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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000057 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PHUM MOPS PREL CG
SUBJECT:   MONUC'S Kivus Conference sitrep report #8; 
            Day 5 (January 13, 2008) 
 
REF:        (A) Kinshasa 0040; (B) Kinshasa 0046 
 
Note:  The following report was prepared by MONUC (pls protect) and 
was shared with U.S. team in Goma.  Reftels are previous 
installments in this series.  End note. 
 
BEGIN MONUC REPORT 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary:  South Kivu Communities finished their 
presentations.  North Kivu armed groups starting with CNDP take the 
floor in this fifth day of plenary sessions.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) After the extremist speeches from yesterday, particularly 
directed against the Banyamulenge by the Bembe and Fulero, the day 
started with the declarations of the remaining communities of South 
Kivu, whose delegates, although determined and swift in their 
messages, adopted a more moderate tone for their deliberations.  The 
presentations of the Barundi, Shi, Tembo and Vira communities 
however reiterated some of the main points that were made yesterday 
by other South Kivu Communities, including the under representation 
of their groups in the provincial administration, the insecurity 
caused by foreign armed groups and the demand to strengthen 
customary rights for the indigenous communities. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The speech delivered by a female representative of the Shi 
Community which represents the ethnic majority in the Bukavu area, 
was not only well received, because it was the first declaration 
delivered by a woman, but also because it did not target any 
specific communities, but addressed all Congolese people.  In an 
emotional closure, the speaker called upon all communities to ask 
their children to follow the path of peace and to be forewarned that 
such a peace would not come free and without compromise.  Only after 
the speech was delivered, did it become clear that it had been 
drafted by Vital Kamerhe and Marcelin Chishambo, Special Advisor to 
President Kabila, both of them members of the Shi community. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) This reconciliatory tone also marked today's moderation by 
Vital Kamerhe. Between the long and eagerly awaited declarations of 
the North Kivu armed groups, Kamerhe pointed out aspects of consent 
between the groups, rather than elaborating on the many aspects of 
dissent. Moreover, he allowed representatives to speak 
un-interrupted and to exceed the time limits of 15 minutes as has 
been the practice of all moderators since the beginning of the 
conference. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Some of the commonalities between the armed groups included 
their criticism of the GDRC for various reasons, mostly for not 
honoring its responsibilities to protect the Congolese people, its 
failure to safeguard national and territorial integrity, its 
incapacity to foster an effective and inclusive security sector 
reform and its discrimination against one or the other ethnic group. 
 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The head of the CNDP delegation Kambaru declared his 
group's genuine ambition for peace.  He claimed that the CNDP is not 
a group with only ethnically oriented objectives and that its 
members are patriots and nationalists in the "noblest sense of the 
words".  To make peace sustainable, however, he called upon the 
GoDRC to abolish its discrimination of Tutsi, particularly in the 
FARDC, and to stop its support for the Mayi-Mayi and PARECO armed 
groups.  He warned that because of its unwillingness to effectively 
deal with the FDLR, the GDRC's popularity is decreasing, and that 
legitimacy gained through elections "is not perennial and needs to 
be earned in the eyes of citizens on a daily basis". 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The delegate admitted that the CNDP leadership had to make 
some controversial decisions in the past such as the taking of 
Bukavu in 2004.  However, he emphasized that his leadership was not 
given a choice, facing the obvious alliance between the FARDC and 
the FDLR, insisting that this alliance must have been built with the 
consent of the highest authorities. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) The CNDP delegate asked the GDRC to (a) address the 
problems of FDLR, LRA, ADF-NALU and FNL; (b) allow for the return of 
Jean-Pierre Bemba as the legitimate leader of the opposition; (c) 
grant all IDPs and refugees their right to return to their 
communities; (d) implement the Nairobi Accords; (e) withdraw all 
arrest warrants against CNDP leaders as well as the release of 
political prisoners; (f) re-establish a Truth and Reconciliation 
Commission with proper resources and (g) not to hand Congolese 
citizens over to international courts. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) The delegate of the PARECO armed group picked up the 
legitimacy issue raised by the CNDP, declaring that the period of 
 
KINSHASA 00000057  002 OF 002 
 
 
"1+4" was past -- a hint that might have been directed to Azarias 
Ruberwa who was sitting in the front row of the auditorium -- and 
that the minority had to accept to be governed by the majority.  At 
the same time, PARECO urged the GoDRC to effectively eliminate the 
FDLR problem and not to longer allow the International Community to 
turn a blind eye to massacres committed against Congolese people. 
The delegate warned that his group will not cease to exist as long 
as the GDRC proves unable to stop Rwandan infiltration across the 
border into the DRC.  Finally, he called upon the International 
Community to denounce the alleged presence of Rwandan troops in 
North Kivu and demanded, as previously many of the communities, an 
inter-Rwandan dialogue. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Similar to the communities of North and South Kivu, of 
which many had demanded stronger representation in provincial and 
national administrative and government institutions, all armed 
groups demanded a stronger representation in the FARDC. The CNDP 
declared that the brassage was a failure and asked, how a strong 
national army can be built if Tutsi are being discriminated at 
entering the national forces.  The PARECO delegate demanded the 
inclusion of Mayi-Mayi and PARECO officers into the higher 
leadership of the 8th and 10th Military Region, and criticized the 
results of the mixage.  Representatives of the three Mayi-Mayi 
groups that spoke in today's plenary denounced the group's under 
representation in military and civilian institutions, complaining 
"that even the Tutsi" were not as marginalized as his group. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Although the groups had some similar ideas about 
potential ways to peace, some aspects evolved which could prove as 
serious stumbling blocks.  While PARECO called for an international 
court to investigate war crimes, the CNDP claimed that international 
justice is incompatible with state sovereignty.  Moreover, PARECO 
and Mayi-Mayi demanded a brassage in which the CNDP would be removed 
from North Kivu, a position that the CNDP is unlikely to agree to. 
Finally, the call for an inter-Rwandan dialogue by the Mayi-Mayi and 
PARECO and the claim that the problems in North Kivu are rooted in 
Rwanda, is hardly shared by the CNDP. 
 
¶12. (SBU) The overall tone of the declarations by the armed groups 
was nonetheless conciliatory and, apart from some mostly oblique 
verbal attacks on other armed groups, moderate.  Although being 
enemies on the battle field, the delegate of the Mayi-Mayi and the 
delegate of the CNDP shook hands when handing over the podium. 
Despite the long presentations -- some of them lasted as long as an 
hour instead of the planned 15 minutes -- the auditorium remained 
attentive and engaged and actively responded to the delegates' 
presentations. 
 
¶13.  (SBU) At the end of today's proceedings, the Executive 
Secretary of the Communaute Economique des Pays des Grands Lacs 
 
SIPDIS 
(Economic Community of the Great Lakes) spoke to the audience, 
offering to the DRC to effectively re-enter the body that is 
normally comprised of Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC, which never 
joined the body at its re-opening after it had been dislodged in the 
early 1990's. 
 
END MONUC REPORT 
 
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