Friday, 6 July 2012

A doomed military campaign led by incompetent General Gabriel "Tango-Four" Amisi: 600 FARDC flee into Uganda

Parts of a BBC report filed today read:





"Some 600 Congolese soldiers have fled into Uganda, following clashes

with rebels who have seized a border town.





"The Ugandan military said the fleeing troops had been disarmed.





"As the rebels took control of the Democratic Republic of Congo side

of the town of Bunagana, an Indian peacekeeper was killed, the UN

says.





"M23 rebels loyal to Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted for war crimes by

the International Criminal Court, took up arms in April.





[...]





"Security sources have told the BBC's Ignatius Bahizi in Uganda that

the M23 rebels control a 15km (10 mile) stretch of the border running

south from the famous Virunga National Park, home to rare mountain

gorillas.





"Ugandan army spokesman Capt Peter Mugisa says the 600 Congolese

soldiers are in the custody of the Ugandan military. He told the AP

news agency they fear being massacred by the rebels if they return."





In Kinshasa, the news of the disarray of the FARDC fell like a bomb.





And Kinois were quick to point to the deafening silence of President

Kabila since the outset of the M23 insurgency and his appointment of

General Gabriel Amisi Kumba aka Tango-Four (also spelled Tango-Fort)

as Commander of FARDC Land Forces, the de facto second in command of

the entire Congolese army.





Gen Amisi is now leading the doomed FARDC operations in eastern Congo.





Gen Amisi was an officer in the Rwandan-backed militia of the then RCD

warlord Azarias Ruberwa.





Kinshasa residents I just talked to are calling for the prosecution of

Gen Amisi, a good-for-nothing army senior officier, they charge, who

only knows how to manage the football team Vita-Club and his sprawling

real-estate properties in Kinshasa.





Gen Amisi is a junior high dropout without any formal military

training and owes his senior rank to the misguided integration of

rebel forces into the ranks of the FARDC.





People are now accusing him of providing intelligence to his erstwhile

buddies of M23.





Gen Amisi was also accused by rights groups of carrying out massacres

of civilians and police trainees in Kisangani in 2000-2001, when the

city was still occupied by Rwandan forces and their allies.





In November 2010, a Report by the UN Panel of Experts on the

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) accused Gen Amisi of enriching

himself in the lucrative trade of blood minerals in eastern Congo--an

accusation later confirmed by a BBC reporter who did extensive

investigations in the Kivus after Kabila briefly suspended minerals

trade in eastern Congo.



***



PHOTO: General Gabriel Amisi Kumba akaTango-Four (also spelled

Tango-Fort), FARDC Land Forces Commander, President of the Kinshasa

Football team Vita-Club





PHOTO CREDITS: AFP

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