VZCZCXRO1588
OO RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #0040/01 0141616
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 141616Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7367
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000040 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PHUM MOPS PREL CG
SUBJECT:    MONUC's Kivus Conference Report -- third day of 
            plenary is devoted to North Kivu delegates 
 
Note:  The following report was prepared by MONUC (pls protect) and 
was shared with U.S. team in Goma.  End note. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Under the moderation of Azarias Ruberwa, today's plenary 
started with speeches by governors Didier Manara (Maniema province) 
and Medard Autsai (Orientale province).  Both presented their 
respective provinces, which they portrayed as places where ethnic 
groups coexisted peacefully, as examples to be followed by the 
Kivus.  The governors also pointed out the important economic 
benefits peace in the Kivus would bring.  Governor Autsai said that 
the continuation of conflict in the Kivus would be an insult to all 
those who had perished during the war and called upon the delegates 
to use the historic chance of the Conference to find a path towards 
peace. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The rest of the day's proceedings were almost entirely 
devoted to presentations from all the communities across North Kivu 
(the same is planned for South Kivu's communities tomorrow). 
Azarias Ruberwa choose not to impose time limits on any of the 
presentations, seeming to judge instead that the opportunity to 
address the Conference itself represented a valued, and cathartic 
experience for the communities - through their designated 
representatives.  Today's proceedings therefore took on the air of 
an impromptu "truth commission".  According to feedback from a 
variety of observers, Ruberwa's moderation seems to have been 
appreciated by the inter-ethnic audience as largely fair and 
tolerant. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) A major recurring issue, brought up by the quasi-totality 
of community representatives, was that of their under-representation 
in government bodies -- both at national and provincial levels, in 
the civil service as well as in the security sector (army, police, 
and intelligence services). Though Conference organizers had from 
the start been careful to assert that DRC government institutions, 
now legitimated via elections, were not to be "negotiated," nearly 
all community representatives nevertheless demanded more seats in 
the full gamut of government institutions. These demands did not 
come solely from groups typically considered as demographically 
small --  some of whom appear to have credible claims of under, or 
non-representation (the Tembo and Watalinga, a Nande sub-group, can 
be cited as examples here) -- but also from demographically larger 
groups (the Hutu are a case in point).  In addition, some community 
representatives (Hutu, Mbuba) decried the "Nande domination" of 
North Kivu (and called for the province to be split in two), which 
the Nande representative vehemently rejected. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Predictably, land rights and rights to natural resources 
promise to be contentious issues as well and tensions were already 
apparent today.  For example, the Hunde representative presented 
what many considered an extremist position that only they should be 
entitled to live in the lands that they control.  Another case in 
point was the discord expressed by the general audience when the 
Tutsi representative demanded that their refugees and uprooted 
customary leaders be allowed to return to Walikale, Rutshuru, 
Masisi, and Lubero inter alia, by the same token making the 
contentious implication that they considered (parts of) these areas 
to be "historic territories" for Tutsi. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Another characteristic shared by nearly all speeches was 
their denunciation of the discriminations and rights violations 
their respective communities face, faulting in part the State (and 
its failure to establish its authority), in part the international 
community (and its failure to provide an adequate response), in part 
Rwanda (for failing to settle its conflicts on its own national 
soil), and in part each other. As an offshoot of the last point, 
there were several calls for a process of inter-community dialogue 
and reconciliation throughout the day. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Safi Adili, President of the Tutsi Community of North Kivu 
and member of the Conference's "Comite des Sages" (Wise Men's 
Group), had at first intended to speak on behalf of the Tutsi. 
However, Conference Bureau President Malu Malu protested, explaining 
this represented a conflict of interest. Adili eventually agreed, 
and his prepared statement was read by another Tutsi community 
member instead. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The statement overall proved to be fairly controversial, 
both in the way it depicted the causes of Tutsi grievances and 
insecurity, and their potential remedies.  One reason cited to 
justify why the Tutsi have "taken up arms in self-defense" included 
the "plan" on the part of various regimes in Kinshasa to 
"exterminate the Tutsi community".  References to several waves of 
deportation of Tutsis and of an alleged 1967 alliance between 
Habyarimana and Mobutu to "destabilize" the Tutsi community were 
 
KINSHASA 00000040  002 OF 002 
 
 
also made; the 1994 influx of up 2 million Rwandan refugees was 
characterized as "another ploy to exterminate the Tutsi".  Some of 
the recommendations aired included demands that the GDRC adopt and 
implement a specific national policy to ensure the protection of 
Tutsi and their free circulation throughout the country, for 
instance. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Several other speakers delivered speeches at the end of 
the day: the representative from the "Barza inter-communautaire" (a 
federation of all North Kivu communities), Seraphin Ngwej, President 
Kabila's roving ambassador, and Tim Shortley, Senior Advisor for 
Conflict Resolution to US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi 
Frazer. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) In another emblematic gesture echoing that of Vital 
Kamerhe in yesterday's plenary, at the end of the afternoon, Malu 
Malu asked the CNDP delegation to come to the front of the hall and 
present themselves so that everyone would know that they too had 
been included and were participating in the Conference.  The entire 
delegation did so, to polite applause from the hall.  The CNDP 
delegates were reportedly encouraged by this experience. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Although the atmosphere of the conference remained calm, 
the initial program was hardly respected and almost all of the 
speakers did not follow their time limits.  This results in further 
delays in the Conference schedule, relegating the South Kivu 
presentations to tomorrow, and those of the armed groups probably to 
Sunday. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) In other meetings held on the margins of the Conference, 
the External Facilitation, accompanied by MONUC, met for a second 
time -- at their request -- with representatives of PARECO and three 
other North Kivu Mayi Mayi factions (Kifuafua, Kasindiens, and 
Mongols).  While these delegations confirmed that, when their turn 
comes, they intended to make declarations to the Plenary that they 
are "now determined to make peace," much of their discussion with 
the Facilitation revolved around their security concerns at the 
conference, their doubts about the fidelity of the governments of 
Rwanda and of the DRC, their concern that the FDLR issue should be 
resolved definitively but not through force, and their continuing 
deep mistrust of the Tutsi community. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) In an evening meeting with Foreign Minister Mbusa 
Nyamwisi, the Minister confirmed that in response to the Rwandan 
Government's complaint that it had not been properly invited, via 
Note Verbale, to the Conference, he had spoken with a member of the 
President's office to indicate that an invitation in the proper form 
was now being issued and that he hoped that they would seize the 
opportunity to attend. 
 
Garvelink 
 
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