VZCZCXRO4903
OO RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #0102/01 0301226
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 301226Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7445
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KINSHASA 000102 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL MOPS CG
SUBJECT:  North Kivu Military Meetings Fail as CNDP Walks Out 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  FARDC Vice Admiral Dieudonne Etumba, with MONUC 
as co-chair, convened a meeting of CNDP and Mai Mai groups January 
28 to establish a preliminary Technical Commission to follow up the 
Kivu accords, but the lone CNDP representative objected to Etumba's 
proposed structure as different from the one FARDC had presented 
January 25.  Etumba reconvened the group January 29, and the CNDP 
representative announced that CNDP would refuse any cooperation 
until seven prisoners were released.  When Etumba opened discussion 
of a timetable, the CNDP representative walked out.  In follow-on 
meeting, MONUC Eastern Division Commander General Bikram Singh told 
Etumba that there would be no progress if CNDP were cornered and if 
there were no high-level contact by the government with Nkunda, but 
Etumba said contact with Nkunda was a matter for the international 
community.  (Comment: Etumba's view on DRC contact with Nkunda may 
not represent the position of the senior government officials in 
Kinshasa.  End Comment.) End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Before leaving Goma January 27, Kivus Conference leaders 
Appollinaire Malu Malu and National Assembly President Vital Kamerhe 
told armed groups that FARDC Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Dieudonne 
Etumba would lead efforts to establish a military committee under 
the Acte d'Engagement.  (They had told international facilitators 
the previous day that Interior Minister Denis Kalume would arrive in 
Goma to provide political leadership in their absence, but Kalume 
has not yet appeared.)  Etumba convened a meeting January 28 at 
MONUC headquarters in Goma, with a single CNDP military officer and 
all but one North Kivu Mai Mai group present.  MONUC co-chaired the 
meeting, under SRSG Doss's chief of staff John Almstrom, who had 
just arrived in Goma to coordinate the aftermath of the Kivus 
Conference, and MONUC's Eastern Division Commander Bikram Singh. 
FARDC and PNC officers were present in significant numbers (13) as 
were PARECO and Mai Mai representatives (30), leaving the CNDP 
officer hugely outnumbered. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Etumba opened the meeting saying that it would set in 
motion the Peace and Security Technical Commission mandated under 
Article 2 of the Acte d'Engagement.  His instructions, he said, were 
for the armed groups to discuss modalities, particularly the 
structure (organigram) and timetable (chronogram), for the Technical 
Commission.  He said that a presidential decree would be issued 
formally establishing the Commission, once the structure and 
timetable were agreed.  (Note:  In the meeting of the same group the 
next day Etumba altered his view of the group's mission, saying it 
was only to set in motion an "ad hoc committee" as conceived in the 
last of 15 items under Article 2:  "...per the timetable established 
by the ad hoc Commission..."   This is the only mention of an "ad 
hoc commission" in the Acte d'Engagement.) 
 
¶4. (SBU) The two preliminary organigrams of the Technical 
Commission, the one conceived by Malu Malu and the one presented to 
the armed groups on January 25 at an inconclusive meeting convened 
by FARDC Inspector General Francois Olenga, dealt only with military 
issues. Etumba's organigram presented a significantly different 
structure.  While more streamlined than Olenga's, it made a major 
addition by dividing the Commission (per the Acte d'Engagement) into 
Military and Humanitarian/Social Sub-Commissions -- thereby 
expanding the scope of the meeting beyond its military confines. 
When Etumba asked for approval of the organigram, the CNDP 
representative, Capt. B. Masuzera (who had not been part of the CNDP 
delegation to the Kivus Conference), said that he could not approve 
it until it was cleared by his superiors, as it was different than 
the one that CNDP had discussed, which had contemplated only a 
military role.  He also said that Etumba was not following the 
requirements of Article 2 of the Acte d'Engagement, which stated 
that the Technical Commission was to be "legally instituted by the 
government."  Several Mai Mai speakers picked up on the latter 
point, questioning the validity of the meeting since Kabila had not 
issued a decree formally establishing the Commission.  PARECO 
condemned CNDP for alleged attacks on PARECO in recent days and 
there were several other pointed criticisms of CNDP (including by a 
police representative commenting that CNDP needed to send a 
representative capable of flexibility), while the CNDP 
representative remained silent.  Etumba called for a vote on his 
organigram, and all approved it except CNDP. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Etumba called for resumption of the meeting on the 
following day.  Almstrom and Singh later met privately with Etumba, 
Olenga, and 8th Region Commander General Vainqueur Mayala to stress 
that the next day's meeting needed to avoid cornering CNDP.  That 
meeting, January 29, opened with a presentation by Almstrom, which 
helped give a sense of co-chairmanship and less a sense of FARDC 
domination.  Singh spoke at length of the armed groups' need to work 
together to take the first step; he said that without agreeing on a 
forum for dealing with ceasefire violations, recriminations would 
continue to build and the spirit of the Kivus Conference would be 
 
KINSHASA 00000102  002 OF 003 
 
 
dissipated.  However, the meeting January 29 had much the same 
imbalance as that of January 28, with CNDP's Capt. Masuzera hugely 
outnumbered by Mai Mai and FARDC. 
 
¶6. (SBU) When Etumba brought up the first item on his agenda -- the 
organigram which CNDP was supposed to have considered overnight -- 
Capt. Masuzera said that CNDP would proceed no further until seven 
CNDP members arrested by DRC were released.  Masuzera, when 
questioned by Etumba, could give no names nor a specific date of 
arrest, except that it had occurred "during the conference" (i.e., 
before the signing of the Acte, Etumba pointed out), nor did he 
explain why he had not raised this point on the previous day. 
Almstrom said that MONUC's human rights office would investigate 
these arrests immediately.  Etumba adjourned the meeting for 20 
minutes, in the hope that Masuzera could obtain information on the 
arrests and a decision from his superiors to cease obstructing the 
proceedings. 
 
¶7. (SBU) During the pause poloff asked Masuzera if he had been able 
to reach Nkunda (he had not); he urged Masuzera to take the 
initiative on his own to continue participating, noting that CNDP 
risked being painted as obstructionist.  Masuzera was inflexible, 
saying that the arrestees had to be freed and that, in any case, 
CNDP did not view the proceedings as meeting the requirement of the 
Acte (establishment by presidential decree).  Masuzera did get the 
first names of the arrestees, which he announced to the resumed 
meeting.  He told the meeting that CNDP had raised the issue of 
these arrests with Kamerhe during the previous week, to no avail. 
Eighth Military Region Deputy Commander Col. Delphin Kahimbi said 
that he had complete information on the arrestees:  they were not, 
he claimed, from CNDP but from the MRC from Ituri (Note:  In fact, 
the MRC is headed by Bwambale Kakolele, a Nande and senior CNDP 
military leader allied with Nkuknda.  End note.), that they had been 
arrested not in DRC but in Uganda for trafficking in arms on January 
15, and that Uganda had "extradited" them to DRC; he said that only 
three of the names of those "extradited" corresponded with the names 
provided by Masuzera.  Etumba carried on with the meeting, moving to 
his second objective, the endorsement of a new timetable.  With the 
raising of this new subject, Masuzera quietly left the meeting. 
After much discussion of the timetable, in CNDP's absence, Etumba 
declared that he considered the timetable as being adopted and 
commented that the absence of CNDP "was not a problem." 
 
¶8. (SBU) MONUC and the international facilitators (EU, UK, U.S.) met 
Etumba and Mayala after the meeting.  Singh told them bluntly that 
there was a fundamental flaw with the proceedings.  There was no 
point, he said, cramming the room with Mai Mai (who, Singh said, 
were a minor issue) while not dealing with the fundamental issue of 
"Nkunda's aspirations."   Etumba responded that it was up to MONUC 
and the international community to deal with Nkunda.  His only role, 
he said, was to set up an ad hoc committee to establish an 
organizational structure and timetable, after which he would return 
to Kinshasa and a decree would be issued establishing the Technical 
Commission.  Those were his instructions and he would not go beyond 
them. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Almstrom asked North Kivu Brigade Commander General 
Indrajeet Narayan for a briefing on the recent ceasefire violations. 
 Narayan said that there had been no violations involving FARDC, but 
that there had been recent firing in three areas (in the north 
around Bambu, between CNDP and PARECO and FDLR), in the west around 
Mweto (CNDP and PARECO), and in the southwest near Ngungu (CNDP and 
PARECO).  MONUC had not confirmed which side was at greater fault 
nor did it have information on casualties.  Narayan said that MONUC 
would establish bases the next day at Mweto, Tongo, and Ngungu. 
 
¶10. (SBU) On Etumba's and Mayala's departure, MONUC and 
international facilitators pondered the issue of contacting Nkunda. 
They agreed that it would be important for MONUC to meet Nkunda as 
soon as possible, at no less high a level than Almstrom.  Singh 
regretted that MONUC had up to now effectively "taken sides" by 
refusing to have any high-level contact with Nkunda, but the signing 
of the Acte would, he hoped, permit a change in that policy. 
Almstrom said he would raise the issue immediately with the SRSG. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Comment.  Ambassador Garvelink met Tuesday evening, 
January 29, with Dr. Raymond Tshibanda, the Chief of Staff for 
President Kabila.  Garvelink raised the issue of DRC contact with 
General Nkunda, stressing that it is important for the government to 
establish senior level, regular contact with Nkunda as soon as 
possible.  Tshibanda agreed and said the senior people to be named 
to lead the follow-on commissions would be the appropriate people to 
establish contact with Nkunda.  Tshibanda said those individuals 
would be identified by Thursday.  End Comment. 
 
 
KINSHASA 00000102  003 OF 003 
 
 
GARVELINK