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OO RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #0338/01 0991304
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 081304Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7869
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHJB/AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA 0021
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KINSHASA 000338 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL CG
SUBJECT: GOMA NOTES: 04/04/08 - GOMA PROCESS: THE JTCPS GETS DOWN TO 
WORK AND BACK TO SCHOOL 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  The Amani Program's Joint Technical Commission on 
Peace and Security (JTCPS) convened for its first working session 
April 4.  Abbe Muholongu Malumalu was very much at the center of 
things in his role as National Coordinator.  Much of what happened 
must have resonated deeply with the past experiences of at least the 
Congolese who had been through high school.  The only order of 
business was to establish three initial working groups:  1) 
Calendar; 2) Provincial Structures; and 3) Internal Rules.  The 
groups then met briefly.  Participants seemed a little stunned by 
the freedom all this has conferred on them, and the level of 
seriousness is for now very high.  End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) After the previous day's events, which were largely 
ceremonial (but important in their own right), the Amani Program's 
Joint Technical Commission on Peace and Security (JTCPS) convened 
for its first working session April 4 at 1500 at the secluded 
Ishangu Hotel.  FARDC General (a title he prefers to his official 
designation as Vice Admiral) Didier Etumba assumed his role as 
co-chair, but Abbe Muholongu Malumalu was very much at the center of 
things in his role as National Coordinator.  The other co-chair was 
Jean-Michel Dumont, for the EU, which left the U.S. delegation 
somewhat perplexed, as MONUC is the Commission's designated 
co-chair.  MONUC was almost totally absent, with only a lieutenant 
colonel and a junior political officer in attendance. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The 1500 opening was arranged by Dumont in a phone call to 
Abbe Malumalu instead of the planned 1100 start in order to 
accommodate International Facilitation commitments at the weekly 
meeting of the Joint Monitoring Group Task Force (JMG-TF).  Within 
the Facilitation, only the U.S. has the personnel on the ground to 
cover both processes at the same time.  In terms of senior 
representation, even MONUC does not, so the entire JTCPS rearranged 
its schedule accordingly and the signatories had to hang around all 
day.  This may not have been entirely a bad thing, as it appears a 
lot of behind-the-scenes prep work went on while several of the 
facilitators were sweating out yet another JMG-TF. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Once everyone was in place, execution of the meeting was 
vintage Malumalu.  As always, the Abbe had worked out his 
stage-setter.  In this case, and before any other words were spoken, 
it was the distribution to the assembled members and functionaries 
of their letters of appointment, accompanied by a copy of the 
special issue of the Journal Officiel that had been custom-printed 
at the his behest and that included under one cover all the Amani 
decrees.  In his softest voice, the Abbe read out each name, and 
those called approached the high table to receive their letters of 
appointment from the hands of the JTCPS's permanent secretary, 
Maitre Rene Abandi of the CNDP.  The high symbolism of the moment 
can have been lost on no one, and the members-or-other-functionaries 
stepped forward much like (and this can't be entirely fortuitous) 
parishioners taking communion. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The rest of the afternoon proceeded much like the first day 
of school -- perhaps the first day of junior high, with the pupils 
coming from a variety of primary schools.  Again, much of what 
happened much have resonated deeply with the past experiences of at 
least those who had been through high school:  in Congolese 
high-school terms, the Abbe Recteur made a few wise comments, then 
the Proviseur (General Etumba -- or maybe he was the Prefet de 
discipline) proceeded to dress the pupils down and straighten them 
out:  Be punctual! Behave yourselves! Stick to the tasks ahead of 
you! Get your work done! Our job is to bring peace to this country! 
Don't you realize that the distinguished members of the Facilitation 
have other things to do?  All of this interspersed with ritualized 
jokes of the heavier-handed francophone variety that everyone had 
heard hundreds of times before and was still required to smile at. 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) Not that everyone there had been through high school:  one 
of the few, timid comments from the floor was from a Mai-Mai member 
worried that not everyone spoke French that well and that there 
might be a need for interpreters.  The Abbe stepped right up to this 
one with his most winning and tolerant smile:  who needs 
interpreters when you have each other? Help each other!  Sit with 
those who don't have enough French and make sure they understand! 
 
¶7. (SBU) It all worked perfectly:  the conditioned reflexes clicked 
in, and the pupils remained on their best behavior.  One unruly 
pupil did begin something that might have evolved into a rant, but 
he was cut off drily by General Etumba:  "Je vous retire la parole." 
 And, in terms of unruliness, that was that, at least for the day. 
 
 
¶8. (SBU) The school in session, though, turned out to be of the more 
 
KINSHASA 00000338  002 OF 003 
 
 
progressive kind:  the first and (aside from the bestowal of the 
letters of appointment) only order of business was to establish 
three initial working groups:  1) Calendar (a reworking or -- it is 
to be hoped -- a total rethinking of the original Acte d'Engagement 
calendar; 2) Provincial Structures; 3) the ever-delicate Internal 
Rules.  Each of you will sign up for one of these groups.  We set no 
schedule or timetable, but we expect at least one of the groups to 
have its assignment done and ready to present to the rest of us on 
Wednesday, and we expect all of you to have completed your 
assignments by next Friday.  Naturally, each group will probably 
want to name a moderator and a rapporteur.  We will also have 
resource people, who are NOT voting members of the Commission, don't 
worry, but we need their help, so don't be surprised if some of 
these show up to help you in your work.  Choose which group you want 
to join, come up to the table when you have made your choice and 
sign the appropriate list.  Set your own hours, work at your own 
pace. 
 
¶9. (SBU) At this point, a hand was raised from the floor:   Sir, 
wouldn't it be best if the provincial caucuses could get together to 
figure out who would be most appropriate for each group?  Ah, the 
Abbe replied, that sounds like a good idea, let's take a break and, 
if you wish to, by all means caucus in your provincial groups.  It 
would be astonishing if this exchange was unanticipated. 
 
¶10. (SBU) The provincial groups duly withdrew into caucuses, and 
there ensued about 40 minutes of earnest discussion between the 
members of armed groups (and of the provincial governments) who had 
a few months ago been at each others' throats (but who do have the 
not-dissimilar experience of the Goma conference between them, or 
most of them), or at least have been (and still are) at the throats 
of the civilian population. 
 
¶11. (SBU) When the session resumed, attendees stepped shyly forward 
and signed up on one of the three lists, with the Abbe, the General, 
the Permanent Secretary and assorted dignitaries (including 8th 
Region Military Commander Vainqueur Mayala, North Kivu Vice-Governor 
Feller Lutaichirwa -- the South Kivu regional government was notable 
by its absence -- and, of all people, Bizima Karaha, at whose feet 
all of Goma once trembled) looking benignly on.  By no conceivable 
coincidence, each list ended up with exactly 11 names, with 
provincial and armed group representation, inevitably and 
predictably, evenly distributed, the ingenious device of having 
three (not two or any multiple thereof) working groups ensuring 
maximum brassage. 
 
¶12. (SBU) The meeting reconvened, and were given further ground 
rules by the Abbe himself:  the working groups were established, now 
the work begins.  This is a technical (he emphasized) commission, 
and I remind you that you have specific tasks to plan and oversee: 
disengagement, demobilization, brassage, social reintegration, and 
the return and reintegration of IDPs and refugees.  We are not here 
to do politics -- if that's what you want to do, go find another 
forum.  We require reasoned arguments, not overweening position 
statements.  And we require confidentiality.  Keep everything to 
yourselves, but be sure to share among yourselves and within your 
organizations:  I don't want to hear that someone in some 
organization is upset because he quote-unquote hadn't been informed 
of something we have discussed or decided.  Now, go meet in your 
groups and get organized.  I'll be contacting all of you 
individually in the coming days, but as for any plenaries, see you 
next week.  The U.S. added that the working groups must think of 
themselves as temporary, and that once their tasks are done, members 
will go on to other tasks in other groups.  The Abbe nodded 
approvingly. 
 
¶13. (SBU) The groups then met briefly.  Some chose chairmen (there 
is not a single woman in any of this), others decided to do this the 
following day.  In the Provincial Structures group, the only 
decision was to meet at 9:00, and the only discussion was about 
whether this would be decided by a show of hands (democratic, but 
favoring those who stay in Goma) or by reasoned argument (favoring 
those who have to travel some distance, and who have a case to 
make).  The group had both -- reasoned arguments led to a conclusive 
show of hands in favor of 9:00, showing solidarity.  Other groups 
will meet at 9:30.  There are no agendas and no scopes of work, but 
it would not be surprising if there was a bit of technical 
assistance at some point. 
 
¶14. (SBU) Comment.  Participants seemed a little stunned by the 
freedom all this has conferred on them, and the level of seriousness 
is for now very high.  As for the International Facilitation, in a 
progressive-school environment like this, we will ideally be in the 
background.  To continue the Congolese high-school analogy, for now 
 
KINSHASA 00000338  003 OF 003 
 
 
we are the surveillants.  End comment. 
 
GARVELINK