Analysis: Congo rebels prepare to face U.N. force with mandate to attack
By Jonny Hogg
RUMANGABO, Democratic Republic of Congo | Mon May 6, 2013 10:03am EDT
(Reuters) - In forested hills in eastern Congo, rebels are honing their
ambush skills to prepare to face a new United Nations force which has a
mandate to go on the offensive.
"Destroy the enemy. Cause fear and stop his patrols," a rebel officer wrote
on a blackboard as he instructed uniformed M23 fighters at a camp seized
from the government in Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern borderlands.
In the latest effort to bring peace to a region riven for years by conflict
over ethnic rivalry and mineral riches, the United Nations is deploying a
3,000-strong brigade of African troops with a mission of neutralizing armed
groups such as M23.
Approved by the Security Council in March for "targeted offensive
operations", the brigade from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi is the first
to be created within a traditional peacekeeping force. A 17,000-strong
existing U.N. force, MONUSCO, has struggled to maintain security in eastern
Congo.
If the M23 rebels, who emerged last year from a Tutsi-led rebellion in
2004-2009, fear the new U.N. Force Intervention Brigade, they are not
showing it.
They routed U.N.-backed Congolese troops and briefly seized the North Kivu
provincial capital of Goma in November, an embarrassment for President
Joseph Kabila and the United Nations.
M23 spokesman Colonel Vianney Kazarama said the rebel group, which is
demanding political concessions from Kabila's government, had no plans to
attack U.N. peacekeepers. But if targeted, it would respond.
"You'll see, we're going to capture them, destroy their equipment, march
over their forces," Kazarama said.
At the captured government camp, rebels paraded and put on a show of
hand-to-hand combat in the bush grass.
Military experts say the brigade could find itself severely stretched in its
mission to neutralize and disarm the M23 and other armed groups.
M23 is well-trained and well-armed. U.N. experts say it is backed by Rwanda
and Uganda although both countries deny it.
FDLR rebels, the remnants of Hutu killers who carried out the 1994 genocide
of Tutsis in Rwanda, and other militias also roam the green hills and
valleys of North Kivu.
"It's a complex mission. From a tactical point of view this is a logistical
nightmare because you don't know who's who in the zoo from one day to the
next," said Helmoed Romer Heitman, a South African military analyst.
He questioned whether the U.N. brigade, which will include about 1,000 South
African troops and an equal number from Tanzania and Malawi, would big and
strong enough.
"The overall U.N. mission is not properly conceived. I think the force is
too small and there is a certain amount of wishful thinking," Heitman told
Reuters in Pretoria.
"PEACE AT ANY PRICE"
South African military spokesman Xolani Mabanga said the numbers were in
line with recommendations.
"We are happy with the size of the force," he said.
South Africa's armed forces are already smarting from the deaths of 13
soldiers in March in Central African Republic when anti-government rebels
confronted a 200-strong South African contingent deployed there under a
defense agreement.
This has increased the political sensitivity of South Africa's participation
in the Congo.
M23 have shown signs of being rattled, appealing against South Africa's
involvement with a mixture of threats and entreaties to pan-African
solidarity.
"They're scared of the brigade. They call meetings to tell the population to
reject it," student Guillaume Muchuti told Reuters in the M23-held town of
Rutshuru, north of Goma.
Tanzania also brushed off threats from M23 that it will target its soldiers
if they join the U.N. mission.
"We are not going to Congo as lords of war, we are going there as advocates
of peace to help our neighbors," Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe
told parliament.
M23 officials privately admit their force's numbers have been reduced by
months of infighting between rival factions. Congo's army estimates the
rebels' strength at around 1,000.
This led to one leader, Bosco Ntaganda, surrendering to the International
Criminal Court to face war crimes charges.
Despite seizing tons of ammunition and scores of vehicles when it occupied
Goma, M23 is running short of cash to pay its fighters, rebel sources say.
MONUSCO says it has received a steady stream of deserters.
Kabila's government, whose weak and indisciplined army has struggled to
contain rebels in the east and is accused by rights groups of rapes and
abuses against civilians, welcomes the new U.N. brigade.
Government spokesman Lambert Mende says Kinshasa would like a negotiated
peace with M23, but, failing that, hopes the African peacekeepers' robust
mandate can have a real impact.
U.N. officials caution that while the intervention brigade is expected to be
a deterrent to violence in North Kivu, it will not be a "magic wand" for
bringing peace.
"It's not as if they're going to come and start shooting on the first day.
The objective is to contain and neutralize and disarm armed groups. If we
can do that without firing a shot, everyone will be very happy," said Alex
Queval, head of MONUSCO in North Kivu province.
NEED FOR POLITICAL SOLUTION
Former Irish president Mary Robinson, who was appointed U.N. special envoy
to the Great Lakes region in March, toured last week to encourage
implementation of a U.N.-mediated peace plan for the eastern Congo signed by
11 countries in February.
"There's no doubt these armed groups need to be dealt with, but I think it's
important that this does not become a focus on a military solution," she
said in Goma.
M23 was not part of the February pact and its own separate peace
negotiations with the Congolese government have stalled, amid signs that
Kinshasa is reluctant to implement vague promises of national political
dialogue and decentralization.
Maria Lange, country head of advocacy group International Alert, says that
even if the U.N. brigade makes short-term gains, this may not guarantee
lasting solutions. The brigade would allow the government to pursue a
military solution.
"They've been liberated from the obligation to actually conduct talks and
address underlying governance problems," Lange told Reuters. "This brigade
risks at best being ineffective, or at worst, will lead to an escalation of
the situation."
There are fears too the government will not carry out much-needed reforms of
its security forces, Lange added.
U.N. troops have faced protests in the past by Congolerse civilians angry
about what they see as the peacekeepers' failure to protect them from abuses
by armed groups.
"The last hope we have is for this brigade, we're waiting for them. But I
don't have much faith," said Innocent Bisimungu.
His parents were hacked to death by Hutu rebels in 1998 and now he lives in
a zone under the control of the Tutsi-led M23.
"I was born in conflict and I grew up in conflict. We've never known
anything else," he said wearily.
(Additional reporting by Peroshni Govender in Pretoria and Ed Cropley in
Johannesburg; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Angus MacSwan)
------------[ Sent via the dehai-wn mailing list by dehai.org]--------------
Received on Mon May 06 2013 - 16:48:28 EDT
