VZCZCXRO6446
OO RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #1391/01 3540814
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 200814Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7273
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 001391 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PHUM MOPS PREL PREF KPKO CG
SUBJECT:  Goma Situation Report for December 19, 2007 
 
SENSTIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PROTECT ACCORDINGLY 
 
Note:  The following report was provided by Embassy Kinshasa's 
political officer in Goma.  End note. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  The military situation in North Kivu remained 
calm for a second day December 19; reports of fighting in Masisi and 
Sake appear to be incorrect.  MONUC Generals Singh and Narayan 
advised FARDC General Kayembe that FARDC could not mount a second 
offensive for six months.  FARDC morale is low, MONUC believes, and 
its leadership is taking extensive steps to reinforce its positions 
in the province.  Pro-Nkunda forces are making no moves against 
FARDC.  FARDC General Amisi is emerging as the scapegoat for the 
failure of the Masisi offensive.  Pareco and Nkunda forces denied 
looting a MONUC helicopter which crash-landed in Masisi territory. 
Senior MONUC officials persuaded the Rutshuru territorial 
administrator to release four WFP drivers he had illegally detained 
for two days.  There was an unconfirmed report of a case of ebola 
fever near the Ugandan border.  Goma riot police fired shots in the 
air this morning to disperse a crowd of demonstrators protesting the 
killing of a prisoner in police custody the day before.  End 
summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The military situation in North Kivu was stable as of the 
morning of December 19, with no overnight reports of renewed 
fighting.  Katale and Rugari, scenes of combat earlier in the week, 
are silent, according to MONUC North Kivu Brigade Commander General 
Indrajeet Narayan. "Nkunda is doing nothing," he said.  Nyanzale 
remains under FARDC control and Mushaki is with Nkunda forces. 
MONUC-Goma political chief Gernot Sauer said reports of fighting in 
Masisi town and Sake were false.  Firing heard in Masisi was in fact 
due to drunken soldiers.  The major event of the previous day in 
Sake was the visit of American actor Ben Affleck, who, reported 
MONUC spokesperson Sylvie van den Wildenberg, trekked up Celtel 
ridge as far as a landmark building known locally as the White 
House. 
 
MONUC on FARDC 
-------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Narayan said he and Eastern Division Commander General 
Bikram Singh had counseled caution in their December 18 meeting with 
FARDC Chief of Staff General Dieudonne Kayembe and senior 
commanders.  He said they had advised FARDC to use the next six 
months to take stock of the situation, replace commanders, train 
troops, and take military action only if political dialogue fails. 
Returning to a consistent theme, Narayan said, "If they don't 
realize the importance of the political process, it will be folly." 
As to the state of FARDC morale, he stated:  "Panic has really set 
in everywhere." 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Current FARDC moves center on reinforcement.  "They are 
keeping their options open," said Narayan.  Kayembe and his generals 
remain in Goma, and held a lunchtime meeting with Mayala at the 
dining room of Hotel Linda.  FARDC has requested MONUC assistance to 
reinforce Katale and to ferry the re-formed 81st Brigade back to 
Masisi.  Helicopter availability and fuel will affect MONUC's 
ability to fulfill these requests as it is currently experiencing a 
fuel crisis due to shortages in Kenya, its main source of supply. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) FARDC has also ordered the 1st and 13th Integrated 
Brigades (IB) south from Ituri District.  When the move is complete, 
Narayan said, "Ituri will have virtually no troops."  Half of the 
15th IB remains in the Nyanzale area, with the rest having fled 
north, while looting, toward Kibirizi and Riwinda.  The brigade "has 
completely disintegrated," said Sauer, and Kayembe has ordered the 
7th IB to replace it after turning down a proposal by 9th IB 
commander Colonel Smith Kihanga.  Kihanga, like other former 
commanders of the Rwandan-backed Congolese National Army (ANC) which 
joined the FARDC, has been the object of rumors questioning his 
loyalty because of previous association with Nkunda. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) FARDC Land Forces Commander General Gabriel Amisi appears 
to be emerging as the scapegoat for the failure of the Masisi 
offensive.  Amisi, another former ANC colleague of Nkunda, is the 
subject of a rumor alleging he arrived in Mushaki during the Nkunda 
counter-offensive to bribe troops of the 14th IB to retreat.  More 
likely, said Narayan, he was there trying to rally them.  Narayan 
said 14th IB troops had been more interested in stealing cattle 
while in Mushaki. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Narayan identified two reasons for Nkunda's continued 
battlefield successes, despite enormous deficits in men and 
materiel.  First, Nkunda has convinced his men that they are 
fighting for a cause, and is able to play off FARDC abuses and 
atrocities to continually make his point.  Second, in contrast to 
FARDC, his forces have good officers and leadership.  Without MONUC, 
 
KINSHASA 00001391  002 OF 002 
 
 
Narayan said, Nkunda's forces could have routed FARDC and moved into 
Goma.  He estimated that 15 per cent of pro-Nkunda fighters are 
underage. 
 
Developments in Masisi 
---------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) In Masisi territory, a MONUC helicopter which crash-landed 
at Matanda, 10 kms. west of Mushaki, was "completely looted" after 
Nkunda and Pareco fighters appeared on the scene soon after the 
crash, Sauer said.  There were no casualties from the crash, but one 
crew member died of a heart attack soon after all 11 passengers and 
crew fled an exchange of fire between the belligerents.  Sauer said 
the helicopter was on a regularly-scheduled flight to Walikale when 
it developed mechanical problems.  MONUC troops remain at the site 
after rescuing the accident victims, who are being treated at the 
North Kivu Brigade hospital in Goma.  When contacted by MONUC, 
representatives of Nkunda and Pareco blamed each other for the 
looting. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Sauer said the MONUC troops diverted to the crash site had 
been investigating reports of the killing of 27 Hutu villagers in 
Musangati, a remote site five hours by foot from Mushaki.  They 
found that Nkunda troops had killed one person, a teacher, and 
abducted 17 others -- men, women and children -- for reasons that 
remain unknown. 
 
 
Developments in Rutshuru 
------------------------ 
 
¶10.   (SBU) In Rutshuru territory, Singh, Narayan, MONUC Head of 
Office Ulli Mwambulukutu and civil affairs chief Joseph Ingangi 
persuaded Territorial Administrator Dominique Bofondo at a December 
17 meeting in Rutshuru town to release four WFP drivers he had 
ordered arrested and detained over two days.  WFP and the NGO 
Solidarite suspended their activities in protest.  WFP provincial 
chief Aya Scheerson called this only the latest in a long series of 
outrages by Bofondo, accusing him of regularly inciting IDP's 
against MONUC and NGO's.  A visiting UNICEF official from Kinshasa 
said December 17 he had protested to Governor Julien Paluku about 
Bofondo's contact; Narayan said UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres had 
promised to raise the issue with Paluku as well.  Ingangi said he 
planned a follow-up visit with Schneerson to see Bofondo later in 
the week pending availability of MONUC escort. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Elsewhere in Rutshuru, Sauer noted a report of a case of 
ebola hemorrhagic fever in Ishusa, northeast of Rutshuru town near 
an area of Uganda which has had cases in the past.  He emphasized 
that the report remained unconfirmed.  He also provided additional 
information on the PNC officer killed by FARDC during the December 
16 Rugari firefight.  He said FARDC alleged the officer and a 
colleague had fired small arms from behind positions of the 2nd IB, 
which shot the first dead and arrested the second.  Sauer said MONUC 
was attempting to get the second officer released.  He reported five 
fighters -- four Mai-Mai, one Nkunda -- had surrendered at MONUC's 
base outside Rutshuru. 
 
Developments in the Grand Nord 
------------------------------ 
 
¶12.  (BU) According to MONUC DDRRR's section, members of the FDLR 
Musari faction attempted to prevent the surrender of 40 FDLR 
fighters who had turned themselves in at Lubero.  Sauer said MONUC 
was able to extract the 40, and will repatriate them to Rwanda.  He 
also noted an unconfirmed report that one of Nkunda's senior 
commanders, General Bwambale Kakolele, a Nande originally from 
Ituri, had been seen in Lubero meeting with the city's mayor. 
 
Situation in Goma 
----------------- 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Sauer clarified that shots heard in Goma on the morning 
of December 19 were fired into the air by riot police attempting 
disperse a crowd protesting the death of a prisoner at the Birere 
police station the day before.  The protest tied up traffic for most 
of the early morning.  Sauer had no information on possible 
casualties, but said MONUC had met this morning with the PNC 
provincial inspector general, who claimed he had not ordered the use 
of firearms. 
 
Garvelink