Congo News Agency: Breaking News from D.R. Congo

President Joseph Kabila opened the first conference of provincial governors on Wednesday in Kisangani. The conference will last two days and deal with issues related to good governance, security, justice, and the economy.

Of particular interest to the governors are issues related to the implementation of the decentralization of authority and the return of 40% of revenues from the central government to the provinces, as required by the Constitution.

Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito and other members of the government are also taking part to the discussions.

There were no surprises at the Palais du Peuple on Saturday morning as elections results revealed that Evariste Boshab, from President Joseph Kabila’s People’s Party for Reconstruction and Development (PPRD), had come ahead as the new speaker of the lower house of Parliament in polls held on Friday to replace its former officers.

Evariste Boshab replaces Vital Kamerhe who resigned after the Alliance for the Presidential Majority (AMP) parliamentary group called for him to step down after his remarks in reaction to news that President Joseph Kabila had invited Rwandan troops to eastern Congo in January were deemed by some members of the AMP to be disloyal to the President.

The AMP had vowed to remain united at the polls and left no chance to a divided opposition that failed to present a united front. Evariste Boshab received 329 votes while Francois Mwamba, leader of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) , only managed to get 75 votes.

Warlord Laurent Nkunda, the eastern Congo rebel leader accused of numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity, has been arrested in Rwanda while fleeing a joint Congolese-Rwandan military operation to arrest him.

The warlord was arrested Thursday night along the Congolese-Rwandan border in the town of Bunagana. He is being held at an undisclosed location in Rwanda.

Congolese police inspector general John Numbi said in a statement that  the Congolese and Rwandan armies “inform the public of the arrest of deposed general Laurent Nkunda Thursday at 10:30 pm while fleeing in Rwandan territory after putting up brief resistance”.

The Congolese government welcomed the arrest of the rebel leader and called for his extradition.

The Congolese government issued an international arrest warrant against the warlord in 2005 for war crimes committed in 2004 in the town of Bukavu, in South Kivu province. He has since been accused of many other war crimes  by the Congolese government and human rights organisations.

A United Nations panel of experts has once again accused Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and his government of supporting warlord Laurent Nkunda in his years-long killing spree in eastern Congo.

 A report presented to the Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council on Friday says that Rwandan authorities “have been complicit in the recruitment of soldiers, including children, have facilitated the supply of military equipment and have sent officers and units” from the Rwandan army to help warlord Laurent Nkunda.

Congolese authorities have always said that the eastern Congo rebels were being supplied in men and arms by Rwanda. After the rebels started their offensive this summer, the government presented documents found on rebels killed in combat that linked them to the Rwanda Defense Forces (RDF). The documents included RDF identity cards and mission orders from their commanders to report to Laurent Nkunda.

The report also says that Rwanda helped the rebels’ advance towards Goma in October with a barrage of artillery and mortar fire.

Even more damaging, the UN experts presented evidence of satellite phone calls between the office of Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Laurent Nkunda’s CNDP rebels.

The Financial Times is reporting that “In a blow to Kigali, Bert Koenders, the Dutch development minister, said his government would be suspending budgetary support to Rwanda as a result of the UN findings. The €3m ($4m, £2.7m) package is relatively small but the Dutch move is a sign of international impatience with neighbourhood meddling in Congo”. 

Other governments and organizations may soon cut funding to the Rwandan government because of its support to Laurent Nkunda rebels, who have been accused for years of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in eastern Congo.

On Thursday, US rights group Human Rights Watch released a report on how Laurent Nkunda’s rebels summarily executed an estimated 150 innocent civilians on November 4-5, 2008 in the town of Kiwanja.

More than 5,400,000 people have died in Congo since 1998, most of them in eastern Congo, because of wars launched by foreign-backed rebels. 45,000 are estimated to be dying each month. More than 1,000,000 innocent civilians are displaced today in eastern Congo because of Laurent Nkunda’s resources war.

The UN report also says that the rebels use the mines under their control to finance their rebellion. It cited warlord Laurent Nkunda’s control of the Bibatama mine of Columbite-Tantalite (Coltan), a mineral used worldwide to produce electronics components in cell phones, LCD screens, TVs and computers.

Many experts on the Great Lakes region have long discarded Laurent Nkunda’s claim of protecting the Tutsi minority in Congo as the real reason for his rebellion. They have accused the warlord of fighting a resources war instead, and using the presence of Rwandan Hutu militiamen (FLDR) in eastern Congo as a pretext.

This is not the first UN report to establish the link between mineral resources and the rebels in eastern Congo. A UN report released in 2002 accused Rwandan-backed rebels and the Rwandan army of mass-scale looting and exploitation of natural resources in eastern Congo.

Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito has sent the government’s 2009 budget proposal to the Parliament. The $4.97 billion spending plan was introduced on Friday, November 27, and represents a 61.8% increase compared to the 2008 budget.

The Minister of the Budget, Michel Lokola Elemba, said during a press conference that the proposal takes into account the war effort, the decentralization plan, and the yet to be implemented 40% retrocession of revenues to the provinces.

The proposal includes the spending of 20.3% of the budget on the economy; 4.8% on health, and 9.4% on education.

The current parliamentary session is devoted to the examination of the budget. Members of Parliament will start deliberations on the plan on Monday December 1st, offer amendments, and vote on a final proposal before the end of the current session in 14 days.

 Four members of the government held a press conference on Wednesday to respond to the latest Human Rights Watch report on the Democratic Republic of Congo. The government spokesperson, Lambert Mende, challenged the rights group to provide proof of its allegations. He asked Human Rights Watch to list the names of political opponents who were allegedly killed by government agents in the last two years since the election of President Joseph Kabila.

Critics of the report say it is full of allegations for which the rights group provides no proof. Many allegations are simply based on hearsay or other reports from Congolese organisations opposed to the government.

The government has also pointed out Human Rights Watch lead researcher on Congo, Anneke Van Woudenberg, apparent bias against the authorities in Kinshasa.

During a recent interview with the French service of the Voice of America, at the height of the rebels’ advance towards Goma, she wondered if Congolese authorities “had the brains”, in other words the intelligence, to fight warlord Laurent Nkunda.

In another interview with Voice of America in Kinshasa this week, after the release of the report, Van Woudenberg suggested that people should not be so focused on what’s going on in eastern Congo and should also focus on western Congo.

More then 5,400,000 people have died in Congo since 1998, most of them in eastern Congo, because of wars launched by foreign-backed rebels. Eastern Congo is plagued today with an indescribable scale of violence against women and children. Although Congolese troops have recently been implicated in some cases of rapes and looting, most of the violence has for years been perpetrated by the various militia and rebel groups in the region.

For Anneke Van Woudenberg to imply that the world should turn its focus to western Congo, or that the government is implicated in human rights violations comparable to those being perpetrated daily by Laurent Nkunda’s rebels, is irresponsible and further proof of the vicious intentions behind the release of this report and its timing.

The timing for the release of this report is also suspicious because Congolese authorities are now trying to garner international support in their fight against the Rwandan-backed rebels led by Laurent Nkunda.

Apart from trying to undermine the Congolese government, the rights group may also be trying to gain publicity, and boost its year-end fundraising operations,  by making these allegations at a time when the international community is focused on finding a solution to the humanitarian catastrophe caused by recent rebel advances in North Kivu.

Although Human Rights Watch called for the arrest of Laurent Nkunda for war crimes in 2006, the rights group is yet to compile any sizable report of the numerous human rights abuses and war crimes the warlord has been accused of committing.

Apolinaire Malu-Malu, the coordinator of the Amani Program, which resulted in the signing of the Goma peace accords between the government and rebel groups in January, has said in an interview with Belgian newspaper Le Soir that warlord Laurent Nkunda “has the power to annoy” but lacks the means to overthrow the Government.

The rebel leader has threatened to remove the government by force if it does not hold direct negotiations with him. Lambert Mende, the government spokesman, said on Tuesday that there will be no direct negotiations with Laurent Nkunda and his CNDP movement outside of the Amani framework.

Malu-Malu also told Le Soir that Laurent Nkunda won’t be able to go to Kinshasa and overthrow the government. He also said that it is important “to stop the massacres, such as those committed by the rebels in Kiwanja and the attacks on refugee camps”, which he called war crimes.

Listening to Laurent Nkunda’s recent rhetoric, one may think that the warlord has gone through elections, been elected, and now has a mandate to speak on behalf of a sizable portion of the Congolese population.

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. No one has elected Laurent Nkunda, or mandated him to speak and wage one of the deadliest wars of our times on their behalf. The truth is, Laurent Nkunda has imposed himself on a population that had just elected its leaders less than two years ago in what most national and international observers have called free and fair elections.

There is a lot to disagree with about the way the country has been governed since the 2006 elections. But, at least the current government in Kinshasa can claim with confidence to be speaking on behalf of those who elected its leaders.

There is an elected President, a national Parliament, provincial Governors and Parliaments. The Congolese people expressed their desire for peace, democracy and rejection of war, through what national and international observers called fair and free elections in 2006. Rebels who run in those elections, and were seen as allied or backed by Rwanda,  were soundly defeated.

But don’t bother asking warlord Laurent Nkunda about elections, or democracy. It would simply be an exercise in futility. Laurent Nkunda doesn’t believe in democracy. Especially since he knows quit well that he will never get elected if he ever runs for elected office. Not in North Kivu and certainly not nationwide.

Laurent Nkunda would like people to believe that he is popular in some corners of North Kivu. I wonder why he has never run for office or suggested new elections as a way out of this war. I am sure the Congolese government would be more than glad to let the people decide if they want Laurent Nkunda as their leader.

Instead of making empty threats that he is going to overthrow an elected government, if Laurent Nkunda is a true leader, loved by many, he should be calling for new elections instead. Of course, this will never happen. Free and fair elections would only proove to the world how unpopular Laurent Nkunda and his rebels really are.

So, on whose behalf is Laurent Nkunda speaking? Who has elected him and appointed him as their spokesperson? First he claimed he was fighting to protect the Tutsi minority in North Kivu against Rwandan Hutu militiamen. He is now claiming he wants to “liberate the Congo” and overthrow the elected government in Kinshasa.  This is a clear attack on democracy which has been condemned all over the world. He is also trying to force the government to negotiate with him and give him what he cannot get through democratic elections, a seat at the table.

President Joseph Kabila and the Congolese government certainly have the democratic right to negotiate with whom they want, and name who they see fit to the government. However, as long as the Congolese people do not support the rebels, they will make sure their voice is heard loud and clear during the next elections. We will then be back in the same situation we find ourselves in today. Those who cannot win a seat at the table trough democratic elections will once again seek to invite themselves to power by brandishing guns and holding an entire population hostage.

Swiss authorities have indicated that 8.3 million US dollars  in funds belonging to Mobutu Sese Seko will be returned to his family on December 15, 2008. The funds were frozen on May 17, 1997 after the death of the former Congolese president.  

Swiss authorities say that the Congolese government never responded to their requests for proof that the money had been stolen from state funds and thus should be returned to the government.

Mobutu’s family has never relinquished its claim to the money. Mobutu Nzanga, a son of the former president, is one of three Vice-Prime Ministers in the current government headed by Adolphe Muzito. He received 4.8% of the votes cast in the first round of the presidential elections in 2006 and formed an alliance with president Joseph Kabila for the second round. He was the Minister of Agriculture in the previous two governments headed by Antoine Gizenga.

In yet another sign that Laurent Nkunda will not rest until he eliminates all those who disagree with him, the UN Mission in DR Congo (MONUC) has said that Congolese civilians who fled the Kiwanja massacres have been receiving threats and orders from Laurent Nkunda’s rebels to leave their temporary refuge at a nearby MONUC’s base.

Deutsche Welle is reporting that MONUC spokeswoman Sylvie Van Der Wildenberg said that “MONUC has noticed since yesterday (Tuesday) evening that the vast majority of displaced who were sheltering around the base at Kiwanja have left their temporary camp”. 

Sylvie Van Der Wildenberg is also quoted as saying that “We have strong fears that these people have been forced to go back (to their homes),”  And that MONUC had reports “indicating that the (rebels) told them to leave the area.”  She also reportedly said  “If that’s the case, that would constitute a serious violation of international law”.

The rebels have reportedly said they will attack the refugee camp if the Congolese civilians don’t go back into the rebel-occupied town. Laurent Nkunda is furious that the population he claims he wants to “liberate” has rejected him.

As seen around the world, civilians have fled every advance by the rebels. Those who have stayed home, or returned for one reason or another, have been exposed to all sorts of abuses in the hands of the rebels.

More than 1,000,000 Congolese civilians are estimated by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) to be displaced due to the war. 60,000 of them have taken refuge at the Kibati camp.

Three other refugee camps were burned by the rebels at the end of October forcing the UNHCR to issue an alert on the whereabouts of 50,000 refugees.