foreign ministry
and the office of SRSG Doss. (This took the Congolese delegation by
surprise.)
3. (SBU) The acting head of the DRC delegation, Major Ambroise
Nanga, said that its usual head of delegation, Colonel Augustin
Mamba, was unable to attend because he was in Kinshasa, working on
follow-up to the Kivus Conference resolutions and Acte d'Engagement.
He said that this Goma Process was "tightly tied" to the Nairobi
Process, and he underlined that the Kivus Conference participants
had been "unanimous" in their insistence that FDLR leave DRC.
4. (SBU) The head of the Rwandan delegation, Major Franco Rutagengwa
(who has not missed a meeting of the Task Force), took the DRC to
task for failing to meet the timetable it had outlined in its plan
presented to Rwanda on December 1. Phase One of that plan,
Rutagengwa noted, was to have been completed by January 31 and
included, among other things, the undertaking by DRC to provide to
Rwanda a detailed assessment of ex-FAR/Interahamwe numbers,
locations, and chain of command and an assessment of the willingness
of ex-FAR/Interahamwe to disarm. Nanga apologized for DRC's failure
to comply. DRC's energies, he said, had been monopolized by the
Kivus Conference, which was unforeseen at the time the plan was
presented to Rwanda. Nanga noted that, immediately after the
conference, on January 24, Foreign Minister Mbusa had traveled to
Lubero Territory to meet leaders of the FDLR splinter group RUD,
setting the "sensitization" phase in motion on the ground. (Note:
Mbusa was accompanied by North Kivu Governor Paluku and MONUC's
DDRRR chief Philip Lancaster. End note.) Nanga promised that Mamba
would provide details of FDLR military capabilities at the next
meeting of the Task Force.
5. (SBU) Rutengengwa said that he hoped that, following the previous
week's Task Force visit to Rwanda's Demobilization and Reintegration
Center at Mutobo, DRC would reciprocate by inviting the Task Force
to see what DRC was doing on the ground to fulfill its commitments.
Nanga said that DRC had foreseen this request coming; it "needed a
little time" but would reciprocate.
6. (SBU) Lancaster, accompanied by World Bank expert Harold Hinkel,
reviewed ongoing efforts to reach out to the FDLR. He said that,
following Mbusa's meeting, he and Hinkel had had a second meeting
with the RUD leaders. On February 2 they would join a delegation,
led by North Kivu provincial assembly president Leon Bariyana, to
meet leaders of its FOCA arm north of Rutshuru. Then, in a few
days, they would go back to see the RUD. Lancaster said that the
process of breaking down FDLR paranoia and severing the hold of the
political leaders over the rank and file would take time.
7. (SBU) Lancaster said that some of the RUD leaders had seemed
almost incapable of rationality. RUD's political leaders focused on
"not being treated with dignity," which on further questioning
appeared to mean not being given legal recognition as a political
party, while the military leaders appeared to be more focused on
physical and economic security. Lancaster and Hinkel said that they
had told RUD that there was nothing they could offer on the
political side -- FDLR could not expect legal recognition while
behaving as outlaws -- but on physical and economic security, they
felt they had made headway with RUD, by explaining the success of
the Rwandan repatriation program.
8. (SBU) MONUC-Goma acting political chief Guillaume Lacaille,
chairing the meeting, gave a resume of the events of the past week
in the Goma Process, apologizing that MONUC's North Kivu Brigade
could not, as scheduled, give a military briefing as it was deeply
KINSHASA 00000118 002 OF 002
involved in redeployments. He said that there had been a few armed
interactions between CNDP and armed groups over the previous week
but these had all fallen into the category of "minor incidents"
rather than "significant ceasefire violations." They involved short
exchanges of fire from long distance (a kilometer or kilometer and a
half) or firing into the air. Media reports of "ceasefire
violations" had been exaggerated.
9. (SBU) Lacaille said that North Kivu armed groups, including CNDP,
had met with FARDC and the international community through the week
and on the previous day, January 31, MONUC had presented a proposal
to the armed groups that they turn to MONUC for immediate
investigation of all claims of ceasefire violations, rather than go
to the media. Lacaille said that a fully constituted task force
would soon be established in accord with the Acte d'Engagement. The
EU observer, Jean-Michel Dumont, noted that FDLR was a signatory to
neither the Nairobi communique nor the Goma Acte, and there were
"strong suspicions" that the FDLR was implicated in the military
incidents of the past week. Lacaille said that, even among
signatories to the Acte, there remained the problem of "getting the
message" to all the combatants in the field, a sensitization process
that would require some time.
10. (SBU) Rutagengwa urged that MONUC's DDRRR unit and North Kivu
Brigade give briefings at every Task Force meeting henceforward.
GARVELINK