***
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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