VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB
DE RUEHKI #1130 3530608
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 180608Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8930
INFO RUEILB/NCTC WASHINGTON DC
UNCLAS KINSHASA 001130
SIPDIS
S/CT FOR RHONDA SHORE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER ASEC PGOV PREL CG
SUBJECT: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO:
2008 COUNTRY REPORT ON TERRORISM
REF: STATE 120019
1. (U) Following is post's submission for the 2008 Country Reports
on Terrorism. The point of contact at post for this issue is
Political Officer Steele Means (meansjs@state.gov).
2. (U) Begin 2008 Country Reports on Terrorism submission.
There is no credible evidence to indicate the presence of al-Qa'ida
or other foreign Sunni-inspired terrorist groups in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC). The DRC Lebanese expatriate community,
which numbers in the low thousands and is overwhelmingly Shia
Muslim, does include many Hizballah adherents. Several families
prominently linked elsewhere to Hizballah fundraising are running
businesses in the DRC. However, there is no evidence to suggest
that Hizballah is planning or running terrorist operations inside or
via the DRC. Additionally, the level of support for Hizballah in
the DRC is unknown.
Host government capacity to monitor and disrupt terrorist threats is
extremely limited due to lack of resources, mismanagement, and
unfamiliarity with the issue. The DRC's porous borders, endemic
corruption, and overall lack of state authority could provide ample
exploitable opportunities for designated foreign terrorist
organizations, though such activity to date appears to remain
theoretical. Post is not aware that the DRC provides support of any
type to designated foreign terrorist organizations.
The two principal foreign armed groups operating in the DRC and
posing a threat to security and stability are the Democratic Forces
for the Liberation of Rwanda (known by its French acronym FDLR) and
the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The FDLR, which includes former
soldiers and supporters of the regime which orchestrated the 1994
Rwanda genocide, continues to operate with relative impunity in
parts of North and South Kivu provinces. While no longer the
military threat to the current Rwandan government that it once was,
the FDLR contributes to the destabilization of the area through its
continued promulgation of anti-Tutsi propaganda and through its
cruel treatment of the local civilian population. Additionally, a
unit from a former incarnation of the FDLR known as the Army for the
Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR) was responsible for the killing of a
group of American and British tourists in Bwindi Park in Uganda in
1999, which led to the placement of ALIR on the Terrorist Exclusion
List.
The LRA continues to use its safe haven in northeastern DRC to wage
its longstanding insurgency against the Ugandan government, which
has resulted in a further destabilization of the security and human
rights situation in eastern DRC. LRA exactions against the civilian
population in the area, including kidnappings, looting, and forced
conscription and sexual servitude, have resulted in massive internal
displacement and a burgeoning humanitarian crisis.
The DRC's Regional Nuclear Studies Center at Kinshasa (CREN-K) still
hosts two TRIGA nuclear reactors at the University of Kinshasa,
roughly 20 miles from the center of the city. Although one reactor
was shut down in 1972 and the other has been inoperable for 10
years, the CREN-K facility still stores about 60 spent nuclear fuel
rods, about 70 live nuclear fuel rods, and about 10 fresh fuel rods.
There have been some recent improvements in infrastructure at
CREN-K, but the fuel remains both a security and safety threat. The
security threat of uranium ore in southern DRC remains mitigated by
the 2004 Presidential decree banning all uranium mining, including
that of artisanal miners. If the government lifted the decree and
uranium mining in the DRC expanded beyond the small-scale illegal
artisanal mining, the illicit export of uranium from the DRC could
pose a security threat.
GARVELINK