Friday, 28 September 2012

Joseph Kabila & Paul Kabila met twice in New York as North Kivu citizens say No to Neutral Force

(PHOTO 1: Tanzanian Brig. Gen. James Aloys Mwakibolwa, head of Joint

Verification Mechanism, unfurls ICGLR flag in Goma, September 14)



(PHOTO 2: Goma riot cops disperse anti-Neutral Force demos and nab

civil society youths on International Day of Peace, September 21)



***



On Tuesday, September 25, Presidents Joseph Kabila and Paul Kagama

huddled with other regional leaders at an informal "Congo Summit,"

chaired by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, on the margins of the

General Assembly.



The previous day, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had an

"unadvertised meeting" with the pair, Reuters reported.



At both of those meetings the pressure was piling up on President

Kagame to stop interfering in Congo domestic affairs by its support of

M23.



As one US senior official summed up for Reuters Secretary Clinton's

démarche at Monday meeting with the pair:



"The secretary made no threats.



"But it is important for Rwanda to cease any support for any groups

operating against the government of the DRC, and it is important for

the DRC government to take steps to protect all of its citizens."



Diplomatic démarches of the kind engaged in by UNSG Ban Ki-moon and

Secretary Clinton wrongly assume that both parties are coming to the

table to negotiate in good faith.



Rwanda isn't negotiating in good faith, it's negotiating "for side

effects," that is, dissembling all along, as I recalled one reading of

Fred Ikle's book "How Nations Negotiate" (1968) in a post in June.



(See: alexengwete.blogspot.com/2012/06/rules-of-accommodation-congo-vs.html?m=1)



The proof of this contention can be found in the preposterous

anthropological theory of regional conflict-resolution expounded by

President Kagame in his remarks to the 67th General Assembly on

September 25, hours after meeting with Secretary Clinton.



President Kagame claimed that:



"deep analysis of specific political and cultural contexts of any

given conflict is key to lasting solutions.



"Too often, the inclination is to parachute into a situation with

ready-made answers based on superficial examination of the conflict's

dynamics, doing considerably more harm than good, despite the

intentions.



"There is no one-size-fits-all remedy; these issues are complex and

should be approached as such for the best possible outcome."



Little wonder then that President Kagame--after his solipsistic "deep

analysis" à la Clifford Geertz's "thick description"--is frantically

pushing for a regional solution and is defiantly rejecting any

"parachuting" of the international community into his design in

eastern Congo.



President Kagame is betting that at the regional level, he'd get away

with mayhem, mass murder, and plunder.



As for the regional solution to the conflict in eastern Congo, the

military Joint Verification Mechanism (JVM) dreamed up by the

International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) was

launched in Goma on September 14.



The couple of dozens of military officers making up the JVM are led by

Brig. Gen. James Aloys Mwakibolwa of Tanzania People's Defense Force

(TPDF).



The madness or the joke of the JVM mission is that at this stage it

purports to evaluate the strength and armament of negative forces

operating in eastern DRC.



Now, how would they go about gathering such vast intelligence, with drones?



And M23 have warned they'd shoot on sight at anyone venturing into

their micro-state.



Besides, where would this neutral force get funding for such a

formidable military operation?



The UN is already voicing serious doubts about this neutral force,

though it is diplomatically paying lip service to the ICGLR

initiative.



Said U.N. peacekeeping chief Hervé Ladsous at the close of the meeting

of Ban Ki-moon with Kabila and Kagame:



"It is something that generates interest, but we are short of a real

concept of operations - who

would be in, who would do what, who would pay - and this is why more

work needs to be done."



Adding:



"We are already working (with ICGLR) to flesh out the concept because

at the end of the day it will be submitted to the Security Council and

the Security Council will want very precise explanations as to what it

is all about."



Meanwhile on the ground in the DRC, and particularly in the provincial

capital of Goma, there's mounting rejection of this so-called neutral

force, as denizens see the crooked hand of President Kagame behind it.



Goma-based blogger Charly Kasereka (actudukivu.blogspot.com) reported

that the International Day of Peace (September 21) was particularly

violent in Goma.



Charly Kasereka writes that youths of civil society from across North

Kivu Province, carrying white banners reading "No to Neutral Force,"

were violently tackled by riot cops who fired live bullets at the

crowd, wounding one demonstrator in the leg.



***

PHOTO CREDITS: Charly Kasereka & French freelancer Charlotte Cosset

(france24.com)

Via: actudukivu.blogspot.com

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