(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
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