VZCZCXRO9819
OO RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #0071/01 0241001
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 241001Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7411
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 02 KINSHASA 000071 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PHUM MOPS PREL CG
SUBJECT:    Kivus Conference Closure Ceremony 
 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary:  The five-hour closing ceremony of the Kivus 
Conference January 23 featured the two-hour signing of the "Acte 
d'Engagement" by 58 parties.  The CNDP was the first and the key 
signer.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The much delayed-closing ceremony of the Kivus Conference 
on Peace, Security, and Development, which had begun January 6 and 
had originally been projected to conclude January 14, finally took 
place on the late afternoon and evening of January 23.  In fact, the 
business of the conference was not quite complete, as the conference 
had not yet voted on the many resolutions proposed by the many 
subcommittees -- work that continues January 24.   But a great many 
people, to include President Kabila and various international 
personalities, had other things to do than remain in Goma. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The key element to the Goma peace process lay outside 
deliberations of the conference.  It was the "Declaration of 
Commitment" ("Acte d'Engagment") negotiated by the government and 
the CNDP and international facilitators, outside but parallel to the 
conference, with increasing intensity and frustration over the 
previous five days.  The seesaw process of doom and joy finally had 
tilted in the direction of success with a direct telephone 
conversation among Nkunda and conference leaders Kamerhe and Malu 
Malu on the morning of January 23.  The government, with much 
reluctance, conceded a persistent CNDP demand:  that the opening of 
the document clearly state that the government was as solemnly 
committed as the CNDP. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The five-hour ceremony, in an airless and packed room 
holding over 400 conference participants (with many more hundreds 
watching through closed-circuit television in other halls of the 
Great Lakes University), featured a stage with President Kabila 
sitting in isolation on one side and conference leaders Vital 
Kamerhe, Father Apollinaire Malu Malu, and Azarias Ruberwa sitting 
at a table on the other.  A signing table lay between and below. 
Kabila was impassive throughout.  Rwanda, though invited, had no 
representative present.  Diplomats from Kinshasa did not make an 
appearance, having the previous day gotten as far as Bukavu and 
turned around on learning that the closing would not take place as 
scheduled then. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Kamerhe opened with a rousing speech, which garnered the 
greatest applause of any of the many speeches during the evening. 
He assured President Kabila that what he had done, in calling for 
the conference and by approving the "acte d'engagement," was not an 
act of weakness but of grandeur.  Nkunda and other leaders of armed 
groups, he said, had decided with the government to go down the road 
of peace, and they would be received as brothers.  Kamerhe reviewed 
for the audience the main elements of the acte d'engagement, and he 
did not flinch from highlighting the areas of concession by the 
government.  He stressed that all parties, including the government, 
had solemnly committed themselves to the agreement's requirements, 
to include, in the first instance, a total and immediate cessation 
of hostilities over the entire territory of the two provinces.  He 
said that a mixed Peace and Security Technical Commission would be 
established to handle issues of disengagement and brassage, as well 
as political, humanitarian, and social issues.  The signatories, he 
said, would enjoy amnesty for insurrection, but not, he stressed, 
for war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide.  The 
agreement, he said, would be a strong signal to the many displaced 
persons and refugees that they could begin the process of returning 
to their homes. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) There then began the two-hour signing of the documents 
(one each for North and for South Kivu but identical except for the 
names of armed groups).  The two essential signers were the head of 
the CNDP delegation and the Minister of State for the Interior, 
Denis Kalume.  Also key were the international facilitators, new 
SRSG Alan Doss for the United Nations, Special Envoy Roeland van de 
Geer for the European Union, Senior Advisor to the Assistant 
Secretary for African Affairs Tim Shortley for the United States, 
 
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Special Envoy Pierre Yere for the African Union, and Executive 
Secretary Liberata Mulamula for the International Conference on the 
 
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Great Lakes Region.  There were fifty-eight signers altogether. 
Armed groups from each of the provinces accounted for 30 of the 
signers, some of them Mai Mai groups that few people had heard of 
(leading to speculation that they had been created by the government 
expressly for the occasion).  Conference leaders, traditional 
chiefs, civil society, private sector, and religious confessions 
accounted for the remainder. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) With the signing finally done, next came the speeches. 
SRSG Doss, van de Geer, and Shortley all sounded the themes of the 
historic nature of the Goma Agreement, hopes for a better future, 
with the international community committed to assisting in bringing 
 
KINSHASA 00000071  002 OF 002 
 
 
about that future, and an admonition that the real work was only 
beginning.  Malu Malu gave the longest speech of the evening, 
reviewing the difficulties of making such a conference a success in 
Goma, especially when the projected attendees had swelled from 500 
to 1200.  He had a long list of thank-you's but reserved special 
gratitude to the international facilitators who had gritted it out. 
He then read every word of the acte d'engagement, as if to underline 
that it was not to be in any way a secret undertaking. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) President Kabila gave a concluding fifteen-minute speech, 
as unemotional in its delivery as had been his stoic presence 
throughout the five hours of signing and speech-giving.  The 
audience was respectful and not enthusiastic.  He spoke frankly 
about the huge challenges that lay ahead for the Kivus, with an 
emphasis on developmental needs.  He thanked the international 
facilitators and placed particular emphasis on the role of the 
international community in meeting those development needs. 
 
Brock