September 7, 2012)
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President Paul Kagame snubbed the dead-end ICGLR Kampala-II Summit at
Speke Resort Munyonyo.
He was instead represented by his hawkish defense and foreign
ministers, James Kabarebe and Louise Mushikiwabo respectively.
President Kagame had far more exciting glamorous stuff to attend to
in... Hong Kong (Young Presidents Organization and meeting with
business leaders), Tianjin (Summer Davos, meeting with PM Wen Jiabao),
and Beijing University (speech to students).
In the meantime, at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala, the ICGLR Heads
of State Summit was experiencing a dramatic dwindling of the number of
of its presidential attendees.
Only 3 other regional presidents bothered to join current ICGLR
Chairman Yoweri Museveni at the closed-door Summit: Joseph Kabila
(DRC), Salva Kiir (South Sudan), and Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania).
Though the leaders said in a statement released Saturday that the
"neutral force" will be "deployed under the mandate of the African
Union and the United
Nations," there was no significant progress.
To be sure, the communiqué also added that the ICGLR will find ways
for the "operationalization of the Neutral International Force within
three months."
Meanwhile, M23 will be left to their own devices, roaming free and
unfettered eastern DRC within the confines of their micro-state.
The communiqué also lauded President Kikwete for pledging troops to
the "neutral force."
This confirmation of Kikwete's pledge came as a stark rebuttal to the
contradictory claim made earlier by Ugandan Defense Minister Crispus
Kiyonga who told reporters that "no single country" had made such
pledge.
The ICGLR also wants regional member states to contribute 2 military
observers each to the Joint Verification Mechanism (JVM) that will be
based at Goma--with the exception of the DRC and Rwanda, who have to
contribute 3 monitors apiece.
The regional defense ministers will implement the JVM this upcoming week.
The paucity of the number of these observers doesn't bode well for
their mission.
Still sticking to her government's official talking points, Rwandan
Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo viewed the JVM as a sure way of
vindicating her country's innocence.
Said Mushikiwabo:
"Rwanda is very pleased that in actually one week we'll have officers
on the ground, near our
border, to observe that Rwanda has nothing to hide and cannot be part
of any action against its
neighbor."
But UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in a strong-worded statement
read to the Summit by his Special Representative and Head of the UN
Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA) Abou Moussa, still bemoaned
"the continuing reports of external support to the M23, and call[ed]
for an end to all such support without delay."
What's more, Ban Kin-moon seemed to be rebuking Ugandan Defense
Minister Crispus Kiyonga who'd earlier speculated about the viability
of the option of revisiting the accord of March 23, 2009 between CNDP
and the DRC government.
Ban Kin-moon in effect wants M23 and other militias wreaking mayhem in
eastern Congo "to be thoroughly investigated by relevant institutions
and the perpetrators held accountable."
(Sources: newvision.co.ug; monitor.co.ug; newtimes.co.rw; AP; &
Kinshasa media outlets)
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PHOTO CREDITS: newvision.co.ug
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