VZCZCXRO8961
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #0118/01 0351452
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 041452Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7466
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000118 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL MARR CG RW
SUBJECT: Joint Monitoring Group Task Force - Goma, February 1, 2008 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  The Rwandan delegation to the Joint Monitoring 
Group Task Force meeting in Goma February 1 announced that Rwanda 
had completed its comprehensive (but never final) list of 6,400 
genocidaires.  It criticized the DRC for falling behind on its FDLR 
plan.   MONUC/DDRRR reviewed its outreach to FDLR but cautioned that 
persuading FDLR combatants to return to Rwanda would not be a quick 
process.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Midway through a six-hour meeting of the Task Force of the 
Nairobi Accord's Joint Monitoring Group February 1 in Goma, half of 
which was devoted to wrangling over minutes, the Rwandan delegation 
announced that Rwanda had completed a comprehensive list of 6,400 
genocidaires.  It said that the list fulfilled the requirement of 
the Nairobi communique (genocidaires of all categories) but was not 
a final list, nor would there ever be a final list.  It noted that 
Rwanda was not required, in its interpretation of the Nairobi 
communique, to submit this list until the DRC had placed disarmed 
ex-FAR/Interahamwe in cantonment, but said that the Rwandan 
government had nevertheless decided to take this move in the spirit 
of fullest implementation of Nairobi.  It added that the list had 
been delivered two days earlier to the Congolese foreign ministry 
and the office of SRSG Doss.  (This took the Congolese delegation by 
surprise.) 
 
¶3. (SBU) The acting head of the DRC delegation, Major Ambroise 
Nanga, said that its usual head of delegation, Colonel Augustin 
Mamba, was unable to attend because he was in Kinshasa, working on 
follow-up to the Kivus Conference resolutions and Acte d'Engagement. 
 He said that this Goma Process was "tightly tied" to the Nairobi 
Process, and he underlined that the Kivus Conference participants 
had been "unanimous" in their insistence that FDLR leave DRC. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The head of the Rwandan delegation, Major Franco Rutagengwa 
(who has not missed a meeting of the Task Force), took the DRC to 
task for failing to meet the timetable it had outlined in its plan 
presented to Rwanda on December 1.  Phase One of that plan, 
Rutagengwa noted, was to have been completed by January 31 and 
included, among other things, the undertaking by DRC to provide to 
Rwanda a detailed assessment of ex-FAR/Interahamwe numbers, 
locations, and chain of command and an assessment of the willingness 
of ex-FAR/Interahamwe to disarm.  Nanga apologized for DRC's failure 
to comply.  DRC's energies, he said, had been monopolized by the 
Kivus Conference, which was unforeseen at the time the plan was 
presented to Rwanda.  Nanga noted that, immediately after the 
conference, on January 24, Foreign Minister Mbusa had traveled to 
Lubero Territory to meet leaders of the FDLR splinter group RUD, 
setting the "sensitization" phase in motion on the ground.  (Note: 
Mbusa was accompanied by North Kivu Governor Paluku and MONUC's 
DDRRR chief Philip Lancaster.  End note.)  Nanga promised that Mamba 
would provide details of FDLR military capabilities at the next 
meeting of the Task Force. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Rutengengwa said that he hoped that, following the previous 
week's Task Force visit to Rwanda's Demobilization and Reintegration 
Center at Mutobo, DRC would reciprocate by inviting the Task Force 
to see what DRC was doing on the ground to fulfill its commitments. 
 Nanga said that DRC had foreseen this request coming; it "needed a 
little time" but would reciprocate. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Lancaster, accompanied by World Bank expert Harold Hinkel, 
reviewed ongoing efforts to reach out to the FDLR.  He said that, 
following Mbusa's meeting, he and Hinkel had had a second meeting 
with the RUD leaders.  On February 2 they would join a delegation, 
led by North Kivu provincial assembly president Leon Bariyana, to 
meet leaders of its FOCA arm north of Rutshuru.  Then, in a few 
days, they would go back to see the RUD.  Lancaster said that the 
process of breaking down FDLR paranoia and severing the hold of the 
political leaders over the rank and file would take time. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Lancaster said that some of the RUD leaders had seemed 
almost incapable of rationality.  RUD's political leaders focused on 
"not being treated with dignity," which on further questioning 
appeared to mean not being given legal recognition as a political 
party, while the military leaders appeared to be more focused on 
physical and economic security.  Lancaster and Hinkel said that they 
had told RUD that there was nothing they could offer on the 
political side -- FDLR could not expect legal recognition while 
behaving as outlaws -- but on physical and economic security, they 
felt they had made headway with RUD, by explaining the success of 
the Rwandan repatriation program. 
 
¶8. (SBU) MONUC-Goma acting political chief Guillaume Lacaille, 
chairing the meeting, gave a resume of the events of the past week 
in the Goma Process, apologizing that MONUC's North Kivu Brigade 
could not, as scheduled, give a military briefing as it was deeply 
 
KINSHASA 00000118  002 OF 002 
 
 
involved in redeployments.  He said that there had been a few armed 
interactions between CNDP and armed groups over the previous week 
but these had all fallen into the category of "minor incidents" 
rather than "significant ceasefire violations."  They involved short 
exchanges of fire from long distance (a kilometer or kilometer and a 
half) or firing into the air.  Media reports of "ceasefire 
violations" had been exaggerated. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Lacaille said that North Kivu armed groups, including CNDP, 
had met with FARDC and the international community through the week 
and on the previous day, January 31, MONUC had presented a proposal 
to the armed groups that they turn to MONUC for immediate 
investigation of all claims of ceasefire violations, rather than go 
to the media.  Lacaille said that a fully constituted task force 
would soon be established in accord with the Acte d'Engagement.  The 
EU observer, Jean-Michel Dumont, noted that FDLR was a signatory to 
neither the Nairobi communique nor the Goma Acte, and there were 
"strong suspicions" that the FDLR was implicated in the military 
incidents of the past week.  Lacaille said that, even among 
signatories to the Acte, there remained the problem of "getting the 
message" to all the combatants in the field, a sensitization process 
that would require some time. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Rutagengwa urged that MONUC's DDRRR unit and North Kivu 
Brigade give briefings at every Task Force meeting henceforward. 
 
GARVELINK