FIRST READ:
Chaos by Design: When aggressors become mediators: When wolves pretend to be sheep: The US supports Museveni Congo mediation: M23 rebels capture Goma as the UN looks on: Kabila and Kagame fly to Kampala for talks
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2012/11/chaos-by-design-when-aggressors-become.html
UN+UN peace keeping in Congo =American New World Order: UN security council condemns Goma takeover by M23 rebels: Rebels accused of gross human rights violations: DR soldiers surrender to M23 rebels
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2012/11/unun-peace-keeping-in-congo-american.html
Bishop Jean Marie Runiga, Becomes a spokes person for the M23: Using Confusion, misinformation and disinformation to Hide the Central role of USA, her allies and client states in the Conflict in the ‘Democratic’ republic of Congo(DRC)
Bishop Jean-Marie Runiga the spokes person of M23 rebels admits visiting Kampala but says they will not leave Goma
Thousands of Women March Against
M23 Rebels in Kinshasa
Congo News Agency - November 24, 2012
Thousands of women protested against the M23 rebels in Kinshasa on Friday in the biggest demonstration yet in DR
Congo’s capital against the rebels’ capture of the eastern Congo city of Goma on Tuesday.
Many wearing black outfits to express their unhappiness, they marched from the capital’s main street, the Boulevard du 30 juin, to the United Nations mission in DR Congo (MONUSCO) headquarters in Kinshasa, where they joined other women who have been protesting there since Wednesday.
The peaceful women’s protest was held under the watchful eyes of the Congolese police, ever more wary because demonstrations against the M23 elsewhere across DR Congo have also turned on the ruling PPRD party and MONUSCO.
The 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, costing a whopping $1,5 billion a year, has been criticized as much as Congolese army for allowing the rebels to enter Goma, the capital city of North Kivu province, without putting up a fight.
By comparison, other peacekeeping missions in Africa and elsewhere costing much less have had better results in bringing peace to their affected regions than MOMUSCO and MONUC, as the UN mission in DR Congo was know when it was established in 1999.
If most Congolese were not surprised to learn that their army retreated instead of fighting, as it has done at times in the past, they did not expect the well-equipped and well-trained UN peacekeepers to do the same, especially after vowing for months not to let Goma fall to the rebels.
The protesters asked for MONUSCO’s mandate to be strengthened. They said they would camp at its headquarters until their concerns had been addressed.
French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said on Tuesday that MONUSCO’s inaction in Goma was “absurd”. He also called on its mandate to be reviewed.
The women’s protests in front of MONUSCO headquarters in Kinshasa started on Wednesday with chants of “MONUSCO should go, they don't do their job.”
No one should be surprised to see women in DR Congo take the lead in protesting against the M23 rebels. Women have borne the brunt of armed groups exactions in DR Congo for more than a decade. They, better than anyone else, know how horrific it is like to leave under rebels’ control.
The protesters held signs denouncing the M23 rebellion as a “Rwandan and Ugandan aggression.”
A UN Group of Experts report released on Wednesday said that Rwanda and Uganda “cooperated to support the creation and expansion of the political branch of M23 and have consistently advocated on behalf of the rebels.” The report said that Rwanda’s Defense Minister James Kabarebe is the de facto commander of the M23.
The courageous women protesting on Friday called on the international community not to be “fooled” and the UN “not to let itself be ridiculed by the M23 rebels.”
Protests Against M23 Rebels, Government and UN Spread
http://www.congoplanet.com/2012/11/22/news/2012/protests-against-m23-rebels-government-united-nations-monusco-spread-to-bukavu-south-kivu-province.jsp
Congo News Agency - November 22, 2012
Protests against the M23 spread to South
Kivu province on Wednesday as thousands of residents took to the
streets in Bukavu to vent their fury after the fall of Goma to the rebels on
Tuesday.
The protesters, many of them students, attacked buildings used by the United
Nations mission in DR Congo, known as MONUSCO, whose peacekeepers they accuse
of letting the M23 march into Goma unopposed after saying for months they would
not let the city fall into the rebels’ hands.A resident told Radio France Internationale (RFI) during the protest that “we are heading straight to MONUSCO to tell them that if they don’t want to protect the Congolese population, they should leave. And we are going to take care of ourselves because we are tired.”(Audio)
Another resident told RFI that “people have had enough. People have kept these feelings inside them and now, today they are exploding.”
The anger also turned toward President Joseph Kabila’s PPRD political party headquarters and security forces. Tires were burned along some streets to keep police vehicles away as some government and PPRD were attacked.
The protests in Bukavu mirror those that took place on Tuesday in Kisangani and Bunia in which the M23, the PPRD and MONUSCO were the targets.
The M23 rebels have said that Bukavu, a bigger city than Goma and the capital city of South Kivu province, is their next target.
Women protested in Kinshasa in front of MONUSCO headquarters, heavily guarded by UN peacekeepers and the police, singing “MONUSCO should go, they don't do their job.” Other protests are being planned across the country and abroad. In Brussels, Belgium, protesters occupied the Congolese embassy on Wednesday to protest the government’s inability to stop the M23 rebellion.
President Kabila, who has been in office since 2001, is increasingly seen as incapable of solving the security problems that have plagued eastern Congo since the late nineties. The same is true for the UN peacekeeping mission, which was established in 1999.
But, as much as Mr. Kabila’s leadership has once again been put into question by the latest unrest, the M23 rebels are far more unpopular. The vast majority of Congolese see them as nothing more than an extension of the Rwandan army used to assert control over eastern Congo and its vast mineral resources.
Human Rights groups have documented how the M23 has relied on forced recruitments to boost its ranks in the areas it controls. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled towns and villages as the rebels were approaching. Those who stay and resist are summarily executed.
The M23 rebels claim they want to “liberate” DR Congo. The problem is, as much as the Congolese may not like their current leaders, they don’t consider the M23 rebels as liberators but rather as invaders.
