DRC Government as Wordsmith: "Diplomatic-Political-Military Triptych Panel"

It all started a few days ago, when North Kivu Governor Julien Paluku

(photo above) publicly called for an "assessment of the Accords of

March 23, 2009" between the DRC government and the Rwandan-made CNDP,

the political and militia outfit that has since hatched M23.





Paluku then posted his statement on his blog.





A statement that baffled the whole nation, and to which M23 leaders

responded with jeers of contempt.





Then, last Saturday, in a torpid interview he gave to a pool of

Kinshasa journos, President Joseph Kabila talked about the new

three-pronged approach of his government to resolve the crisis in

eastern DRC: combined diplomatic, political, and military efforts.





Kinois were quick to seize on the fact that of those three qualifiers,

two--"diplomatic" and "political"--conspicuously preceded the military

option.





They saw this as a sure sign that the government is about to sit down

one more time with the M23 insurgents and let them once more rule vast

swaths of North Kivu as a rogue state within a failed state.





Or, as someone put it to me, the government is considering to let M23

be Rwanda's toggle on the DRC.





A confirmation of the worst nightmares contained in the "Balkanization

Conspiracy Theories" concocted in the Congo.





The most extreme of those conspiracy theories allege that some in top

circles of the DRC government are actually aiding and abetting

Rwanda's designs on getting the Kivus secede from the Congo.





In its attempt to counter this kind of rumors, the DRC government,

through its spokesperson, Media Minister Lambert Mende, released

yesterday a long-winded statement strewn with tortuous and, at times,

illogical arguments that further worsen the standing of the government

in the eyes of denizens.





Insisting that the DRC is now opting for Kabila's novel approach--what

Mende calls a "triptych panel" as in painting or sculpture (no

kidding!)--the wordy statement says, among many other things:





"The Government is positively considering the request by the North

Kivu Governor for an assessment of the peace accord of March 23, 2009

signed by the government and the national armed groups that existed in

the Kivus.





"A lot of things are being said about this assessment on the rumor

mode, which is the weapon of predilection of destabilization

specialists.





"The agitation of the negative forces of M23 around the perspective of

an assessment, through an international mechanism, of the 2009

agreement, is the product of the psychological warfare that the

enemies of peace have never ceased to wage against the Congolese

people.





"Actually, Governor Paluku's proposals are within the framework of the

implementation of the Addis Ababa Declaration of July 15, 2012, signed

by 11 Heads of States, members of the International Conference on the

Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), who had gathered in Extraordinary Summit

on the security situation of eastern DRC.





"At Point 11 of the decisions taken at the Addis Ababa Summit, you can

read the following:





" '[We hereby decide] setting up immediately a follow-up mechanism

through the reactivation of the team of special envoys composed of His

Excellency Benjamin Mpaka and His Excellency Olusegun Obasandjo to

find out the deeper causes of conflicts in eastern DRC and thus

propose a durable solution. [We urge] the UN Secretary General to

support this initiative.'





"This decision by the Heads of States is in line with the provisions

of Article 15 Paragraph 2 of the 2009 accord, which provides for the

constitution of such an international follow-up committee."



Well, it's as if the DRC is going upstairs backwards.





It's already established that M23 is a Rwandan creation and attempting

at this stage of the game to "find out the deeper causes of conflicts"

in eastern DRC amounts to dismantling the recent string of diplomatic

victories achieved by Kinshasa.





It also strengthens the position of Rwanda whose Foreign Minister

recently stated in Nairobi that Kinshasa doesn't have a clue of what's

happening in eastern DRC.





What's more, the statement by the DRC government comes at a juncture

where the country's military situation in the ongoing war is

perilously tenuous--what with the FARDC troops being bashed by M23 and

the IDPs being left to fend for themselves.





As things stand right now, despite all the diplomatic setbacks and

international criticisms his country has been weathering of late,

President Paul Kagame should pop the cork on that bottle of expensive

champagne and celebrate.





For Kagame has achieved the main objective of his new war on the Congo.





As Baron Carl von Clausewitz has it: "War is [...] an act of force to

compel our enemy to do our will."





And Kinshasa seems to be doing the bidding of Kigali.





***



PHOTO: John Bompengo/Radio Okapi

1) Glamor in Kinshasa: Filmmaker and French Minister Yamina Benguigui on official visit; 2) Kabila's soporific interview; & 3) Rwanda's rebuttal adds insult to injury

1) Glamor in Kinshasa: Filmmaker and French Minister Yamina Benguigui

on official visit





Filmmaker and French Minister Delegate to Francophony Yamina Benguigui

(photo above), who arrived in Kinshasa last week's end, ended her

official visit in the DRC on Wednesday, July 25.





By the way, Kinshasa will be hosting the Francophonie Summit in

October of this year.





Benguigui met with several senior Congolese officials, opposition

leaders, civil society and independent personalities--including

President Joseph Kabila; first lady Olive Lembe; Isabelle Matchik

Tshombe, Kabila's "personal representative to Francophonie; Speaker

Aubin Minaku, etc.





Congolese officials and media also called Benguigui President François

Hollande's "personal representative."





At her press briefings, Benguigui raised eyebrows by condemning

Rwanda's support to the M23 insurgency in North Kivu.





2) Kabila's soporific interview





On Saturday, Kabila gave a soporific interview to 4 journos at his

office in downtown Kinshasa.





The soporific interview, rebroacast on Sunday, was in sharp contrast

with fresh footage of triumphant and dancing M23 insurgents broadcast

by TV5MONDE, which has a local signal in Kinshasa.





The highlight of the interview was that the Prez thinks that:





A) A combination of diplomacy and military force will end up carrying

the day; and





B) Journos and the Congolese people should "think positive."





The mention of "diplomacy" angered lots of Kinois who may be

misconstruing as a signal for another round of negotiations with M23m





3) Rwanda's rebuttal adds insult to injury





Kinshasa media and residents are also incensed by the so-called

Rwandan rebuttal to the report by the UN experts.





The whole rebuttal is construed as a Rwandan mockery of the Congolese people.





Rwanda urges for instance that the insurgents be reintegrated into the FARDC!





Rwanda also explains the calls placed by Rwandan senior military and

government officials to leaders of the M23 insurgency as its will to

"promote political dialogue" in the DRC!





(Those phone calls were uncovered by the UN experts.)







What's even more laughable in Rwanda's rebuttal is the mention of a

Congolese bishop called Elizee who has, according to Rwanda, called

for a countrywide anti-Rwandophone jihad.





The problem with that specious charge is that there are no Congolese

bishops called Elizee!





There's no other way for Congolese to take the Rwandan rebuttal: it's

simply adding insult to injury.





***



PHOTO CREDITS: lejdd.fr

Mail to Blogger Glitch: Test from Mobile Phone

The previous post was a test emailed from a desktop at a cybercafé.



I'm now emailing this post from a mobile phone.

Another test: Mail to Blogger

This is yet another attempt to see whether the Mail to Blogger glitch

has been fixed.

Mail to Blogger failure and erratic postings

Scandal at Rwindi: FARDC troops go hungry for 4 days

Dr Emmanuel de Mérode published this evening a post titled "Rwindi

under Strain."





It reads:





"We finally managed to get contact with Rodrigue, our warden in

Rwindi. He made the decision to

evacuate most of his staff to Kanyabayonga, to

the north west of Rwindi, but has remained at the station with 10 of

his rangers.





"The situation is extremely tense, with several thousand soldiers who

fled Kiwanja and Rutshuru after the fighting yesterday. Many of them

haven't eaten for 4 days.





"The latest report is that the fighting is approaching Rwindi. A group

of 12 rangers have

moved our two boats across the lake to the shoreline near Lulimbi on

the Ugandan border."



***



PHOTO: FARDC tank firing



CREDITS: gorillacd.org

Terrible News: M23 seize Rumangabo

Dr Emmanuel de Merode with Ranger Innocent

Terrible news was logged this morning by Dr de Merode under the title "Rumangabo under Rebel Control, Rwindi Under Attack" (as my Mail to Blogger has a glitch, I can't publish as many posts as previously; I'm posting this from a cybercafe):

"Yesterday the fighting was short and very violent. Initially, there was sporadic bombing with two tanks and the 12-tube multiple rocket launchers firing from the gate. We were able to convince the officers not to place their artillery pieces within the station. At about 3pm the first rebel units arrived. For twenty minutes, the violence swept across our headquarters. M23 and the army were intermingled amongst the station buildings. Mortar fire, thankfully, was short lived and our security measures held, with staff and animals secured behind sandbags and in trenches. Unfortunately the cell phone tower was hit, so we’re without phone communications, but otherwise everything including morale remains intact.


Rwindi in the central sector of the park is under strain. We have had no communications with Rodrigue since last night, when he called in to report on developments. The station is once again occupied by thousands of fleeing troops. Rebels have reached Mabenga, right on the edge of the park and appear to be progressing towards Rwindi. We’ve evacuated all staff families and much of the equipment. If the situation becomes critical, Rodrigue will march his men through the night and establish a temporary command centre 60 kilometres away in Lulimbi.


 Despite the violence, and the chaos of battle, both sides have been remarkably respectful of the parks’ staff and our installations. Today, everything seems eerily quiet."

A glitch with my Mail-to-Blogger, M23 not yet done with Rumangabo & FARDC regain offensive initiative

It seems I got a glitch with my Mail-to-Blogger feature yesterday, on

top of the daily hassle I got with the trackball of the Blackberry

8310 that's disintegrating on me.





I typically file my posts from the portable convenient remove of my

mobile phone.





This proved however to be a daily challenge in itself.





The Blackberry 8310 I'm now using as replacement since my Samsung

Infuse was stolen in Kinshasa--woe unto that wretched Kinois who stole

my android!--is in itself turning into a daily pain in the neck.







And I want to have a word with the moronic geek that invented the

Blackberry trackball.





The thing is a bane to mobile users in Africa.





It get stuck willy-nilly. You then have to pick out the disc that

fixes the trackball in place with the plastic of a , take out the

thing, and rub it on paper. Then the thing would work erratically for

a few hours.





I learned the trick reading a Blackberry forum.





Oh man, screw RIM!





Compounding my nightmare is the fact that my Mail-to-Blogger seems to

have glitched.





It appears that this glitch happens when you publish lots of posts

that way, which triggers the CAPTCHA anti-spam function. You then have

to wait a couple of days to have the thing resolve itself.





So I hope the glitch is gone. This post is then a test.





If I still have the same problem, I'll have to go to a cybercafe or

carry my laptop to the office where I work from time to time.





Oh, I forgot: there's no way I can post from this Blackberry by going

directly to Blogger dashboard: the browser is obsolete too, even if I

use the latest version of Opera Mini.





In the meanwhile, below is the post I was attempting to post yesterday.





***





It turns out it may have been too early to cheer FARDC victory in Rumangabo.





FARDC troops at Rumangabo have come under renewed attack by M23

insurgents in the morning of Thursday, July 26, Radio Okapi reports.





The battle is reported to be still ongoing.





According to the same report, FARDC troops are now pushing toward

Rutshuru-centre and have already reached Katale, about 15 km of

Rutshuru-centre.





This is a positive development as it shows that the FARDC have

regained operational offensive initiative.





(Page Address: radiookapi.net/actualite/2012/07/26/nord-kivu-les-rebelles-du-m23-attaquent-les-fardc-rumangabo/)





As the battle for control of Rumangabo is raging on, the Institut

Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) [Congolese

Institute of Widlife Conservation] posted today on the website of the

Virunga National Park a terse Official Statement that reads:





"Due to the widespread insecurity in the southern part of Virunga

National Park, all Visits to

the Nyiragongo Volcano, the Chimpanzees of Tongo and the mountain

gorillas of Mikeno will

remain closed until the security situation is evaluated as reliably safe."





(Page Address: gorillacd.org/2012/07/26/official-statement/)





Wow!





Does ICCN mean there are still people out there planning what can

only be considered as extremely suicidal tournism?





***



PHOTO: An FARDC tank crew firing canon at Rumangabo



CREDITS: gorillacd.org

The Battle of Rumangabo: A victory of the FARDC & Dr Emmanuel de Mérode flies a wounded teacher to Goma

Virunga National Park Chief Warden Dr Emmanuel de Mérode, an

eyewitness to the man-made wanton destruction now taking place in

eastern Congo, cautions us, in the post he filed in the evening of

Wednesday, July 25, about the kind of bragging implicit in the title

of this post.





Dr de Mérode ends that heart-wrenching post by remarking:





"The battlefield victories lose their relevance amidst the cries of

the injured."





Who's gonna blame him?





In one single afternoon, Dr de Mérode:





1) Saw "seriously wounded [civilians] asking for help. All had

been caught in the crossfire";





2) Had to attempt to have medical assistance provided to "a small girl

with multiple shrapnel wounds";





3) Arranged medical help for "an old man with a badly injured foot";





4) Put his life on the line in the case of "a school teacher caught in

an ambush with a bullet through the back of his leg causing a complex

exposed fracture with

massive loss of blood. The park's small clinic isn't equipped for this

level of trauma.





"It became clear that the teacher would not make it without

proper surgery, so we used our small aircraft to fly him to Goma, a

20-minute flight. The road is

closed, and Rumangabo is completely cut off from the rest of the

world, except for the aircraft";





5) Then, "Upon returning to the park, [had to attend to] more injured

people lined up at the clinic";





6) Saw " A baby girl dead on arrival

killed by a mortar explosion"; and, last and not least,





7) Watched helplessly "a man in a coma with a bullet lodged in his

skull just above his left eye!"





Indeed a traumatic and bloody day, which gives an idea of the

generalized madness now flaring up in eastern Congo.





***





This being said, let's look at the tactical development in the battles

raging on in the area in the last several hours.





At midday on Wednesday, the battle around Rumangabo was so bad the

blog post of the Virunga National Park was posted from Goma by LuAnne

Cadd, a Park official already evacuated to Goma.





Cadd writes:





"The word from staff at Rumangabo park headquarters is not good.





"A battle that began this morning around 5 am has been intensifying

over the morning and is now raging.





"Machine-gun fire and mortars can be heard close by in all directions.





"It appears that the battle may be for the nearby military base.





"Most of the residents of the village have fled to the tiny UN base a

couple kilometers away near our airstrip.





"The descriptions coming from staff is that gunfire is coming in rapid

bursts of 50 or more shots at a time, and regular explosions.





There isn't any place to hide and the roads to Goma are not

accessible... "





By late evening of Wednesday, Dr de Mérode was able to post again.





The account of Dr de Mérode seems to confirm the hunch I had earlier

on about the FARFC breaking the pincer movement attempted by M23--with

the Congolese troops having the upper hand in that area.





The bad news is that the road to Goma from the Park is still cutt off.





Dr de Mérode writes:





" Battle at Rumangabo





"Today at Rumangabo, the battle came to our doorstep.





"Most of the day was dominated by the sounds of heavy mortar

explosions and machine-gun fire.





"In the afternoon the Congolese army entered Rumangabo village with

tanks and heavy artillary

moving up to the school that sits right outside the park gates.





"After the fighting subsided, villagers began arriving at the park's

headquarters carrying the

seriously wounded and asking for help.





"[...]





"Rumangabo is once again in Government control.





" Rutshuru and Kiwanja have been taken by the M23."





***



SOURCE: gorillacd.org





***



PHOTO: FARDC soldiers



CREDITS: AFP



VIA: rnw.nl

Bold pincer movement by gunship-strafed M23 apparently broken near Virunga National Park HQ

M23 attacked FARDC positions in the early hours of Tuesday, July 24,

forcing Congolese troops to fall back to about 1 kilometer from

Kibumba, according to newswires.





Kibumba is at 28 kilometers north of the provincial capital of Goma.





A Western diplomat told AFP the town of Kibumba is the "last bolt before Goma."





MONUSCO gunships made sorties, strafing M23 so as to stymie the

insurgents' push.





MONUSCO spokesman Mamodj Mounoubaï said the sorties of gunships were

motived by M23 "attacks against civilians."





According to AFP, about 2,000 IDPs fled the combat zone to add to the

hundreds of thousands of civilians already displaced for the last 4

months.





The humanitarian situation in Goma itself is catastrophic, with an

influx of more than 10,000 IDPs.





Some of the fleeing IDPs are heading southward toward the hamlets of

Minigi or Kanyaruchainya; while others north-bound, towards Rumangabo,

the headquarters of the Virunga National Park.





On his part, Dr Emmanuel de Mérode, the chief warden of the Park,

filed a terse post today at 6:00 HRS (GMT + 2) titled "Heavy bombing

around Rumangabo" that says:





"All morning, yesterday, the area around our headquarters at Rumangabo

came under heavy

shelling.





"This made it impossible to launch the operation in the Gorilla

Sector, as we had planned to do yesterday.



"It's early morning, just before

dawn, and the bombing has started again, but further north around

Kiwanja, Rutshuru."





As Dr de Mérode's post doesn't provide further details, I can only

piece together troop movements based on his earlier logs.





In early July, Dr de Mérode talked about FARDC "build-up of troops at

Rugare," at "about 4 miles south" of his HQ in Rumangabo.





He also said that around 2,000 FARDC troops were billeted at his

nearby station of Rwindi.





I can therefore surmise that, while FARDC troops came under heavy

attack in the north, some M23 units, in a bold coordinated tactical

maneuver, had moved in a counterclockwise sweep southwest then

eastward against those FARDC troops billeted at Rugare and Rwindi, in

the hope of achieving the following 2 objectives:





1) To trigger yet another mass desertion in the ranks of FARDC; and





2) To envelop troops entrenched in and around Goma in a perfect pincer

movement.





Well, in planning their move, M23 might not have factored in the

warlike mindset of FARDC troops in Rugare and Rwindi who, as Dr de

Mérode has noted in his earlier posts, are inured to combat.





As the fighting is ebbing northward toward Kiwanja, the logical

conclusion is that the M23 pincer movement was successfully broken by

the FARDC, with the critical backing of MONUSCO gunships.





While tactital positions are in a flux, the intensity of these latest

insurgent attacks and the tactical thinking invested in their planning

clearly attest to the presence of Rwandan tacticians and battle

management specialists within the ranks of M23.





In an ideal world, at this stage of the hostilities, the time would

have since come and gone for the DRC to declare war on Rwanda!





***



PHOTO CREDITS: AFP



VIA: leparisien.fr

Bold pincer movement by gunship-strafed M23 apparently broken near Virunga National Park HQ

M23 attacked FARDC positions in the early hours of Tuesday, July 24,

forcing Congolese troops to fall back to about 1 kilometer from

Kibumba, according to newswires.





Kibumba is at 28 kilometers north of the provincial capital of Goma.





A Western diplomat told AFP the town of Kibumba is the "last bolt before Goma."





MONUSCO gunships made sorties, strafing M23 so as to stymie the

insurgents' push.





MONUSCO spokesman Mamodj Mounoubaï said the sorties of gunships were

motived by M23 "attacks against civilians."





According to AFP, about 2,000 IDPs fled the combat zone to add to the

hundreds of thousands of civilians already displaced for the last 4

months.





The humanitarian situation in Goma itself is catastrophic, with an

influx of more than 10,000 IDPs.





Some of the fleeing IDPs are heading southward toward the hamlets of

Minigi or Kanyaruchainya; while others north-bound, towards Rumangabo,

the headquarters of the Virunga National Park.





On his part, Dr Emmanuel de Mérode, the chief warden of the Park,

filed a terse post today at 6:00 HRS (GMT + 2) titled "Heavy bombing

around Rumangabo" that says:





"All morning, yesterday, the area around our headquarters at Rumangabo

came under heavy

shelling.





"This made it impossible to launch the operation in the Gorilla

Sector, as we had planned to do yesterday.



"It's early morning, just before

dawn, and the bombing has started again, but further north around

Kiwanja, Rutshuru."





As Dr de Mérode's post doesn't provide further details, I can only

piece together troop movements based on his earlier logs.





In early July, Dr de Mérode talked about FARDC "build-up of troops at

Rugare," at "about 4 miles south" of his HQ in Rumangabo.





He also said that around 2,000 FARDC troops were billeted at his

nearby station of Rwindi.





I can therefore surmise that, while FARDC troops came under heavy

attack in the north, some M23 units, in a bold coordinated tactical

maneuver, had moved in a counterclockwise sweep southwest then

eastward against those FARDC troops billeted at Rugare and Rwindi, in

the hope of achieving the following 2 objectives:





1) To trigger yet another mass desertion in the ranks of FARDC; and





2) To envelop troops entrenched in and around Goma in a perfect pincer

movement.





Well, in planning their move, M23 might not have factored in the

warlike mindset of FARDC troops in Rugare and Rwindi who, as Dr de

Mérode has noted in his earlier posts, are inured to combat.





As the fighting is ebbing northward toward Kiwanja, the logical

conclusion is that the M23 pincer movement was successfully broken by

the FARDC, with the critical backing of MONUSCO gunships.





While tactital positions are in a flux, the intensity of these latest

insurgent attacks and the tactical thinking invested in their planning

clearly attest to the presence of Rwandan tacticians and battle

management specialists within the ranks of M23.





In an ideal world, at this stage of the hostilities, the DRC should've

already declared war on Rwanda!





***



PHOTO CREDITS: AFP



VIA: leparisien.fr

Death of A President: Ghanaian JOHN EVANS ATTA MILLS, 68, loses battle to throat cancer

Ghanaian President John Evans Atta Mills, 68, passed away today at the

37th Military Hospital in Accra, a terse statement released by

Information Minister John Henry Martey said.





The statement added:





"It is with a heavy heart that we announce the sudden and untimely

death of the President of the Republic of Ghana."





EXCERPT FROM THE BBC REPORT:





"According to a presidential aide, the leader had complained of pains

on Monday evening and died

on Tuesday afternoon, Reuters reports.





"He had recently returned to Ghana after visiting the US for medical

checks, the news agency says.





"Vice-President John Dramani Mahama was to be sworn in as president at

1800 GMT, in line with

Ghana's constitution."





President Mills had been battling throat cancer for the past few years.





According to the BBC, President "Mills' voice has been degenerating in

the last few months."





Ghana is one of the few paragons of democracy in Africa.





(Page Address: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18972107)





Other sources include: vanguardngr.com & newswires





***



PHOTO CREDITS: vanguardngr.com

Unrepentant Prez Paul Kagame's Metanarrative: DRC screwed by Western countries

President Paul Kagame--flanked by Defense Minister Gen. James Kabarebe

and Chief of Staff of Defense Gen. Charles Kayonga--inaugurated

yesterday, Monday, July 23, the university-accredited Rwanda Defence

Force Command and Staff College at Nyakinama, Musaze district,

Kigali-based New Times reporters Edwin Musoni and Sam Nkurunziza write

today.





In his address to the 45 officers of the first promotion of what will

be the most prestigious military academy in Central and Eastern

Africa, President Kagame took the opportunity to take jabs at Western

countries, the experts of the United Nations, Kabila and the DRC.





His statements no doubt would add to the growing domestic pressure on

President Joseph Kabila to take a public clear-cut stand on the M23

insurgency and on his war plans in eastern DRC.





Especially as President Kagame made some explosive charges against

President Kabila in his address.





President Kagame alleged that in a phone chat with Kabila, the latter

confided to him his unwillingness to hand over war criminal suspect

Jean-Bosco Ntaganda to the International Criminal Court (ICC).





He also disclosed that secret meetings between M23 insurgents and

Kinshasa officials were held in April of this year at the Rwandan

border of Rubavu.





What's more, President Kagame remains adamantly averse to accepting

Rwanda's responsibility in triggering, arming, and providing fresh

recruits to M23 insurgents, as UN experts have charged.





Those UN experts are expected this week in Rwanda and Kigali has vowed

it'd undertake a line by line close reading of their report with them.





The fear in Kinshasa is that when confronted with the pugnacious

Rwandan side, the UN experts might end up watering down their report.





Here's an anthology of President Kagame's statements as sampled by

Edwin Musoni and Sam Nkurunziza:





1) ON THE M23 INSURGENCY





"This problem has not been caused by Rwanda and it has not been

abetted by Rwanda.





"On the contrary, in the last four years, nobody in this region, on

this continent and beyond, has worked very hard to see peace coming to

our country and our neighboring country than Rwanda."





2) ON WESTERN RESPONSIBILTY IN CONGO'S CRISIS:





"[Western countries] twisted everything, leaving the two countries

[Rwanda & DRC] in extreme misunderstandings and putting the blame on

Rwanda."





"Actually, the problem of DRC came from outside.





"It was created by the international community--our partners-- because

they're so arrogant to listen and in the end they don't provide a

solution.





"They just keep creating problems for us.





"We know better our problems, we know better about this region's problems."





"We're genuine about trying to find a solution for this problem, but

they come and run over everything and when things explode, they'll

come around come around and blame us for it, even when they're the

ones who cause the problems."



3) ON INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE TO ARREST WAR CRIMINAL SUSPECT JEAN-BOSCO NTAGANDA:





"We worked hard with them [Congolese] to deal with the challenges they

had within their own country, and then some people weren't happy about

that.





"They came up with the idea of arresting some people [Ntaganda] in the

Congo for justice and accountability.





"Which is good if only it was not selective.





"We asked them [international community] that 'how does that become

our problem, why don't you go and arrest him?'





"They insisted that we must have to help, and the pressure turned from

Congo to us!





"This was before this conflict, and this kept going on and on!





"We appealed to them, we advised them that that they were going to

mess up progress that has been made; but they couldn't listen.





"After that, members of the international community developed an idea

that if Rwanda

can't support them to arrest someone in another country, then they

would put us together with

those they want to arrest, and this is really how it turned out to be.





"I am not dramatizing anything here, I am telling the real story!"





4) ON PHONE CHATS WITH KABILA AFTER M23 INSURGENCY BROKE OUT FOLLOWING

DRC'S ATTEMPTED ARREST OF NTAGANDA :





"I asked him [Kabila] if he was aware of what was going on, if he had

a hand in it, and if he wasn't

creating problems for himself, and he said no and that he had been

approached [by Western countries] and added that 'my approach is

different, I want to arrest some people for indiscipline but not

handing them over

to ICC.'"





5) ON SECRET MEETINGS BETWEEN M23 & KINSHASA OFFICIALS AT BORDER TOWN

OF RUBAVU [RWANDA] AND ON ALLEGED RWANDAN SUPPORT TO INSURGENTS:





"On the request of the Government of the DRC, Congolese officials

called in the representatives of

the [M23] rebels, one of them being the current leader of the rebellion.





"The group explained their grievances and the officials of the

Government of Congo were taking

note of the problems that were being raised and saying that they were

aware of the problems that

were being mentioned; they said they would address the problems when

they go back to Kinshasa."





"Then the International Community was saying that Rwanda is helping rebels.





"But helping them with what? And for what reason?





"They say we supply them with ammunition, but these people get guns

from the Congolese army.





"The ammunition they have is from their Congolese armories.





"We are not supplying even one bullet, we have not and we will not.





"If we had supplied them, by the way, I would be telling you that we

have done so because we would have done it for a reason!





"But we have not even had a reason to have this conflict going on.





"On the contrary, we tried to prevent it and we advised both Congo and

the international community."





6) ON UN EXPERTS:





"If the world has these kinds of experts on whose account of their

report people are going to be

penalized and abused, then please if you can't prevent that, then you

need to know how to constantly challenge it."





(Page Address: www.newtimes.co.rw/news/index.php?i=15063&a=56268)





***



CARTOON: Damien Glez



CREDITS: rnw.nl

Dark Knight Rises: Bam on Aurora: The political malpractice of quoting from the wrong book of Scripture

Uncannily, in his speech yesterday about the mass murder last Friday

night in a Century 16 moviehouse premiere of "Dark Knight Rises" in

Aurora, Colorado, perpetrated by an unhinged shooter, Barack Obama

quoted from a certifiably unhinged biblical prophet: John!





The John quoted by Bam narrates his post-apocalytic, frenzied,

psychedelic delusions in a yarn called The Apocalypse, a book also

mildly known as "The Revelation of John."





I prefer calling that book by its former name, The Apocalypse.





Fittingly so, for it was Apocalypse Now for those victims felled,

maimed and terrorized by the pyschedically-tainted-haired mass

murderer called James Eagan "Jimmy" Holmes aka The Joker.





Quoting from Apocalypse 21:4, Obama intoned:





"Scripture says that 'he will wipe away every tear from their eyes,

and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor

crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."





Then, bupkis! No presidential exegesis of the quoted passage.





There only ensued presidential paradoxically relevant non sequiturs

about the actual tragedy.





Now, allow me to push the pause button right at that point in Obama's

heartfelt speech and preface my comment by saying that Bam made a poor

choice of the book of Scriptures to quote from.





Just think a minute about the following.





Mass murderer Holmes-The-Joker would have relished unleashing all the

horrors from the bottomless pit minutely detailed in The Apocalypse

upon Aurorans, Coloradans, and Americans.





And indeed upon the entire species of earthlings!





I read for instance a chilling story filed by Matthew Lysiak and

Alison Gendar on the New York Daily News to the effect that cops were

saying that the AR-15 military-grade assault rifle Holmes-The-Joker

"was toting was capable of firing 50 to 60 rounds a minute"!





The story quotes police officials as saying that fortunately the AR-15

"malfunctioned" and jammed, forcing the real-life Joker to switch to

relatively slower death-dispensing weapons in his arsenal, thus

"potentially saving several lives."





So, Holmes-The-Joker's mission of thorough death and destruction

wreaked upon the earth was far from been accomplished that terrible

Friday night, in his view.





That's why Bam quoting from the hallucinatory rants of a wacky prophet

is all the more unfortunate and even wrongheaded.





As a matter-of-fact, the passage Obama is quoting happens when the

entire planet has already been laid to waste.





And John, in his bath-salts-like-induced hallucinations, sees an

entire "holy city, new Jerusalem" dinking slowly "down out of the

heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband"!





After which John hears a booming voice issuing from the throne of God

that announces that "the dwelling of God is with men," that God "will

be with them" and--here comes the passage quoted by Obama--then "he

will wipe away every tear!..."





As in a Hollywood movie, this blissful moment happens in the

penultimate chapter of a disjointed and "dissociated" narrative--just

like the narrative of "The Dark Knight Rises" (as David Denby rightly

observes on The New Yorker)--filled with mayhem, blood, pestilence,

and death.





David Denby wrote on The New Yorker after the Aurora massacre: "I

haven't yet seen 'Dark Knight Rises,' but I certainly saw the last

Batman movie, 'The Dark Knight.' Talk about dissociation! The movie

was a visually stunning series of ruthless set pieces that made almost

zero sense as a narrative. The story didn't hang together in time or

space. The Joker was everywhere at once; people seemingly dead came

springing back to life. A jolly sadism was the dominant effect."





David Denby might as well have been writing about John's Apocalypse

for that matter.





The excerpt quoted by Obama happens after the seven seals had been

broken followed by the seven angels blowing their trumpets-- visiting

upon the earth and humankind all manners of death, slow torture, and

destruction.





Here's an unexhaustive sampling of John's "ruthless set pieces":





A white horse snatching peace from earth;



A pale horse with Hades following at its heels, with the power to kill

the fourth of humanity with famine, pestilence and wild beasts;



Devastating earthquakes and tsunamis;



Fiery stars raining down upon the earth;



Sun and moon switched off;



Furnace from the bottomless pit from which issue locusts-scorpions led

by the locust-in-chief called Abaddon, slowly torturing with their

venomous tails for 6 full months people without "the seal of God upon

their foreheads";



Angels from the Euphrates unleashed "to kill a third of mankind," etc.





For Obama to quote for the benefit of grieving families and a nation

in mourning from the writings of a man whose rambling could be used by

the US National Institute of Mental Heath (NIMH) to refine its

description of "positive symptoms" of schizophrenia is tantamount, in

my view, to political malpractice.





Especially as families and a nation are plunged into this state of

shock by the actions of a man who obviously happens to be a

hallucinating and delusional pyscho.





In Bam's speech, though, not a peep about the two elephants in the

room who happen to be on terra firma, and not in some outerworldly,

heavenly colony: the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the

antiquated Second Amendment of the Constitution that have a

stranglehold on American political discourse on guns!





"They don't have a spine anymore," Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy had

exclaimed on Meet The Press about politicians bullied by the NRA.

"They pander to who's giving them money!"





Politicians like Obama that don't get money from the gun lobby are as

just equally terrified by the NRA to speak up.





And when the next mass murder is committed by another psycho, cowardly

politicians will add insult to injury by quoting from the raves and

paranoid delusions of madmen.





John Fogerty was onto something in Change In The Weather:





"Down on your knees, go ahead and pray,

But every demon has to have his day!"





***



ILLUSTRATION: Mike Keefe



CREDITS: denverpost.com

Lambert Mende's post-Clausewitz's War Theory & Virunga National Park back online with account of feat of arms against FDLR

(File photo of a Kalashnikov PKM machine gun like the ones issued to

rangers of the Virunga National Park--account below)





***





Listening to DRC Media and government's spokesperson Minister Lambert

Mende this past week talk to a pool of journos gathered around him on

a TV set, you'd think the man has done quite some serious thinking on

the conduct of war and come up with a theory that has improved on that

of Baron Carl von Clausewitz.





The novelty in war theory proffered by Mende is that, in it, there are

no concepts such as attack, counter-attack or resistance.





"We disengaged [from Bunagana and other localities] to spare civilians

a bloodbath!" he said with a straight face. "Had the army stayed and

resisted, the towns occupied by M23 would've been razed to the ground,

especially that those people are using civilians as human shilelds!"





Really!





Well, let's now push Mende's absurd theory to its equally most absurd

consequences.





The insurgents attack Goma, and the troops retreat to spare civilians

gore and mayhem.





The M23 then attack and seize Bukavu, and city after city thereafter,

till they show up at the gates of Kinshasa.





What would the government do at this stage of the game?





Simple! According to Mende's theory, the whole army and the entire

government would then cross to the right bank of the Congo River, to

Brazzaville, the nearby capital city of the other Congo, no doubt to

spare the Kinois a bloodbath!





Mende is an intelligent and well-educated man. At one point in his TV

appearance, he seemed to realize the absurdity of his own argument.





For, pressed by journos, the man snapped: "A l'impossible nul n'est tenu!"





That is: One can't do the impossible!





Tee-hee!





***





The Virunga National Park is back online after its computer and

electronic wirings and electrical fittings were "fried" by a lightning

strike about a week ago.





In point of fact, the thunderbolt could've killed Dr Emmanuel de

Mérode, the Park's chief warden.





Here's how Dr de Mérode recounts the dramatic lightning event in his

post logged Thursday, July 19:





"We have finally managed to secure a reasonable Internet connection.





"We've enjoyed a string of enjoyable experiences: I was struck by

lightning, which had me staring blankly at my fried computer for about

25 minutes (not that I remember any of it), then there was food

poisoning and finally a massive tooth ache."





"Enjoyable experiences," Dr de Mérode says?





If anything, the conservation efforts at the Virunga National Park

would have come to a sudden oblivion had this conservation hero met

his early demise by lightning.





In a post published yesterday, Dr de Mérode unwittingly and

retroactively contradicts Mende's preposterous war theory.





Instead of retreating to spare gorillas and other wildlife a blood

bath as would have Mende's war theory, here we see 14 rangers and 12

FARDC troops fiercely standing their ground and repel an attack by "a

large FDLR militia unit."





Here's Dr de Mérode's blow-by-blow account of the heroic feat of arms

by his rangers and those nameless FARDC heroes:





"Yesterday [Friday, July 20], just before dawn, our position of 14

rangers at Nyakakoma came under heavy attack by a large FDLR militia

unit.





"One soldier of the Congolese army and three militiamen were killed

during the attack that lasted about four hours.





"At 5am a unit of around 30 militiamen moved in on our patrol post

that had been established to protect the fishing community at

Nyakakoma.





"Fortunately, those that were holding the night time watch were awake,

and they were able to return fire immediately and defend the position

for an hour.





"A PKM machine gun position had recently been placed at the ranger

post, which probably saved them.





"After an hour and a half, our rangers began running out of

ammunition, and pulled back into the settlement, where they were

joined by 12 soldiers from the Congolese army.





"At 8am they launched an offensive and a very violent confrontation followed.





"A soldier was killed by enemy fire, and the commanding officer was

wounded in the foot.





"The counter-attack was successful and they were able to push back the FDLR.





"The bodies of three militiamen were found at our patrol post after

the rebels had fled.





"[Ranger] Rodrigue arrived from the Lake with reinforcements and is

pursuing the militia.





"Our first assessment is that they were looking to attack the fishing

settlement to pillage the population.





"Our thoughts are with the family of the soldier who died during the attack."





Indeed!





***



PHOTO CREDITS: world.guns.ru

On a 3-day visit in Rwanda, Bill Clinton mum on the fate of Journalist IDRISS GASANA BYIRINGIRO, detained incommunicado since Monday, July 16

Idriss Gasana  Byiringiro

Journalist of the Kigali-based weekly  The Chronicles

Held incommunicado since Monday, July 16, 2012

by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)

(Credits)

President Bill Clinton flew to Kigali from South Africa on Wednesday, July 18, on a 3-day visit, Rwanda Times reports.

But so far, President Clinton has been deafeningly mum on the fate of journalist Idriss Gasana Byiringiro of the weekly The Chronicles, abducted and detained incommunicado without warrant and probable cause by the much-feared Rwandan Criminal Investigation Department (CID) since the evening of Monday, July 16--following a week of harassment, intimidation, and a prior instance of abduction. 

Here is the Kafkaesque tale of Idriss Gasana Byiringiro as narrated by the The Chronicles.

   President Bill Clinton with cancer patients

at the opening of 

Butaro Cancer Centre (Rwanda)

Wednesday, July 18

Photo: New Times/Timothy Kisambira

(Credits) 

Dr Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini-Zuma aka Iron Lady, new President of the African Union Commission

(Below is the full AFP portrait of Dr Dlamini-Zuma published in the
Johannesburg-based daily Mail & Guardian)


Elected by the 54-member pan-African bloc in Ethiopia on Sunday, she
becomes the first woman to head the African Union commission.


An experienced diplomat, Dlamini-Zuma (63) is known for her competent
management and stern personality.


A doctor by training, she was health minister when Mandela became the
country's first black leader.


She went on to be foreign minister for a decade, earning praise for
her shuttle diplomacy to end the war in the Democratic Republic of
Congo.


But her critics found fault with her "quiet diplomacy" towards
neighbour Zimbabwe, during a crisis that saw President Robert Mugabe
evict thousands of white farmers from their land in 2000.


Her former husband President Jacob Zuma named her interior minister.


Although that was seen as a demotion, she won plaudits for turning
around a ministry mired in gross mismanagement to achieve the first
clean audit in 16 years.


'I'm a Zulu'


In her campaign to win the pan-African bloc's top job, she vowed to
work at making it "a more efficient and effective organisation".


And while she may have defeated the incumbent, French-speaker Jean
Ping of Gabon, she has refused to be labelled as an English-speaking
candidate.


"I am not Anglophone, I'm Zulu," she said.


Once she got to work in the post, she added, she would be
"implementing programmes ... agreed upon by everybody" rather than
"consulting the Anglophone and the Francophone".


Dlamini-Zuma has the backing of the predominantly English-speaking
Southern African region and is the first person from the region to
hold the top commission job since the AU was created a decade ago.


"She takes her work very seriously," said Prince Mashele, an analyst
at the Centre for Politics and Research, who worked with
Dlamini-Zuma's ministry when she was foreign minister. "She has the
rare quality of putting up very good administrators," Mashele added.


'A little more affable'


But she has raised eyebrows with her unsmiling demeanour.


"I thought she could do better if she was a little more affable," said Mashele.


Born January 27 1949, in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal,
Dlamini-Zuma took up politics in high school.


In the 1970s she went into exile, and studied in Britain at the
universities of Bristol and Liverpool, while helping organise the
anti-apartheid movement overseas.


She met Zuma while working as a paediatrician at a Swaziland hospital
and became the polygamist president's third wife in 1982. They
divorced in 1998.


When the ban on the ANC was lifted in 1990, she returned home.


Legislation


After the first democratic elections she was tapped by Mandela to
transform the country's segregated health system.


She is remembered for introducing legislation that overhauled the
highly unequal system and gave the poor access to free basic care.


But she was also criticised for championing a controversial HIV drug
that was later proved to be ineffective.


When Zuma fell out with ex-president Thabo Mbeki and moved to oust him
as ANC leader in 2007, she stood as Mbeki's running mate for the ANC
presidency.


But when Zuma won party polls and later become president, he kept his
ex-wife in his Cabinet – a rare Mbeki ally to avoid the axe.


"She is an astute politician, a veteran, the experience she acquired
as foreign minister puts her in good stead to take over this role" at
the AU, said Keith Gottschalk of the University of the Western Cape. –
AFP


***

SOURCE:

(mg.co.za/article/2012-07-16-dlamini-zuma-iron-lady)

Female Biopolitical Autonony: Audrey Pulvar tapped as CEO of "Les Inrockuptibles"

About a month ago, I posted a rant here that sounded like the

professional obituary of Martinican-born French political pundit

Audrey Pulvar, 40.





Pulvar had been fired by her various employers for the professional

ethical lapse of being the girlfriend of French Minister of Productive

Recovery (Industry) Arnaud Montebourg.





(Page Address: alexengwete.blogspot.com/2012/06/female-biopolitical-nonautonomy-french.html?m=1)





Well, she was tapped last Friday, July 13, as CEO in charge of the

editorial board of the high-brow weekly cultural magazine Les

Inrockuptibles (also called Les Inrocks), which is undergoing a change

to become a general information weekly.





The appointment of Pulvar still brought snark from some quarters.





The weekly cultural magazine Télérama thinks that "the debate around

relationships betweeen politicians and journalists has never ceased to

be posed in France. Les Inrocks has settled the argument. In the most

radical fashion. And it hurts the profession."





The weekly news magazine Le Point decried the appointment as an

illustration of the Society of the Spectacle, calling to mind the

famous book by Guy Debord.





In her response to those critics, Pulvar told AFP that Les Inrocks

will be "neither an annex, nor a listening post, nor an organ of the

socialist party, of the government or of the head of state."





Her response has done little to allay those criticisms.





Critics were quick to point out that she's replacing David Kessler,

who's just been appointed President François Hollande's media and

cultural advisor.





More importantly, critics are troubled by the fact that the owner of

Les Inrockuptibles, Matthieu Pigasse, a banker, is close to the

socialist administration.





Uncannily, Pulvar was featured on the cover of one issue of March 2012

of Les Inrocks (photo above).





Rose being the symbol of the Socialist Party, that was Pulvar's way to

show the middle finger to her critics.





Pulvar has since turned that cover into her avatar on Twitter.





***



PHOTO CREDITS: rfi.fr

Kabila & Kagame at Addis: “There was no fighting” but a joke at the expense of the DRC

"There was no fighting!" quipped Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni

Sunday, about the face to face meeting presidents Joseph Kabila and

Paul Kagame held in the margins of the African Union summit of heads

of state.





There was no fighting indeed, but in Kinshasa people cringed when they

saw on TV Kabila on smiling and joking terms with Kagame while

insurgents backed by Rwanda still occupied vast swaths of Congolese

terrority, including the strategic border crossing post of Bunagana.





Kinois also point out that Rwanda still denies supporting the M23

insurgents and on Saturday, July 14, Rwandan immigration officials

refused to allow entry into Rwanda to 22 Rwandans forcibly recruited

to fight with M23!





These 22 Rwandans, now stranded in the Congo, were among those who've

given evidence to UN experts on Rwandan support to M23.





According to Reuters, Kabila, Kagame, and other Great Lakes leaders

signed an accord that backs up the agreement signed a few days ago,

also in Addis Ababa, by foreign ministers of the International

Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).





In this new Addis Ababa agreement, the leaders of the Great Lakes

condemn "in the strongest terms the actions of the M23 and other

negative forces operating in the region and support the efforts

deployed by the government of the DRC for the restoration of peace and

security in North Kivu province."





Among the other "negative forces" singled out were also the immovable FDLR.





What's more, the accord calls for a "neutral international force"

whose mission statement is to eliminate those negative forces.





This a joke no doubt concocted by Rwanda at the expense of the DRC.





Firstly, as Reuters notes, "Western backers of Congo and Rwanda, such

as the United States, have questioned where the troops for the

'neutral international force' will come from."





Secondly, Reuters goes on to remark, there's already a 17,000-strong

MONUSCO force on the ground, why not just give more teeth to its

mandate?





Thirdly, should MONUSCO just pack up and leave?





Fourthly, a new force may take, conservatively speaking, at the very

least one to two years to set up, what would then be going on in the

interim in the Congolese territory occupied by the Rwandan proxies of

M23?





Fifthly, besides the delay in setting up that putative African force,

where the hell would the cash-strapped African Union get the needed

money to fund such a formidable military mission?





These are crucial rhetorical questions Kinois are asking a government

they feel is perennially aloof and accountable to no one!





Kinois are also angry that upon Kabila's return from Addis on Monday,

he once again lapsed into his hermetic silence!





As if the Congolese people didn't deserve an account of what had

transpired in Addis Ababa between him and Kagame!





Some Kinois are already speculating that before long we'd see the

likes of Jean-Marie Rugina, the M23 mouthpiece, riding a Mercedes Benz

in Kinshasa.





After yet another round of talks with and the incorporation of the

insurgents into the FARDC, and the de facto annexation of the Kivus by

Rwanda!





**



PHOTO CREDITS: Reuters

Youths flee M23-held areas for fear of conscription

Radio Okapi and Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) are reporting that

youths are being forcibly recruited as militiamen in areas held by M23

insugents.





Radio Okapi reports that youths from Jomba and Busanza "groupements"

(administrative entities grouping several villages) have fled their

villages for fear of forced recruitment by M23 and are flocking in

Rutshuru-centre and Kiwanja--now once again under FARDC control.





According to Radio Okapi, on Sunday, July 15, the hamlet of Kabaya was

surrounded by M23 insurgents, who then abducted youths and led them

away to be conscripted.





This method of forced recruitment is reportedly being systematically

implemented in other areas controlled by M23.





According to Radio Okapi, some youths--including a 12-year-old--were

able to escape from their M23 abductors.





***



For story on NRW website, read on:



(Page Address: www.rnw.nl/africa/article/m23-rebels-breed-fear-congo-border-town)





For story on Radio Okapi webside, read on:



(Page Address: radiookapi.net/actualite/2012/07/16/nord-kivu-le-m23-procede-des-recrutements-forces-jomba-busanza/)

Kinshasa cracks down on anti-rwandophone rhetoric in the media

Congolese media and political parties calling for "general

mobilization" against "Rwandan aggression" are discovering that they

could be treading a thin line between patriotic calls and xenophobic

incitements.





And the Congolese government is cracking down on those crossing that fine line.





Two weeks ago, the Kinshasa tabloid "La Presse" was suspended for

printing an op-ed that called for the Congolese to hunt down Rwandans.





DRC Media Minister warned that while the Rwandan government actions

might be objectionable, those actions had nothing to do with Rwandan

citizens or Congolese Rwandophones.





On Wednesday, July 11, Mende suspended the CEO of the state-owned

radio and TV channel RTNC, Christophe Kolomoni Jibu, for having

allowed the live broadcast of a rally held in Kinshasa by the youth

wing of the PPRD at which "xenophobic statements" were made.





Mende said those statements bordered on violations of the 1966 law

against "incitements to ethnic and tribal hatred."





The youth wing of the PPRD were claiming they were poised to storm

residences of "M23 collaborators in Kinshasa."





Those statements were so worrisome that a delegation of the Kinshasa

Rwandophone community, led by former DRC Vice-President Azarias

Ruberwa (photo above), went to meet on the same Wednesday with

Interior Minister Richard Muyej to voice their concerns. Kinshasa

Governor André Kimbuta also attended the meeting.





Interior Minister Muyej assured Ruberwa that the government will

protect his community and warned those attempting to endanger the

"ethnic mosaic" of the DRC that they will feel the full brunt of the

law.





***





PHOTO: From left to right, on the foreground: Gov André Kimbuta,

Interior Minister Muyej & Azarias Ruberwa





PHOTO CREDITS: digitalcongo.net

Virunga National Park HQ takes a direct lightning strike: Dr Emmanuel de Mérode's internet access cut off

Today morning's entry of the Virunga National Park Headquarters at

Rumangabo was filed by staff member LuAnne Cadd from Goma, where parts

of the personnel have been moved since the intensification of military

activities in the park area.





LuAnn Cadd's post reads in parts:





"As if the park didn't have enough troubles already, one more random

and distressing incident can be added to the list.





"Yesterday afternoon a massive thunder and lightning storm moved over

the park headquarters, and the main office building took a direct

lightning hit – frying internet, electric cables, and Emmanuel's

computer, among many other very expensive pieces of equipment.





"Emmanuel's regular updates on the park will come in a bit slower now

as he will need to dictate them over the phone to me in Goma until

we can get it fixed.





"Losing internet makes those at Rumangabo feel much more isolated, but

thankfully the phones are still working.





"We are trying to see if it's possible to repair the damage today, but

it could be quite extensive and

expensive."





That's a bummer!





***



SOURCE: gorillacd.org

Africa's WW II: Uganda returns FARDC deserters and wants to enter DRC

Uganda returned on Wednesday more than 500 FARDC deserters who'd fled

into Uganda from the Congolese border town of Bunagana after fierce

attacks by M23 troops.





Radio Okapi and newswires report that the deserters crossed into the

Congo by the Kisindi border crossing.





Radio Okapi also quotes Congolese military in the field as saying that

Uganda allowed the deserters to cross back with their "military

equipment."





(In my view, the commanders of these men, if they happen to be among

the returnees, should be court-martialed.)





(Page Address: radiookapi.net/actualite/2012/07/13/rdc-retour-de-500-militaires-policiers-qui-avaient-fui-en-ouganda-apres-lattaque-du-m23-bunagana/)





Maybe Uganda allowed these men back into the Congo with weapons in

hand because, as Nicholas Bariyo of the Wall Street Journal reports,

"talks are under way with the Congolese government to allow Ugandan

troops to enter" DRC to hunt down Ugandan rebels of the Allied

Democratic Army (ADF) who also operate in the area seized by M23.





But Bariyo also pointedly alludes to analysts who warn "that a Ugandan

intervention could stir tensions with Rwanda, which has already been

accused of backing the M23 Congolese rebels."





Oh boy!





Are these events the harbinger of Africa's WW II?





(Page Address: mobile2.wsj.com/device/article.php?CALL_URL=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303919504577524480500287756.html?mod=googlenews_wsj)

FARDC MI-24 gunships were at it again this Friday morning

Parts of Dr Emmanuel de Mérode's today morning 's log read:





"Another bombing raid by the MI-24 helicopters this morning.





"Yesterday there were some mortar

explosions near Rugare, about five kilometres from here. Otherwise it

feels remarkably calm in

Rumangabo.





"Reuters reported a Monusco /FARDC helicopter attack on Rumangabo, but

that was inaccurate, fortunately.





"Rwindi remains under strain, with a very heavy military presence.

Rodrigue's rangers are

continuing to patrol the main Kiwanja-Kanyabayonga road which has been

one of the main exit routes for displaced people fleeing the fighting.





"They've had three armed contacts with FDLR, intent on looting vehicles."

Jean-Marie Rugina has never been DRC anti-corruption czar

One funny thing occurred the other day in eastern DRC amid the most

heart-wrenching stuff happening there these past few months.





It was the reappearance of gold-watch-dangler Jean-Marie Rugina (photo

above) as the spokesperson of M23, and also donning the mantle of "DRC

former top anti-corruption official."





This is a bold-faced lie!





There's never been a position of top anti-corruption anything in the DRC.





The truth is that in 2003, as the transitional

Parliament--representatives of: former rebel groups, the government's

side, civil society and of unarmed political opposition parties--was

convening in Kinshasa, there were other transitional entities been

assembled too.





Those entities were called "institutions d'appui à la démocratie"

[institutions supportive of democracy].





And the membership to those "institutions" were also based on strict

quotas earmarked for political parties.





There were 4 of those "institutions supportive of democracy": 1) The

Independent Electoral Commission; 2) The National Observatory of Human

Rights; 3) The Truth and Reconciliation Commission; and 4) The Ethics

and Anti-corruption Commission.





It's in the latter that we find one "pasteur Jean-Marie Runiga" as

"Third Deputy Rapporteur" sent to that commission by the rebel group

turned political party RCD.





A dead-end job at the time, showing that Jean-Marie Runiga was at the

bottom of the pecking order in RCD: at the time, leaders of political

parties were instead sending their cronies to manage (in effect, to

loot) state companies and parastals.





In fact, only one of those "institutions supportive of democracy"

really worked: it was the Independent Electoral Commission.





Here's the composition of the full board of the Ethics and

Anti-corruption Commission, as approved by the transitional Parliament

in August 2003 (the political affiliation of members is in brackets):





President: Pamphile Badu wa Badu

(Forces vives)





1st Vice-president: Kutumisa B. Kyota (Governement)





2nd Vice-president: Mbali Voto(Mlc)





3rd Vice-president : (Unarmed political opposition): Person to be designated





Rapporteur : Christophe Kambala (Rcd/N)





1st Deputy Rapporteur: Mamboleo

Lembelembe (Mai-Mai)





2nd Deputyrapporteur: Pr Muluma

Munanga A. (Rcd/K-Ml)





3rd Deputy Rapporteur: pasteur Jean-Marie Runiga (Rcd)





***



PHOTO CREDITS: Reuters

Thierry Michel, shuttle diplomacy, M23's demands, FDLR on the loose, and MONUSCO gunships & FARDC Hind copters strafe M23 positions

1) Thierry Michel: Access Denied



At a time when the DRC needs all the friends it could get, it has just

shot itself in the foot, according to Colette Braeckman, by turning

back Belgian documentarian Thierry Michel (photo above) at Kinshasa

N'Djili Airport on Sunday.





Michel claims to be holding a 5-year residence visa in the DRC,

whereas Congolese immigration authorities claim he doesn't have any

visa whatsoever.





Michel, a prolific documentarist, released the award-winning

documentary titled "L'Affaire Chebeya (un crime d'Etat ?)" [The

Chebeya Case (a state crime?], which is very critical of the role of

the Congolese state in the assassination in Kinshasa of the rights

advocate.





(Page Address:blog.lesoir.be/colette-braeckman/2012/07/09/lexpulsion-de-thierry-michel-une-balle-dans-le-pied/)







2) DRC-Rwanda diplomatic row in Addis & M23 growing list of new demands





DRC and Rwanda took their diplomatic row to Addis Ababa Wednesday at

cabinet level meeting within the framework of the International

Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).





The ICGLR was set up in 2004 as, among other things, "a forum for

resolving armed conflict" by the following 11 members: Angola,

Burundi, Central African Republic (CAR), Republic of Congo, Democratic

Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.





(I don't know whether South Sudan has since joined this platform.)





Observers fear that the DRC, weakened by recent blows it suffered on

the battlefield, would be hoodwinked by making its domestic security

depend on the whims of President Paul Kagame.





The ICGLR recommendations seem to be proving that point: more

anti-FDLR drives and border surveillance by a mutually-agreed third

party.





Is this a joke?





Colette Braeckman sees Kagame taking a page from his own playbook by

"talking and fighting" (or "negotiating for side effects" in Fred

Ikle's terminology).



(Page Address: blog.lesoir.be/colette-braeckman/2012/07/10/cartes-sur-table-a-addis-abeba/)





Braeckman observes that after each so-called "rebellion" in eastern

DRC--a euphemism for Rwandan aggression--the "Congolese army

[was]commanded to grant amnesty to mutineers, to integrate them, and

to appoint them at ranks of command, thus paving the way to subsequent

treasons!"





An army of treasonable embeds indeed.





And Braeckman also points to the the open-ended list of M23

ever-growing demands: more senior ranks, better pay, repatriation of

more than 50,000 Rwandophone refugees from Rwanda--without first

proving their Congolese citizenship!





She forgot to mention what I heard their leader tell a TV reporting

crew: better roads in the area!





Who do these brainsicks think they are fooling!





As for the M23 demand of repatriation of 50,000 refugees, Jason

Stearns, as early as February 2010, noted on his blog Congo Siasa

that: "There is no doubt that thousands of cows have

crossed the border from Rwanda over the past year. Several reports of

[Rwandophone] refugees returning from Rwanda to Masisi indicate that

groups often cross with herds of cattle."





Adding:





"Several factors have played into this. Rwanda has limited the public

grazing of cattle and recently introduced zero-grazing (keeping cattle

indoors) to prevent soil erosion. En bref, there is limited room in

Rwanda for cattle."





In other words, DRC as Rwanda's lebensraum, or better, as its dumpster.





(Page Address: congosiasa.blogspot.com/2010/02/war-of-cows.html?m=1)





3) FDLR on the loose as MONUSCO gunships & FARDC Hind copters strafe

M23 positions





One of the casualties of the current war could be anti-FDLR military operations.





The Rwandan terrorist group is now on the loose.





In his post of Tuesday, Dr Emmanuel de Mérode, Chief Warden of the

Virunga National Park, reported that the FDLR "were attacking and

looting vehicles containing people fleeing the fighting in Rutshuru."





He added:





"In the east, the town of Nyamilima is now under the control of the

FDLR militias. They've taken

advantage of the political unrest to expand their territory, which

puts our patrol post at Sarambwe

at risk."





In his post of today at midday, de Mérode notes:





"This morning there was a helicopter raid on Bukima, our patrol post

on the edge of the gorilla sector. Two UN combat helicopters circled

above as two other Congolese army Hind attack

helicopters fired missiles. It's the first time we've seen UN and

Congolese military on joint

operations."





Later on, an AFP report backed up de Mérode's observations and

reported that there were actually 3 MONUSCO and 2 FARDC copters that

strafed the localities of Nkokwe and Bukima.

Dr Emmanuel de Mérode's Dispatches: Cowardly ethnic attacks by Motorcyclist Gangs in Goma (Monday)

Besides family members and friends who are in Bukavu and Goma with

whom I am in daily contact by phone, posts by Virunga National Park

Chief Warden, Dr Emmanuel de Mérode (photo above), on the blog

gorilla.cd turn out to be my other reliable intelligence source on

the ground in the current war in North Kivu.





Parts of the entry posted yesterday evening by Dr de Mérode read:





"Goma is a bit of a worry. There has been quite a lot of civil

unrest, mainly cowardly attacks on ethnic minorities by hords of young

motorcyclists. One person was killed during these attacks."





Again, in his post of this morning, Dr de Mérode revisits that

worrisome development:





"We have to turn our attention to Goma. There were minor riots

yesterday, and one person was

killed. The rioters are simple, brutal and confused. It began as a

witch-hunt for ethnic minorities, then became [an] ill-defined

political rally, and finally, as always, descended into mindless

looting."