My Analysis
This American neo-liberal, greed is good, new world order system has so called intellectuals whose role is to deceive the masses in Africa and else where that the war in Congo has no American and western tentacles. See, how cynical Tim Witcher’s article below is.
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
Foreign meddling and messy army sustains DR Congo chaos
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World/Foreign-meddling-and-messy-army-sustains-DR-Congo-chaos/-/688340/1627366/-/15rametz/-/index.html
By Tim Witcher
Posted Friday, November 23 2012 at 11:34
Posted Friday, November 23 2012 at 11:34
In Summary
This week's report by UN experts said the M23's "de
facto chain of command" includes Bosco Ntaganda, a Rwandan wanted by the
International Criminal Court for war crimes, and "culminates" with
Rwandan Defense Minister James Kabarebe.
Easy
when it is the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to analysts and
diplomats, who say a corrupt and disappearing army, alleged meddling from
neighbouring Rwanda
and a UN force with its wrists tied create a chaotic mix.
The
M23 rebels have in just one week moved out of a small corner of DR Congo's
North Kivu to take over most of the province -- an area twice the size of Belgium and
rich in diamonds, precious metals and minerals.
The
rebels, armed by Rwanda,
according to UN experts, broke from the main government DR Congo army in April
with barely 500 men.
The
said they were protesting that a 2009 peace accord, intended to end conflict in
the Kivu region over the past decade, had not been applied.
But
now they simply say they want to unseat President Joseph Kabila, while the
United Nations warns that they are killing opponents and raping women as they
spread their control.
More than 100,000 people have fled their homes, according
to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). Children's centers in Goma, the North Kivu capital, are overflowing with thousands of
displaced and cholera has been reported.
The
DR Congo army collapsed in the face of the rebel force, which had grown to an
estimated 3,000 by the time it moved on Goma. The army "simply melted
away," according to UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous.
The
UN mission in DR Congo, MONUSCO, is the UN's biggest peacekeeping force with
more than 17,000 troops, costing $1.5 billion a year.
But
its UN Security Council mandate is to protect civilians, not to fight rebels on
its own, Ladsous insisted.
UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to report soon on how to reinforce the UN
troops, who come from 50 countries but mainly India,
Pakistan, South Africa and Morocco.
Meanwhile,
the role of Rwanda
has sparked controversy.
This
week's report by UN experts said the M23's "de facto chain of
command" includes Bosco Ntaganda, a Rwandan wanted by the International
Criminal Court for war crimes, and "culminates" with Rwandan Defense
Minister James Kabarebe.
The
report said arms and troops had come across the border.
The
Rwandan government has expressed outrage and denied the allegations and Uganda has
threatened to pull its troops out of peacekeeping missions over the report's
claims about its own backing for M23.
"The
evidence against Rwanda is
compelling, against Uganda
less so," said one UN diplomat.
UN
officials say there is no "direct evidence" that Rwanda
bolstered the rebels for this advance.
But
their suspicions were raised by the number of English-speaking officers they
have encountered at checkpoints on roads leading to strongholds of the
French-speaking bandits.
There
has also been a change in M23 tactics and weaponry.
"On
Thursday when they launched their first attack, they were not able to repulse
the Congolese army," said one UN official. "On Friday there was a bit
of a lull and on Saturday morning it was just like a Blitzkrieg."
Peter Chalk, a senior political scientist at the RAND
security research organization, said the DR Congo army is a "complete
shambles" while the Rwandan military "is one of the most efficient in
Central Africa."
"If
the M23 are indeed receiving weapons and training and even support from Rwandan
frontline troops that would account for the ease for which they went through
that area," he said.
"Basically
they had a free run to do what they wanted, a combination of the ineptness of
the DR Congo military, the attitude of the UN and the added benefit of support
from Rwanda,"
he said.
Apart
from the the UN experts, an independent group, no UN official has publicly
accused Rwanda.
And Ban and other UN leaders are now encouraging Kabila and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame to
start political talks.
Diplomats
say it will be a tough task because of the lack of trust between the two
leaders.
"There
is a need to prioritize political solutions," said Ladsous, who added that
more energy had to be put into strengthening border monitoring.
Chalk at Rand said the
future of DR Congo may now be at risk.
"The DRC is the biggest country in Africa
and it may just be that it is too big and complex a state to exist as a single
unified country," he said.
"The history of the country,
the various interests of neighbouring states makes it basically a very
untenable place to govern."
UK’s Cameron pushes Kagame on M23
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World/UK-s-Cameron-pushes-Kagame-on-M23--/-/688340/1627406/-/l1hjnu/-/index.html
By Agencies
Posted Friday, November 23 2012 at 12:17
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday urged Rwandan President
Paul Kagame to put pressure on the M23 rebel group to withdraw from the
Democratic Republic of Congo city Goma.
He
also pressed Kagame to prove that the M23 had no links to the Rwandan
government.
Cameron,
attending a European Union summit in Brussels,
called Kagame and DRC President Joseph Kabila and urged them to implement the
communique they signed along with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
"He
used the calls to welcome the joint communique signed by Presidents Kagame, Kabila and Museveni condemning the M23
rebel group and calling on them to pull out of Goma," a Downing
Street spokesman said.
"He
encouraged both leaders to do all they could to translate the communique into
action.
"The
prime minister urged President Kagame to do everything he could to put pressure
on the M23 to withdraw from Goma.
"He
made clear that the international community could not ignore evidence of
Rwandan involvement with the M23, and that President Kagame needed to show that
the government of Rwanda
had no links to the M23.
"The
prime minister then spoke to President Kabila to encourage him to work closely
with Rwanda and Uganda
to implement the communique. He discussed with President Kabila what more could
be done to promote stability and security in eastern DRC."
Fresh fighting in DR Congo after rebels reject calls to end offensive
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World/Fresh-fighting-in-DR-Congo/-/688340/1627402/-/116a1t1z/-/index.html
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World/Fresh-fighting-in-DR-Congo/-/688340/1627402/-/116a1t1z/-/index.html
By Phil Moore
Posted Friday, November 23 2012 at 12:09
Fighting erupted in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday after
rebels defiantly rejected international calls to pull out of the strategic city
of Goma and end
an offensive that has stoked fears of a wider conflict and humanitarian
catastrophe.
As
reports about renewed violence in the country's volatile east poured in
President Joseph Kabila sacked the chief of land forces over UN accusations he
runs a huge arms smuggling network supplying Congolese rebels and other groups,
a spokesman said.
Government
spokesman Lambert Mende said the dismissal was temporary, pending a
"thorough investigation".
General
Gabriel Amisi's sacking came two days after the regular FARDC forces suffered a
humiliating setback when the M23 rebel group drove them out of the main eastern
city of Goma.
A
report by the UN Group of Experts on the DRC accuses Amisi of overseeing a
network that provides arms and ammunitions to poachers and armed groups,
including some with links to the M23.
The
M23 rebel group's political leader insisted it would not withdraw from Goma,
which the fighters captured easily despite the presence of UN peacekeepers,
unless Kabila agrees to peace talks.
"There
must first be a dialogue with President Kabila," Bishop Jean-Marie Runiga
Lugerero told AFP by telephone, before heading to Uganda where he was summoned for urgent talks with President Yoweri
Museveni.
The
Ugandan leader had issued a joint call with Kabila and Rwandan President Paul
Kagame at emergency talks in Kampala
Wednesday for the rebels to withdraw and is due to hold a regional summit on
the crisis on Saturday.
A
UN report has accused both Uganda
and Rwanda
of backing the M23, claims both countries strongly deny.
International
alarm about the unrest in the war-blighted central African nation has mounted
since the mainly ethnic Tutsi rebels on Tuesday overran Goma, the main city in
the mineral-rich North Kivu region on the shores of Lake
Kivu.
Fighting
flared Thursday around the town of Sake
a day after it was captured by the advancing rebels, causing thousands of
people to flee, many carrying mattresses on their heads, an AFP photographer
said.
Explosions
from shells and mortar bombs and the rattle of automatic machine-gun fire could
be heard as plumes of smoke billowed into the sky over Sake, which lies about
30 kilometres northwest of Goma.
In
Goma itself, shops reopened, residents returned and there was no sign of the
M23 gangs which had been patrolling the streets earlier in the week, but water
supplies remained cut.
The
rebels, who first launched their uprising in April, have threatened to march
all the way to the capital Kinshasa,
about 1,500 kilometres (950 miles) away.
"The
M23 has specific problems and demands but there are also broader problems with
democracy in the DRC on social issues, governance and human rights,"
Runiga Lugerero told AFP.
