Standoff betweem MONUSCO and M23 at Goma airport over FARDC weapons & ammo

(PHOTO: "MONUSCO Force Commander (front left) to a meeting on the

security situation at Goma airport. Photo MONUSCO")



***



Though long columns of M23 were seen leaving Sake today, there was no

evidence however that the insurgents intended to hand over the city to

the DRC government's control.



In the latest development, there was some kind of a standoff between

MONUSCO and M23 when the latter had the chupatz to attempt to take

control of Goma airport and to seize the stash of weapons and ammo the

FARDC stored in depots at the airfield.



According to the Toronto Star reporters Melanie Gouby And Rukmini

Callimachi, "[MONUSCO] Spokesman Madnodje Mounoubai said the M23

rebels were trying to steal weapons belonging to the Congolese army."



In reaction, M23 said MONUSCO's refusal to abide by their diktat was a

deal breaker for the insurgents' promised withdrawal from Goma.



In the meantime, more than 200 cops who had arrived by boat on the

Lake Kivu from Bukavu to take over from M23 are stuck on their barges

at Goma harbor.



In Kinshasa, the Central Bank of Congo Governor Jean-Claude Masangu

denied reports that M23 robbers were able to blast open the vault of

the Goma branch.



Masangu said the vault is armored and the people holding its

combination happen to be right here in Kinshasa.



--With the Toronto Star, Radio Okapi, & Kinshasa media--



***

PHOTO CREDITS: www.monusco.org

Read More

Ben Affleck: "Congo urgently needs U.S. help" (Washington Post)

(PHOTO: TV screen grab of Ben Affleck testifying in Congress; date unknown)



***



Ben Affleck penned a gripping pro-Congolese people advocacy op-ed on

the crisis in Goma that was published today by the Washington Post.



The op-ed, titled "Congo urgently needs

U.S. help" and aimed at the American constituency opens, opens with

the usual heart-wrenching frustration in the face of the universal

indifference to the plight of the Congo:



"Last week, a heavily armed rebel militia, M23, took control of the

eastern Congolese city of Goma, the economic center and capital of the

country's North Kivu province. Unfortunately, to those of us who work

in eastern Congo , the only

surprise in this turn of events was how little attention it received."



Continue reading here:



m.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ben-affleck-congo-urgently-needs-us-help/2012/11/29/828cd2c2-37ef-11e2-8a97-363b0f9a0ab3_story.html



***

PHOTO CREDITS: Via: article.wn.com

Read More

Dicey near future prospects for Goma residents as M23 seal city northwest and north

(PHOTO: M23 casing the Goma branch of the Central Bank of Congo, on

Monday, November 26, prior to their heist of the next day)



***



Corroborative sources in Goma say that M23 were moving today some of

their troops north--as demanded last Saturday at Kampala by the

Declaration of the heads of state of the International Conference for

the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR)--and northwest, towards Sake, 25 km

away, a city they captured shortly after seizing the provincial

capital of North Kivu.



M23, who, by this maneuver, are thus making short shrift of the ICGLR

heads of state's Declaration, also appear to be leaving behind in the

city some of their heavily-armed troops clad in brand new DRC National

Police (PNC) uniforms.



In Kinshasa, government officials and politicos who were banking on

M23 cranking out cities and territories they conquered hand over fist

are up for a rude awakening!



(Talking of banks, DRC Media Minister Lambert Mende added more details

today about the heist carried out by M23 Tuesday at the Goma branch of

the Central Bank of Congo. M23 robbers apparently worked day and night

using time-tested bank robbery tools: electric saws, drills, blow

torches, sledge hammers, etc. They had commandeered generators

beforehand as there was no electricity in the city.)



This apparent redeployment, which in effect seals Goma, would for the

foreseeable future continue to cut off the city and its surroundings

from Bukavu and South Kivu.





***

PHOTO CREDITS: Jerome Delay / AP

Read More

MONUSCO Spokesman Madnodje Mounoubai: DRC Not Under Arms Embargo

(PHOTO: Madnodje Mounoubai, MONUSCO spokesman)



***



At the MONUSCO weekly press briefing of Wednesday, November 28,

MONUSCO Spokesperson Madnodje Mounoubai bristled at the notion long

peddled by supporters of President Joseph Kabila that the DRC is under

a crippling arms embargo.



That notion, now widespread in the DRC, was no doubt concocted to

justify the poor performance of the DRC in theaters of operations.



(Full disclosure: I've time and again repeated that false assertion on

this blog.)



Bristling at a question posed to him regarding this supposed arms

embargo, Madnodje Mounoubai retorted:



"This country is not under an [arms] embargo by the United Nations.

The embargo was imposed by the Security Council of the United Nations

in 2003 and it was lifted in 2008."



Madnodje Mounoubai was referring to UNSC Resolution 1807 of 31 March

2008 which, in its Paragraph A, Subparagraph 2, stipulates that the

Security Council "decides that":



"[...] the measures on arms, previously imposed by paragraph 20 of

resolution 1493 and paragraph 1 of resolution 1596, as renewed in

paragraph 1 above, shall no longer apply to the supply, sale or

transfer of arms and related materiel, and the provision of any

assistance, advice or training related to military activities to the

Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo [...]"



As a final nail in the coffin, Madnodje Mounoubai added:



"There's an embargo on arms destined to the DRC. But that only

concerns armed groups and not the Congolese government. There are

anyway rules that regulate the sale of weaponry. We're seen weaponry

paraded here on the [main Kinshasa] boulevard on the occasion of the

fiftieth anniversary of the independence of the DRC. Weapons are not

manufactured in the Congo. They were purchased somewhere!"



--With Radio Okapi & Kinshasa media--



***

PHOTO CREDITS: Aimé-Nzinga

Via: www.radiookapi.net

Read More

Continuous Outrage as Congolesse essence (New Yorker's Philip Gourevitch)

I retweeted today this powerful exercise in self-reflexive journalism

filed from Goma on November 27 by Philip Gourevitch and posted on the

New Yorker Web site.



There are blocks of the piece I disagree with, but overall the report

is a valid condensed vignette of the recent history of the DRC.



I also disagree with the piece's underlying essentialism and

essentialization of the Congolese--though "outrage as a Congolese

condition of being makes for disturbing lasting impression on one's

mind.



But that's precisely why this kind of "thick description" is called

self-reflexive reporting.



A TEASER:



"It is impossible to be Congolese," [Salvador Muhindo] said at one point,

"without being continuously outraged."



Read the colorful narrative here:



m.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/11/outraged-in-congo.html



***

PHOTO CREDITS: Phil Moore/AFP/Getty

Read More

1) Die Hard at Goma: M23 Bank Loot: $17m; & 2) Howard Buffet restores water distribution to Goma

(PHOTO 1: Still of Hans Gruber [Alan Rickman], right, in "Die Hard" [1988])



(PHOTO 2: Howard Buffet "teaches Burundian farmers")



***



1) Die Hard at Goma: M23 Bank Loot: $17m



Fans of officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) in "Die Hard" (1988)

certainly remember the memorable moment in the movie when the villain

Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) lists his political outrageous and

impossible demands to authorities.



But soon enough you discover that Gruber's so-called demands are only

a smokescreen to cover up the robbery he's masterminded.



If you are a fan of Bruce Willis' movies and in case you forgot that

memorable moment, here's how it goes (courtesy Google):



"Hans Gruber: The following people are to be released from their captors.



"In Northern Ireland, the seven members of the New Provo Front. In

Canada, the five imprisoned leaders of Liberté de Quebec.



"In Sri Lanka, the nine members of the

Asian Dawn movement...



"John McClane : [listening on the radio]

What the fuck?



"Karl : [mouthing silently] Asian Dawn?



"Hans Gruber: [covers the radio] I read about them in Time magazine."



Now, in Goma, M23 leaders were behaving exactly like Hans Gruber with

their ever growing and changing list of outrageous and impossible

"conditions"--including a revision of the results of the November 2011

presidential election.



Just like Hans Gruber, M23 bandits had discovered their list of

"legitimate demands" by watching Congolese political TV shows.



Still, some people took seriously M23 highway bandits...



Until yesterday, when M23--not unlike Hans Gruber and his team of

robbers posing as terrorists with "legitimate grievances"--went to the

vault of the Goma branch of the Central Bank of Congo and blasted it

open with powerful explosive charges.



In Kinshasa, Central Bank officials estimate the loot of M23 bandits

at around $17 million--as well as an invaluable stash of gold bars!



People in Kinshasa are scratching their heads at the prospect of

seeing these thieves--who've even dismounted toilet sinks to ship them

to Rwanda!--remain at Goma airport as the ICGRL is scheming on doing.



***



2) Howard Buffet restores water distribution to Goma



Tapped by Virunga Park Chief Warden Dr. Emmanuel de Mérode, American

business leader and philantropist Howard Buffet helped restore water

distribution to Goma.



Here's the full account of of what I call the BUFFET'S GOMA WATER

MIRACLE posted by LuAnne on the Park's blog (I reformat the text for

readability):



"WATER FOR GOMA



"November 27th, 2012







"The aftermath of war can often be as

destructive as the war itself.



"Last week following the M23 rebel attack on Goma over a period of

three days, power lines to the city were cut causing a collapse of

many services including water to this city of over 1 million people.



"Although the city sits on the edge of Lake Kivu, collecting water

from the lake by citizens and services such as hospitals is a bad

option and can lead to serious cholera epidemics within days, as

happened in the past in IDP and refugee camps.



"On Friday morning last week it became

clear that something needed to be done

quickly.



"Emmanuel called Howard Buffett,

a passionate supporter of Virunga National Park, to see if he would be

willing to purchase four big generators for the four main

water-pumping stations.



"By mid-day Howard had sent $200,000, generators were purchased, and

installation began.



"A team of Congolese engineers worked till late at night and through

the next day to get the generators installed and water

flowing again to the city.



"We would like to express our deepest

gratitude to the Howard G. Buffett

Foundation for their incredibly swift

response to a serious problem, helping to

prevent further tragedy for these

Congolese people."



(Source: gorillacd.org/2012/11/27/water-for-goma/)





***

PHOTO CREDITS: Photo 1: © Twentieth Century Fox, Via: www.imdb.com; &

Photo 2: Melissa L. Hickox, Via: online.wsj.com

Read More

Wild Wild West: Highway bandits of M23 outfit loot Goma Central Bank branch

(PHOTO: Jean-Marie Runiga,

Bishop-Preacher of M23 bandits and looters)



***



To those--including the IGLR heads of state at Kampala Saturday--who

still believe M23 insurgents are rebels with some kind of cause other

than thieving, looting, and pillaging, this report filed from Goma

today by the Guardian's Pete Jones and titled "Congo rebels surround

central bank in Goma" should give pause.



The report reads in part:



"Congo rebels surround central bank in Goma M23 seen entering bank and

loading bags into cars after refusing to withdraw from city



"Congo rebels appeared to be looting the central bank in Goma after

refusing to withdraw from the city they captured last week .



"M23 fighters surrounded the bank early this afternoon and were seen

loading white bags into cars. The armed rebels looked nervous and

ordered the Guardian to leave the area.



"'They're looting the bank,' a UN

source said."



(Source: m.guardiannews.com/world/2012/nov/27/congo-rebels-defy-order-goma)



Well, Congo Central Bank authorities told the media in Kinshasa this

afternoon that serial numbers of all unused bills of Congolese Francs

at Goma branch are marked down and no one would ever be able to make

bulk purchases with those notes anywhere in the territory of the DRC.



Besides the looting at the bank, several dozens of official and

private vehicles have also been commandeered by M23 insurgents and

sent to Rwanda.



***

PHOTO CREDITS: Phil Moore/AFP/Getty Images

Via: www.guardiannews.com

Read More

Burundi sources: Renegade Col. & mass murderer Jules Mutebusi about to ignite insurgency in the Ruzizi Plain

(PHOTO: Col. Jules Mutebusi)



***



According to whistleblowers in the Burundian military and intelligence

services, renegade Col. Jules Mutebusi is consolidating and expanding

a military build-up between Bwegera and Sange, in the Ruzizi Plain,

about a mere 60 km southwest of Bukavu, the provincial capital of

South Kivu Province.



The area abuts the Burundian province of Cibitoke.



But those sources couldn't provide me with evidence of actual

coordination between Mutebusi's militia and M23.



They insist however that Mutebusi has currently 400 men on the ground,

is briskly recruiting in Rwandophone-Congolese refugee camps in

Burundi while other recruits are coming from Rwanda via Burundian

territory.



They can't tell, however, whether the 400 men belong to Mutebusi's

core fighters who had retreated with him into Rwanda after being

pushed out of Bukavu--a city Mutebusi seized in June 2004--or if their

bulk is made up of new recruits.



They believe that Mutebusi is poised to ignite his insurgency in South

Kivu within two weeks' time.



They also firmly believe that Mutebusi is in cahoots with Burundian

President Pierre Nkurunziza.



They base this assessment on the fact that Mutebusi always talks as if

he wants to put as much distance as possible between him and

Nkurunziza.



Says one of the sources: ''Mutebusi always goes like, 'I don't trust

Nkurunziza. You talk to him and that very evening Kabila knows

everything!' In other words, he talks business with the man and knows

about his double-crosses!"



In any event, another one of those sources don't buy this negative

assessment of Nkurunziza as there's no way the latter could be unaware

of Mutebusi's activities in Bujumbura and in the refugee camps.



The whistleblowers believe that Mutebusi is a central piece in the

grand design of expansion into, and fracturing of, the Congo being

pursued by President Paul Kagame.



They fear that once Kagame would be done with the Congo, he'll turn

his attention towards Burundi.



And they are frustrated that Nkurunziza who has naively his sight on

the "crumbles from Kagame's Congo's spoils" doesn't see this looming

threat!



***

PHOTO CREDITS: Via: www.bbc.co.uk

Read More

Radio-Trottoir: North Kivu no more part of DRC; it's a franchise granted to Rwanda

(PHOTO: Prez Mwai Kibaki, Joseph Kabila, and Yoweri Museveni; Kampala,

Uganda, Saturday, November 24, 2012)



***



President Joseph Kabila may have squandered Saturday all the respect

and political capital he still got left among Kinshasa residents--and

arguably among a vast number of Congolese citizens--with news of the

Kampala Declaration issued by the heads of states of the International

Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).



(Among the ICGLR Kampala resolutions are the following: 1) M23 have to

move back to Kibumba, 20 km north of Goma, leaving behind a

company-strong force at Goma airport alongside an FARDC company in two

days' time, the clock running from Saturday--a call rejected by the

insurgents; and 2) the DRC government should listen to the "legitimate

grievances" of M23.)



"Did Kabila really sign in on this?"one angry bus rider fumed Sunday

evening. "Has he run mad or is he a walking zombie?"



The Kinshasa daily Le Potentiel was of the opinion that, by accepting

so-called "legitimate grievances" of M23, Kabila has by and large

undercut the DRC's own narrative, according to which M23 are Rwanda's

proxies and stooges, and Rwandan troops the backbone of the insurgent

outfit.



And now, after Saturday, charging Rwanda as the force behind M23 might

sound hollow, incoherent, and utterly untenable.



What is even more maddening to people is that Kabila took the

extraordinarily stupid step of meeting with one of M23 leaders on the

sidelines of the Kampala Summit--on top of the Rwandan insult of the

glaring no-show of President Paul Kagame.



Opposition politicians are trumpeting that the Kampala Summit has in

fact established that North Kivu is no more a DRC province but an

indefinite franchise granted to Rwanda by Kabila.



Comparisons with the Mideast were also rife on Sunday, after they were

opened up like a Pandora's box by Congolese music star Koffi Olomide

in a morning interview with state-owned RTNC TV channel.



Olomide said that the DRC is turning into Gaza where all people do all

day long is paradoxically to brag and "whine" at the same time under

the punishing bombardments by the Israeli aviation.



Olomide repeatedly jabbed at the FARDC for their poor performance, no

doubt thus savoring a sweet revenge at suspended Chief of Land Forces,

Gen. Gabriel Amisi aka Tango-Four, who had him trounced by his

bodyguards at Kinshasa Grand Hotel in February of this year.



Incidentally, calls are growing from civil society and opposition

political parties for the immediate arrest and prosecution of Gen.

Amisi for "treasonable acts" (selling weapons and ordnance to rebel

groups) that had resulted in the death of civilians.



Opposition MP Emery Ukundji, whose party--the FONUS, the Forces

Novatrices pour l'Union et la Solidarité (Innovative Forces for Union

and Solidarity)--is also calling for the arrest and prosecution of

Gen. Amisi, wants the entire cabinet sacked for "irresponsibility,

incompetence, and cowardice!"



Overall, morale is at its lowest in Kinshasa where there's now a total

disconnect between what's now being called a "government of cowards"

and denizens.



That may be why Kinshasa Gov. André Kimbuta has "unconstititionally"

banned all student demos for fear they'd target symbols of Kabila rule

and party in the Congolese capital.



***



PHOTO CREDITS: Via: www.groupelavenir.cd

Read More

Kinshasa female demonstrators join the Sisterhood of Bereavers at MONUSCO HQ

(PHOTO 1: Female demonstrators at the gates of MONUSCO HQ, Friday,

November 23, 2012)



(PHOTO 2: I call these women the "Sisterhood of Bereavers." They don

black mourning clothes and white headbands. They have been squatting

MONUSCO HQ since the day after the fall of Goma)



***



Flanked by riot cops led by Col. Kanyama-- Lukunga District

commander--thousands of Kinshasa women from all walks of life marched

Friday, November 23, from the Central Post Office on Boulevard du 30

Juin to MONUSCO's headquarters, before heading to the US Embassy.



They all wore white headbands as a dual sign of peace and mourning.



These women were protesting the hijacking of the city of Goma and of

vast swaths of North Kivu Province by murderous highway bandits

belonging to the M23 outfit whose sole objective, according to the

recent statement released by the DRC Conference of Catholic Bishops

(CENCO), is "the plunder of Congo's natural resources."



At both MONUSCO headquarters and at the US embassy, the angry

"Kinoises" were received by the respective missions' representatives

to whom they voiced their demands and submitted their memorandum.



After speaking with MONUSCO's officials, Adèle Kayinda, the women's

demonstrators' spokesperson, told the media:



"There are concrete actions that are being undertaken and that's

reassuring to us. Nevertheless, we wish that the mandate of MONUSCO be

reinforced so that it'd give out the best of itself."



As it turns out, the reinforcement of the Mission's mandate--pursuant

to Chapter VII of the UN Charter vesting the Security Council with the

power to "take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be

necessary to maintain or restore

international peace and security"--figures prominently in the agenda

of the Sisterhood of Bereavers, a dozen of Kinshasa hardcore feminists

donning black mourning clothes and white headbands, who've been

squatting the front gates of MONUSCO headquarters since Wednesday,

November 21, the day after the fall of Goma.



These Bereavers demand the strict application of the provisions of

Chapter VII so that MONUSCO could live up to its promise.



As one of them explained their action: "M23 bereft us of Goma. And

we're here to mourn till MONUSCO restores our beloved city to us!"



The Bereavers have vowed to squat the gates of MONUSCO till their

demand is taken seriously and M23 highway bandits are thrown back to

Rwanda where they belong!



--With Radio Okapi & Kinshasa media--



***



PHOTO CREDITS: John Bompengo

Via: www.radiookapi.net

Read More

Amid reports of disappearances of scores of Goma residents, a photo of Kabila & Kagame rattles Kinois

(Photo: Prez Paul Kagame, Yoweri Museveni, and Joseph Kabila at press

briefing in Kampala, Wednesday, November 21, 2012)



***



Sources in Goma report that there have been at least 50 known

disappearances of Goma residents ever since M23 seized control of the

provincial capital of North Kivu.



The "disappeared" are members of pro-Kabila political parties and civil society.



"One day you see your neighbor, the next day the person mysteriously

vanishes!" a Goma source told me today.



There's no way of determining whether blogger-journalist Charly

Kasereka is among those "disappeared" by M23--though his last known

whereabouts were at Kibumba, where he was reporting as an FARDC embed.



M23 are now turning into a news-averse outfit, cutting off radio and

TV signals willy-nilly in a stupid attempt at mind control of Goma

residents--which prompted Reporters Without Borders (RWB) and

Journalist in Danger (JED) to issue a joint statement on Wednesday,

November 21, to denounce this situation.



Said Christophe Deloire, Reporters Without Borders secretary general:



"Since occupying Goma, the rebels of the

23 March Movement (M23) have seized

control of the news media and are

behaving as if they were media

executives and editors. We remind

them that it is not their job to decide

the content of the news."



The joint statement goes on to say:



"The same sources said that, after the

rebel takeover, the M23 spokesman [Vianney Karazama] personally went

to Mount Goma – where the antennae of local radio and TV stations and

the relay antennae of the national and international broadcast media

are located – and told a representative of the National Network of

Satellite Telecommunications (RENATELSAT) to disconnect these three TV

stations."



So much for highway bandits who purport to teach Kabila lessons in

governance and democracy.



That's why Kinois--who still enjoy their freedom of movement and the

freedom to access the news--were rattled at seeing, on the same day

that reports of M23 treating Goma residents as chattels and slaves

were featured in the news, photos like the one above and TV footage of

Kabila grinning alongside Kagame and Museveni--the very culprits of

the misery of Goma residents and of more than a half million of

Congolese IDPs.



Hardcore anti-Kabila elements--those who believe that the Congolese

Prez is a Rwandan golem--didn't exactly put on kid gloves to describe

the scene as the grand reunion of the "balkanizers" of the DRC.



***



PHOTO CREDITS: Via: www.radiookapi.net

Read More

Fallout from UN Group of Experts Report: Gen. Gabriel Amisi, FARDC Chief of Land Forces, suspended for running a "criminal network"

(Photo: Gen. Gabriel Amisi Kumba aka Tango-Four, suspended FARDC Chief

of Land Forces)



***



Readers of this blog were among the first to learn about the

devastating content of the Final Report of the UN Group of Experts on

the DRC, especially the part implicating Gen. Gabriel Amisi Kumba in

criminal activities.



(See my post of November 8, 2012, titled "UN Group of Experts Final

Report: FARDC

Chief of Land Forces Gen. Gabriel Amisi

heads a 'criminal network''':

alexengwete.blogspot.com/2012/11/un-group-of-experts-final-report-fardc.html?m=1.)



I concluded that post by this warning to the DRC government:



"I don't know how the DRC government would react to this damning part

of the Report. But if it's to defend this kind of rogue senior

officers, then it'd lose whatever shred of credibility it got left."



The Report was finally released on Wednesday, November 21, and the

very next day, Thursday, November 22, President Joseph Kabila swiftly

suspended Gen. Amisi--thus fortunately choosing not to defend this

rogue, imcompetent, and criminal unbecoming senior officer.



But while I applaud this move by Kabila, I also strongly suggest it's

incumbent upon him as Commander-in-Chief to set the course in this

time of peril for the homeland and to strip this criminal and his

associates of all their military ranks and privileges pending the

conclusion of the ongoing criminal investigation.



Radio Okapi reports that Media Minister Lambert Mende, who read the

presidential decree to the state-owned radio and TV channel RTNC,

"bore a serious demeanor" for the occasion, as he went on to repeat

almost verbatim all the charges levelled by the Group against Gen.

Amisi.



Mende added that there were other senior army officers implicated in

these criminal activities, though he didn't name them.



But the Report, as I wrote in my post of November 8, also charges "Orientale's

FARDC 9th Military Region Commander, Gen. Jean-Claude Kifwa, of having

set up a lucrative elephant-poaching operation in

Orientale Province in cahoots with

fiendish Mai-Mai warlord Paul Sadala

aka Morgan.



"Morgan and his militiamen killed 14

okapis at Epulu in June of this year."



The other officers implicated are small fries next to those two criminals.



Gen. Amisi was an officer of the Rwandan-backed RCD military outfit

before being integrated into the FARDC. He was a close companion of

the rogue Gen. Laurent Nkundabatware.



In 2002, Human Rights Watch accused Amisi and Nkunda for masterminding

a 2-day massacre (May 14-15) of civilians in the city of Kisangani

following the mutiny by UN-trained policemen.



In a report titled "War Crimes in Kisangani: The Response of

Rwandan-backed Rebels to the May

2002 Mutiny," Human Rights Watch charged that RCD officers "directly

implicated" in the massacres were the following ones:



"Gabriel Amisi, also known as Tango Fort,

the assistant chief of staff for logistics of

the RCD-Goma army Bernard Biamungu, commander of the Fifth Brigade

headquartered in Goma ; Laurent Nkunda, the commander of the Seventh

Brigade based in Kisangani ; and other senior officers of the Fifth

and

Seventh Brigades."



The HRW report also stated:



"Biamungu was seen giving commands to

soldiers to go to Mangobo [Commune] soon before civilians began to be

killed there, and was personally at the scene of some of the killings.

Biamungu, Amisi, and Nkunda were all seen at the Tshopo Bridge shortly

before summary executions took place there on the night of the 14th

[May, 2002]."



Adding:



"'The commanders responsible for these

war crimes should be promptly arrested

and prosecuted,' said Suliman Baldo,

senior researcher in the Africa Division of

Human Rights Watch."



No one has ever been prosecuted for those horrendous crimes.



As one official of the International Criminal Court (ICC) commented on

the recent developments in the North Kivu, such egregious and

widespread impunity is a recipe for conconcting hordes of killers and

pillagers like the M23.



Let's just hope that the suspension of Gen. Amisi marks the last

installment in the biography of this cold-blooded mass murderer.



***

PHOTO CREDITS: John Bompengo

Via: www.radiookapi.net

Read More

FARDC change tactics: M23 suffer major setback at Sake

M23 insurgents and their Rwandan masterminds didn't see this coming: a

fierce defense by the FARDC for every single inch of the Congolese

homeland.



It now seems that the latest change of tactics by the FARDC includes

resorting to counter-guerrilla combats with smaller units as well as

ganging up with local patriotic self-defense militias known as

"Mai-Mai."



(By the way, in conversations with FARDC officers I've voiced all

along my skepticism regarding for instance the use of tanks in the war

in the Kivus.)



A vivid illustration of this tactical change occurred--or is still

occurring--at Sake, about 30 km south of Goma.



And whatever the outcome at Sake, the FARDC should stick to it. And

it's not like they got any other choice: the other has superior

weapons provided by the US via Rwanda whereas the FARDC are crippled

by an unjust arms embargo!



Ten hours ago, M23 columns marched into Sake without encountering any

resistance.



Then, all of a sudden, all hell broke loose!



Here's for example a part of what Pete Jones and David Smith of The

Guardian filed from Goma this evening:



"The rebel militia M23 – widely believed to be backed by Rwanda –holds

the major city of Goma but was taken by surprise on Thursday in the

village of Sake, 16 miles

(26km) away, when government soldiers launched a counter-offensive,

opening fire from surrounding hills.



"M23 sent four truckloads of reinforcements from Goma but reports

indicated that the rebels were forced to pull back towards the city.

M23 military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Vianney

Kazarama said: 'It is war, of course

there is fighting.''



(Source: m.guardiannews.com/world/2012/nov/22/humanitarian-crisis-congo?cat=world&type=article)



Well, Kazarama, to paraphrase Joe Biden, "gird your loins"

veryvtightly: there will be more fighting than you bargained for!

Read More

Hocking a loogie at M23 & Rwanda: My Goma sources safe in Bukavu via Gisenyi, Rwanda

In a daring move that amounts to hocking a loogie at M23 and Rwanda,

two of my Goma sources--a physician and his wife, a political

scientist--left Goma at 6:00 HRS this morning local time (GMT + 2)

aboard a Toyota pickup, bribed M23 "border guards" ($500), entered

Rwanda, and at Gisenyi, hired a cab for Bukavu!



I am glad to report that they are safe and sound at Bukavu, the

capital of the South Kivu Province.



They were stranded at Goma Airport when their CAA flight was grounded

(see my previous posts).



They couldn't immediately leave for Kinshasa from Bukavu, however, as

all the seats are already taken on all flights bound for the capital

city tomorrow.



On two worrisome notes:



1) I've lost all phone contacts with another stranded Kinois who was

on that same grounded CAA flight; and



2) I can't re-establish email contacts with Goma-based blogger Charly

Kasereka of the blog Actu du Kivu (actudukivu.blogspot.com/?m=1). His

last post dates back from November 15. He was then embedded with the

FARDC on the frontline at Kibumba.

Read More

MONUSCO Military Spokesman Lt.-Col. Félix Basse mounts a spirited defense of FARDC performance

(Photo 1: "A dead Congolese army soldier lies in the road north of Goma")



(Photo 2: Indian peacekeepers of InBatt2 open fire on M23 attacking

their base at Kiwanja, July 25, 2012)



***



At a particularly testy weekly press briefing Wednesday at MONUSCO

headquarters in Kinshasa, MONUSCO military spokesman Lt.-Col. Félix

Basse mounted a spirited defense of the FARDC and peacekeepers'

performance prior to the fall of Goma.



He said in part:



"MONUSCO didn't let M23 enter freely into the city of Goma. It had

instead fought alongside the FARDC at Kibumba till the latter fell

back to Goma and then disengaged, heading to Kamaroho.



"The [defensive] lines that were at Kibumba were breached.



"The FARDC disengaged to return to Kamoroho and they continued to

defend with aggressiveness the positions at the level of Kamaroho and

in this defense that had started at Kibumba, MONUSCO forces brought

out their full support to the FARDC by engaging their gunships, which,

from the very first day, made a dozen of sorties and fired a countless

number of ammunitions, of rockets and even missiles.



"This attack [on Goma] started out on November 15 and on that day, one

must acknowledge, successes were raked in by the FARDC, who repelled

the enemy and inflicted to them consequential casualties.



"The FARDC disengaged so as to regroup at the level of Munigi,

therefore that line which was hermetic was breached.



"But when the FARDC disengaged, we stayed put.



"We continued to engage the M23 to deter it from making a significant

advance towards the city of Goma."



In the end, however, MONUSCO yielded in order to avoid a bloodbath in

Goma, said Lt.-Col. Félix Basse.



He also pointed out that besides protecting civilians, MONUSCO's

mandate is to back up the FARDC, not to spearhead attacks and

counter-attacks.



Echoing this last line of the military spokesman, Madnodje Mounoubai,

MONUSCO civilian spokesman, urged Kinshasa journos--who've charged the

peacekeepers with "incompetence" and even outright "complicity" with

M23--to try and find out what had transpired from people "indicated to

establish the truth."



(Well, as Goma was falling, the FARDC spokesman in North Kivu told the

media that the FARDC's "chain of command" had completely broken down.)



Mounoubai testily added:



"At MONUSCO, we have come to accept a longtime ago to be the

scapegoat, if that could help bringing peace in this country. When

something goes wrong somehere, we do accept to take full

responsibility. Even today, it's MONUSCO that is responsible!"



***



PHOTO CREDITS: Photo 1: Via: www.gorillacd.org; & Photo 2: © MPIO-NKB:

Via: MONUSCO/flickr photostream

Read More

M23's coercive rallies & Lumpenproletariat; & calls for "state of war" with Rwanda

Early in the morning of Wednesday Goma residents were forced to attend

an M23 rally.



Goma residents I spoke to afterward were mad at the international

press coverage of the rally, especially reports claiming that they'd

attended the gathering out of their own free will or that they were

supportive of the insurgents.



"Maybe those reporters are too young to remember that we also did

'freely' attend Mobutu's coercive rallies," one of my correspondents

said.



The French news channel France24 also produced one M23's so-called

"spokesman" who claimed to be from the Batetela ethnic group, no doubt

in a desperate attempt to show that their movement had a broad appeal

among the Congolese people.



Well, M23 can produce scores of those token "spokespeople" from the

mosaic of all the clans, tribes, and ethnic groups making up the

Congo, the fact remains that the majority of DRC citizens are loath to

their Rwandan-led insurgency.



As one professor of political sciences of Kinshasa University reminded

me today,Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis

Napoleon (1852), in France of the 1850s there were scores of French

citizens that had also supported the very unpopular coup d'etat of

Napoléon III.



And those who did support that coup were what Karl Marx called in his

seminal "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" (1853) the

"lumpenproletariat," comprising at the time:



"Alongside decayed rogues with dubious means of subsistence and of

dubious origin, alongside ruined and adventurous offshoots of the

bourgeoisie, were vagabonds, discharged soldiers, discharged

jailbirds, escaped galley slaves, swindlers, [...], pickpockets,

tricksters, gamblers, pimps, [and] beggars — in short, the whole

indefinite, disintegrated mass, thrown hither and thither [...]."



Had Marx lived in contemporary Congo, he'd no doubt have added the

lineup of shameless political opportunists of the ilk M23 produced for

France24.



In the meantime in Kinshasa, anger directed at Kabila and his regime

mounted up a notch when Radio Okapi reported that up to 80 wounded

FARDC soldiers were abandoned at Goma hospital.



Anger morphed into fury when people saw footage on EuroNews and other

media channels of rotting corpses of Congolese troops in the streets

of the provincial capital of North Kivu.



Additionally, the news of the death toll of 4 in the anti-Kabila

student riots yesteday in Kisangani didn't help any bit in improving

the quickly deteriorating situation in the early morning hours on the

campus ground of Kinshasa University where a confrontation with riot

cops was averted at the last minute due to the desperate efforts of

the professors' union, who convinced students to disperse.



At any rate, calls for a declaration of a "state of war" with Rwanda

are growing.



"Let's enter Cyagungu and see how Rwanda would feel" a student of

Kinshasa University told me this morning.



The news of Kabila palling with Museveni and Kagame in Kampala and

Entebbe further exercised lots of people in the streets of Kinshasa.



There's everywhere talk of a "balkanization conspiracy" against the

Congo masterminded by the United States and the International

Community qua MONUSCO, whose proxies are Rwanda and M23.

Read More

Why rioters in Bunia, Kinshasa & Kisangani target Kabila & MONUSCO

(PHOTO 1: Triumphant M23 troops on a joy ride through downtown Goma)



(PHOTO 2: Smoke billows from Kabila's PPRD party headquarters torched

today by student rioters in Kisangani)



***

Sources in Goma called me to let me know that M23 military spokesman,

Vianney Karazama, has just ended a long anti-Kabila rant on DRC

government-owned radio station.



(Maybe fleeing government troops were busy attempting to loot

businesses to even think about something called "scorched earth.")



In his tirade, Karazama called Kabila names, claiming for instance

that the Congolese Prez was a "bhang smoker" who didn't take seriously

the country's security situation--failing to mobilize the country in

the face of the clear and present danger that M23 represent!



Given this kind of laxity and incompetence, said Karazama, M23 have

but one option left: to depose the president!



Karazama was also calling the entire population of Goma and government

soldiers who'd deserted to attend a rally tomorrow at the football

stadium where M23 will lay out their mission statement.



My sources told me they wouldn't attend that rally and feel that they

have been let down by Kinshasa.



A sentiment echoed by other Goma residents, one of whom told Radio Okapi:



"I never thought M23 would ever be able to take control of our city!"



In fact, the entire nation is reeling from the fall of Goma.



People are particularly angry at Kabila who, in his TV appearance this

afternoon, seemed to be taking things in strides.



Kabila's call for the nation to "mobilize against the aggression of

which the DRC is a victim, notably at Goma" even angered Kinois more

as he didn't lash out at Rwanda and Paul Kagame.



The last straw was when Kabila said: "when war is imposed, one has got

the obligation to resist!"



"You, sir, had the obligation to resist centuries ago!" a man angrily

reacted amid cheers to the presidential address in a Kinshasa downtown

restaurant.



Even Kabila's announcement afterward of the recall of the DRC

ambassador to Kigali fell on deaf ears, especially as it was already

announced he'd be flying to Kampala to meet with another bogeyman,

President Yoweri Museveni--the current chair of the International

Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR)--who's been cited as one

of the major culprits of the Kivu crisis in the still to be published

Final Report by the UN Group of Experts.



Congolese have simply had enough of what they term as the "defeatism"

of the Kabila government that often entails talks and negitiations

with Rwanda, Uganda, their proxies, and their sponsors--that is, the

international community, chief among whom is the United States, and

its representative on the ground: MONUSCO.



People are particularly angry at the fact that the international

community is arming Rwanda while crippling the DRC with an injust arms

embargo.



People are now spoiling for a fight with M23, Rwanda, and all those

who side with them.



And those siding with Rwanda include their own head of state and MONUSO.



That's why thousands of student rioters went after Kabila's party PPRD

headquarters and MONUSCO in Kisangani and Bunia in Orientale Province.



In Bunia, rioters burned two MONUSCO jeeps and pelted its compounds

with stones, Radio Okapi reports.



In Kinshasa, as Radio Okapi quipped, "the police and the rain

dispersed rioters." That doesn't mean however that those riots are

over in the capital city.



***



PHOTO CREDITS: Via: www.radiookapi.net

Read More

Backlash of Goma Fall: Riots in Kisangani & Student unrest in Kinshasa

The fall of Goma sparked major riots in Kisangani, the provincial

capital of Orientale.



University students, who spearheaded the riots, led the crowd of

rioters to the provincial headquarters of Joseph Kabila's party, the

PPRD--a block away from Kisangani Central Prison--which they then

torched.



Kisangani Rioters also targeted MONUSCO sites for attacks.



Both Kabila and MONUSCO are accused of being enmeshed with Rwandans.



In Kinshasa meanwhile politicians are pressuring Kabila to declare a

"state of war" with Rwanda.



The beginning of a student unrest by the restive engineering campus of

ISTA in the Barumbu Commune was quickly nipped in the bud by riot

cops.



Both Kabila an MONUSCO are now misconstrued as Rwandan allies.



Kinshasa residents, angered by Euro News footage of M23 seizing FARDC

tanks downtown Goma, are now calling for the fall of Kabila for "total

incompetence," as one of them put it to me.

Read More

M23 now seizing Goma

Forget my previous post!



M23 are now seizimg Goma.



Two residents of the Goma neighborhood of Imbi just told me they have

seen FARDC fleeing ahead of the advancing M23 troops.



"It's not a retreat," one of them told me. "It's a rout!"

Read More

FARDC still in control of Goma & Rwandan-Congolese artillery exchange

I said in yesterday's post that a medical source in Goma thought that

M23 had entered the city as the firing that started at around 15:00

HRS (GMT + 2) continued unabated well into the evening.



Later on, I twitted a Radio Okapi report that conveyed the statement

of Julien Paluku, the governor of North Kivu Province, to the effect

that "the enemy that had infiltrated the city had been repelled."



But all night long newswires kept reporting that some FARDC units had

skipped town, which didn't bode well for the prospects of the city.



Then this morning Radio Okapi filed a report stating that "[s]ome

[FARDC] units that withdrew from the city Monday, November 19, after

the fire exchange with M23 rebels around Goma airport have gone back

to their positions at different strategic points of the provincial

capital of North Kivu."



The report adds:



"At Birere, a populous neighborhood of Goma, the youths were jubilant

this Tuesday morning. They say they feel happy to have seen the FARDC

return to the city since dawn. Some units had left Monday evening.

Those youths had then felt to have been handed over to M23 rebels that

were threatening to seize the city."



The Radio Okapi piece adds however a detail that could prove in

hindsight to be a major turning point in the escalating conflict:

FARDC artillery shelled positions on Rwandan territory:



"Birere residents state that they have seen, for the first time

yesterday, FARDC shelling in the direction of Rwanda. 'A gesture we

were awaiting for quite a longtime,' they told Radio Okapi."



(Source:

radiookapi.net/actualite/2012/11/20/rdc-les-fardc-se-repositionnent-dans-les-points-strategiques-de-goma/)



One source in Goma I spoke to this morning adds more details to the

artillery incident.



According to her, there were in fact two artillery exchanges yesterday

between the Rwandan city of Gisenyi and Goma--with dead and injured on

both sides, though she couldn't provide the death toll.



The source further claims that the FARDC shelled Rwanda first, to

which Rwanda responded as indiscrimitaly as the incoming Congolese

shelling.



As of this writing, the source tells me, people are huddled in their

homes as there are still sporadic gunshot reports. She can't tell

whether it's another M23 infiltration of just the FARDC firing in the

air.



I also spoke with the stranded Kinois passenger of the grounded

Kinshasa-bound CAA flight. He is growing desperate to leave Goma. He's

uncannily thinking of crossing into Rwanda, then heading to Uganda

where he'd then catch a plane to Kinshasa!



I tried very hard to talk him out of that crazy plan... to no avail, apparently!

Read More

A physician: "It seems that M23 have entered" Goma

Mortar shelling from Rwanda on the perimeter of Goma airport erupted

this afternoon, hours after M23 issued a fake 24-hour ultimatum to the

Congolese government to negotiate with them and minutes after they

claimed to be retreating to their positions at Kibumba, 30 km north of

the North Kivu provincial capital.



LuAnne of the Virunga National Park filed post from Goma on the Park's

blog at 20:08 (GMT + 1) that reads:



"At around 3:00 this afternoon, tank and

mortar fire could be heard in the city of

Goma as fighting erupted again following a complete breakdown of negotiations

between the rebel group M23 and the

Congolese government. Even across the

border in the town of Gisenyi, the sound

of mortars and gunfire could be heard

clearly.



"Rangers at the Kibati patrol post (the start of climbs up Nyiragongo

volcano) had to be evacuated to Goma as fighting swept south toward

them. Not soon after, M23 rebels moved even further south to the town

of Munigi on the outskirts of Goma.



"Now, even Munigi is behind the front

lines. No one expected the battle would

take place inside the city of Goma, but

this has become a reality. For the rangers

and their families that were evacuated to

Goma, and the staff whose families live in

Goma, now there is really no safe place to

go. Unlike us expats, they can't simply

pop across the border to safety."



Well, I don't know where LuAnne got the part about thec"breakdown of

negotiations between the rebel group M23" as there were no

negotiations to begin with.



Anyway, a medical source I spoke to at 20:35 tells me that wild

gunshot reports are being heard throughout the city.



"It seems that M23 have entered the city!" the physician told me.

Read More

Losing the Plot

(PHOTO 1: FARDC troops retreating from the frontline)



(PHOTO 2: 60,000 IDPs fled this camp north of Goma Saturday ahead of

advancing M23 insurgents)



***



Contacted by phone early this morning, one of the passengers of the

Kinshasa-bound CAA flight grounded at Goma airport yesterday morning

told me that the North-Kivu manager of the airline told him they could

leave the city tomorrow Tuesday.



Asked about the security situation in Goma, he told me there was an

eerie calm in the city as both warring sides are awaiting the "start

of negotiations" to end the armed confrontations!



(LuAnne of the Virunga National Park published today a post on the

Park's blog that also gave about the same bizarre atmosphere in the

North Kivu provincial capital:



"Last night as the sun went down, M23

rebels faced an army of Congolese tanks

just a few hundred meters away and very

close to Virunga's alternative energy

center on the northern edge of Goma.")



When I told the strandred CAA passenger that the government's position

was that there are to be no negotiations with the insurgents, he said:



"The government has run out of options. They've lost the plot!"



He added that a government negotiating team is due in Goma today or tomorrow!



While I don't buy this wild rumor--for one, M23's demands are

outrageous (including a withdrawal of FARDC from Goma); and secondly,

just yesterday ex-presidential candidate Vital Kamerhe was urging the

government to negotiate--the idea of the government "losing the plot"

was pretty much on my mind as I watched DRC Media Minister Lambert

Mende read the "statement of the government" Saturday, November 17.



Mende's statement says in part:



"This Saturday, 17 November 2012, in the early morning, after a long

artillery preparation fired from the Rwandan territory, some 4,000 men

in motorized columns and on foot have once again converged on Kibumba

[from where they were previously repelled] by skirting around, through

Rwandan territory, the FARDC troops deployed along the Rugari-Rutshuru

road."



Mende also said that in the previous combat, the FARDC had uncoveted

clear evidence of direct participation by the Rwanda Defense Forces

(RDF).



Mende claimed that one RDF lieutenant-colonel named Maombi was among

the enemies felled by the FARDC while another RDF elment, namely

Sergeant Claude Rugamba was "captured."



Which seems to beg the following question: given this latest evidence

of Rwandan direct military involvement, and given the reluctance of

some UN Security Council to namely call Kagame to account, why the

heck doesn't the DRC also attack Rwanda?



In the meantime, as the plot comtinues to slip from government

control, it's the Congolese civilian population that has been bearing

the brunt of the fighting.



According to LuAnne's post mentioned above:



"A camp of 60,000 displaced people north

of Goma completely vacated as M23

advanced on the city, taking the plastic

tarps and what they could carry. Reports

say thousands of new refugees have fled

the fighting."



Launching attacks on Rwanda, in my view, would be a way of lessening

the misery of Congolese IDPs as those attacks could make Rwanda think

twice before thinning out its territorial defenses by sending troops

on its Kivu pillaging venture.







***



PHOTO CREDITS: 1) www.radiookapi.net; & 2) www.gorillacd.org.

Read More

Goma: Commercial aircraft temporarily grounded as airport within striking distance

(PHOTO: Residents of Kibumba fleeing toward Goma, 30 km south of hamlet)



***

The airport of Goma is perilously within striking distance of M23

fire. That's why airport and provincial authorities have temporarily

grounded and interdicted incoming commercial aircraft from landing at

Goma airport.



For example, a Kinshasa-bound CAA flight that had already taken off

from Goma airport was ordered to turn back within minutes of take-off.

It is alleged that it was directed to land back for fear of being hit

by M23 fire, which is directed at strafing MONUSCO gunships.



Passengers from that flight I spoke to this morning told me the CAA

airline told them to go back home till further notice.



Other Goma residents and newswires report that after the fall early

Saturday to M23 of Kibumba, a hamlet 30 km north of Goma, fierce

combats are now taking place at Munigi, a mere 3 km north of Goma.



FARDC sources allege to have found, among other things, US army issue

night vision goggles among the M23 dead at Kibumba, which points to

Rwandan reinforcement of the insurgents.



***

PHOTO CREDITS: Magloire Paluku

Via: www.actudukivu@blogspot.com

Read More

Kinshasa Radio-Trottoir: Thieving military paymasters intended to bump Prez in October

(PHOTO: Cops on the beat in Kinshasa)

***
A persistent rumor on Kinshasa Radio-Trottoir, or Sidewalk Radio, the grapevine of the Congolese capital, has it that a group of rogue thieving military paymasters planned to bump President Joseph Kabila some time between mid-October--at the close of the Francophony Summit--and early November.

But the assassination attempt and the coup were somewhat foiled.

Radio-Trottoir alleges that there is a wave of discontent sweeping the top brass of the FARDC and, to a lesser degree, police--especially among commanding officers whose command duties also involve handling payrolls of their troops.

The discontent was sparked by the expansion to the military and the police in October of the system of pay to civil servants via individual bank accounts as well as mobile banking.

That system, introduced in August by Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo, netted the government a not-so-unexplainable cash remainder of more than $1m in the city of Kinshasa alone!

Indeed, the cash remainder came from fictitious employees stuffed into payrolls by thieving paymasters.

Radio-Trottoir alleges that FARDC generals, whose net monthly pay is a paltry 70,000 Congolese Francs (the equivalent of $70!), see their lucrative thieving livelihoods threatened by the new system.

It seems there was an unsaid agreement starting under Mobutu to bloat military payrolls with fictitious soldiers to offset the insignificant salaries of commanding officers.

At the end of the month of October, when the banking pay for the military and the police had to be implemented in Kinshasa before being broadened countrywide, there were "unexplained" glitches that have delayed the implementation of the flagship program for another month and even for several months, according to police sources.

While police sources blame those problems on the carelessness of many police officers who'd lost their biometric IDs--thus forcing their paymasters to "optically" identify them--Radio-Trottoir claims instead that the operation hit snags thrown in by uncooperative paymasters.

The rumor of the assassination attempt seems however far-fetched, though Radio-Trottoir insists that the vast nightly cordon and search operation in the night of November 5 to the morning of November 6 in the Kinshasa Yolo-Nord and Kauka quarters was intended to nab coup plotters and seize their weapons.

"Why would DEMIAP be involved otherwise in the cordon and search operation?" a Radio-Trottoir source snarled at me when I doubted his version of the rumor.

DEMIAP, or Détection Militaire des Activités Anti-Patrie (Military Detection of Anti-Homeland Activities), is the Congolese military intelligence.

Incidentally, Yolo-Nord and Kauka are bastions of machete-wielding kuluneurs. And the cordon and search operation in that "kulunaland"--jointly conducted by the police, the civilian intelligence service (ANR) and DEMIAP--allowed law enforcement to arrest dozens of those bandits.

***
PHOTO: Alex Engwete

Read More

Posted in | No comments

Radio-Trottoir: If Gen. David Petraeus were Kenyan or African...

(Gen. David Petraeus aka King David)



***



The resignation of Gen. David Petraeus (ret.) as Director of the

Central Intelligence Agency over an extramarital affair on Friday,

just one day after the Kenyan government had introduced the so-called

"Marriage Bill 2012"--a law that would downplay extraconjugal

relations and legalize polygamy--is emblematic of the unabridgeable

cultural gap between Africa and the West.



Kinois women and men I spoke to about Gen. Petraeus's resignation went

like, "Here they go again!"--and went on to marvel at the "cultural

stupidity" that nearly destroyed President Bill Clinton's legacy over

the Monica Lewinsky affair.



Kinois were all the more flabbergasted and angry upon learning that

Gen. Petraeus could have run for president in 2016.



They were unmoved when I gave them details of the circumstances that

led to Gen. Petraeus's resignation:



1) conduct "unbecoming" a high-ranking official;



2) lack of judgement on the part of a spymaster;



3) possible security breaches with rumors of third parties without

appropriate security clearances accessing his email account;



4) an FBI investigation on the extramarital affair; and



5) the claim that he was the fall guy for the Benghazi debacle.



To drive the point home, I even read them in French the article by

Jonathan Allen on Politico about the sudden resignation of Gen.

Petraeus--reading them twice the following paragraph:



"But neither his reputation nor his career could survive the shock of the

extramarital affair he revealed in

resigning from his post — a decision that came under the pressure of

an FBI investigation that threatened to make things even uglier,

according to an intelligence community source

who spoke to POLITICO on the

condition of anonymity."



(mobile.politico.com/iphone/story/1112/83661.html)



They pointed to what one of them called the "African cultural

resilience," which has produced Mobutu with his "two wives," who

happened to be twin sisters; to Jacob Zuma's polygamous household; and

to the new Kenyan "Marriage Bill" that got much press on the African

programs of the BBC.



One woman exclaimed, laughing:



"If your General Petrus [sic] were Kenyan or African, he wouldn't need

to resign!"



At one point, I thought I had bested them in what was quickly

escalating into a contentious shouting match when I pointed out the

two following observations:



1) In South Africa, by law, only Zuma and his fellow "black" Africans

have the dubious privilege of engaging in polygamy--not, say, an

Afrikaner or an Anglo South African man in whose cultural traditions

such a practice is alien.



Which strangely turns out to be a form of "cultural apartheid"

sanctioned by law!



2) The so-called "African cultural resilience" is a myth as it is

often a one-way street.



A case in point is the Kenyan "Marriage Bill," which was crafted by

men and will be voted by mostly male MPs.



If the Kenyan "Marriage Bill" has pro-male provisions on Polygamy,

nowhere in that bill is there a mention of lawful Polyandry--that is,

the legal right of a woman to have multiple husbands at one time!



***

PHOTO CREDITS: Via: Politico

Read More

UN Group of Experts Final Report: FARDC Chief of Land Forces Gen. Gabriel Amisi heads a "criminal network"

(PHOTO: Gen. Gabriel Amisi aka Tango-Four, FARDC Chief of Land Forces)



***



A diplomatic source has just made me read, without taking notes, the

chilling "leaked" 44-page (including the title page) "Letter" of the

UN Group of Experts introducing to the Chairman of the UN Security

Committee on the Congo the Final Report on the DRC.



The letter is dated October 12, 2012.



The diplomat told me that the Report (including its annexes), now

being presented at the UN Security Council (UNSC) by the Group, is to

be released in the coming weeks if approved and cleared.



The Group reiterates its acusation of Rwanda for its support to M23,

alleging that Rwandan Defense Minister James Kabarebe sits at the top

of the chain of command of the insurgency.



The Group brushes off the "15" instances of FARDC-FDLR collaborations

Rwanda claimed to have evidenced as it couldn't "independently" verify

them. The Group was even denied any means of follow-up on this matter

as Rwandan officials subsequently refused to meet with the Experts.



The Group also uncovered evidence of Uganda's backing of M23.



The Group gives a description of dozens of various armed groups

(homegrown and foreign) operating in the Kivus and Orientale Province

as well as their alliances and backers in the Great Lakes Region.



The Group cites the FARDC as one of the culprits of insecurity in the Congo.



General Gabriel Amisi Kumba aka Tango-Four, FARDC Chief of Land

Forces, is mentioned in the "Letter"'s Executive Summary as well as in

its body as one of the "senior officers" who've set up "criminal

networks" to enrich themselves.



Besides his other criminal activities, Gen. Amisi deals mainly in

12-caliber elephant-poaching ammunitions supplied by weapons and

ammunitions manufacturer MACC (Manufacture des Armes et des Cartouches

de Chasse), based at Pointe Noire, in the neighboring

Congo-Brazzaville.



From Congo-Brazzaville, the 12-caliber ammunitions are shipped to Kinshasa.



And from Kinshasa, the ammo is then shipped by boat to Kisangani and

by planes to Goma.



In Kisangani, Gen. Amisi's ammunition peddler is one "Type Tambwe,"

who is from his Bazimba ethnic group of Maniema Province.



In Goma, Gen. Amisi's ammunition hawker is none other than his younger

brother Damien Amisi.



According to the Group, the malfeasance of Gen. Amisi is such that his

criminal network is supplying ammunitions to the Mai-Mai group Raia

Mutomboki.



The Group also accuses Orientale's FARDC 9th Military Region

Commander, Gen. Jean-Claude Kifwa, of having set up a lucrative

elephant-poaching operation in Orientale Province in cahoots with

fiendish Mai-Mai warlord Paul Sadala aka Morgan.



Morgan and his militiamen killed 14 okapis at Epulu in June of this year.



The Group even alleges that another warlord offered to capture Morgan

and deliver him to Gen. Kifwa, but the latter turned down that offer

as it was in his interest to let Morgan and his killers roam freely.



[And according to a Radio Okapi filed November 8, Morgan and his

militiamen have just committed horrendous atrocities Wednesday,

November 7, in Mambasa territory, in Orientale Province--where they

burned people alive, cut off people's ears, emasculated one man who

attempted to flee, and raped women, before pillaging villages and

burning houses to the ground:



radiookapi.net/actualite/2012/11/08/province-orientale-la-milice-de-morgan-commet-de-nouvelles-exactions-mambasa/].



I don't know how the DRC government would react to this damning part

of the Report. But if it's to defend this kind of rogue senior

officers, then it'd lose whatever shred of credibility it got left.



***



PHOTO CREDITS: Digitalcongo

Via: Radio Okapi

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Kinshasa Obamagram: Election Night Result Party

(The Obamas on stage at the Chicago McCormick Center, Wednesday, November 7)



***



In the night of Tuesday 6 to Wednesday 7, I was a guest at an electiom

night result party where I basked in my newly-found repute of

all-knowing pundit on American politics and prognosticator

"extraordinaire" of the Obama win.



Little did my audience know that two facts I garnered from the

American press helped me forecast Obama's reelection with such

cavalier certainty in the waning days of the campaign.



I got both facts on Friday, November 2:



1) The article by Asawin Suebsaeng on Mother Jones titled "7

Prognosticators With Good News for Nervous Obama Fans"



(Source: www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/11/election-predictors-obama-romney#13523723902701&action=collapse_widget&id=3096479);

and



2) What Republican strategist and super PAC "sherpa" Karl Rove told

Michael Leahy and Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post about the

impact of Hurricane Sandy on the election outcome:



"'It's the October surprise,' Rove said of Sandy. 'For once, the

October surprise was a real surprise.'"



(Source: m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/11/02/hurricane-sandy-helped-obama-politically-karl-rove-says/).



What I find baffling, beyond the election result, is that Obamania

hasn't abated this side of the Third World boonies.



Somehow, Congolese--and by and large Africans for that matter--still

misconstrue Obama as their next-door "bro," not as the "Planetarch" at

the helm of the most formidable imperial machine the world has ever

seen.



Try as I might, I couldn't make my audience shed the blinders of that

"racialist" misconception.



In any event, our election night result party was a long, very long

party--with wine and beers.



By the time Obama made his victory speech, I think it was already

close to mid-morning here.



Later on, I found out there several such parties in Kinshasa!



***

PHOTO CREDITS: Via: The Washington Post

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Jean Bamanisa elected Orientale Gov; Belgian dad played role in assuaging misery of Kisangani US Consul Michael Hoyt held hostage in1964

(PHOTO: Jean Bamanisa Saidi, 48, Governor-elect of Orientale Province)



***



The second round of the gubernatorial election at the Orientale

Provincial Assembly in Kisangani was very close on Wednesday, October

31: 48 votes for Jean Bamanisa, 45 for his rival, Jean Tokole Ilongo,

with one assemblyman calling in sick, and 2 votes voided.



On that same day, another gubernatorial election was held in Bas-Congo

Province,where Jacques Mbadu beat Deo Nkusu 17 vs. 11.



What is remarkable in both elections is that the candidates of the

Presidential Majority (MP) were soundly deafeted--the provincial

assemblymen, though in their majority members of Kabila's platform,

choosing not to back candidates favored by Kinshasa stalwarts.



It was even more dramatic in Orientale Province in the first round of

the election, held three days previously, on Sunday, Octpber 28, when

PPRD stalwart Jean-Pierre Darwezi, former DRC top spy and ex-economy

minister, was eliminated.



Governor-elect Jean Bamanisa is a former MP, and a successful businessman.



Bamanisa is married to the sister of former warlord and ICC jail

inmate Jean-Pierre Bemba.



His father, the late Dr. Alexandre Barlovatz, rumored to be from

former Yugoslavia, is identified in historical narratives of Kisangani

as a Belgian subject.



Dr. Barlovatz moved to the Congo in the 1930s where he opened family

practices wherever he went before permanently settling in

Kisangani--then called Stanleyville.



As a child, I was often treated at the Barvolatz Clinic in downtown

Kisangani. Dr. Barlovatz had also vast orchards in the southeastern

forest near Kisangani.



We often raided those orchards when we played hooky, for such fruits

as guavas, mangoes, avocadoes, etc.



Michael P.E. Hoyt, who was sent for a stint by the US Kinshasa Embassy

to fill in as the American Consul in Kisangani in July 1964 before he

and other American diplomats were taken hostage for 111 days when the

city fell to rebel forces, has fond memories of Dr. Barlovatz.



In a 1995 interview with the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training

Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Hoyt described Dr. Barlovatz as

assuaging the misery of the American hostages by briefing a Red Cross

mission on their condition, and providing the diplomats with

intelligence.



He and his wife Violette Lucie (the governor-elect's mom) even sent a

birthday box to Hoyt at the Central Prison of Kisangani.



(The fact that Dr. Barlovatz wasn't held hostage at a time when all

Westerners--with the exception of Portuguese, Greeks, Asians, etc.--

were rounded up rand thrown into Kisangani Central Prison tends to

lend credit to the rumor that he was a "Yugoslav.")



Says Hoyt:



"The Belgian doctor, Barlovatz, who had described the massacres [at

Kisangani Lumumba Monument] to us, came to visit and said that he had

seen the Red Cross people. He said that he told them clearly what our

situation was, that we were the only expatriates to be mistreated and

imprisoned."





Adding later on:



"The 16th of November was my birthday. Although they had stopped

sending in food from the library, we got 2 boxes that day, one from

Leco and the other from Dr. and Lucy Barlovatz."



(international.loc.gov:8081/service/mss/mssmisc/mfdip/2005%20txt%20files/2004hoy01.txt)



Hoyt went on to write a book about his and his team's ordeal in

Kisangani titled "Captive in the Congo: A Consul's Return

to the Heart of Darkness," Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2000.





Kisangani denizens were very fond of Dr. Barlovatz. It seems that

they've just transferred that fondness to this son. I'm told that

people in the streets were warning assemblymen to vote their

"conscience" (a code word for Bamanisa) or else!



***

PHOTO CREDITS: Innocent Olenga/Radio Okapi

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