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DE RUEHKI #0896/01 2911030
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R 171030Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8618
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
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RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KINSHASA 000896 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL MOPS KPKO PTER CG
SUBJECT:    October 10 letter to Secretary of State 
        from Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Nkunda 
 
KINSHASA 00000896  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  Below at para. 3 is October 10 letter from rebel leader Laurent 
Nkunda to Secretary Rice.  The letter was e-mailed to Embassy 
Kampala (polchief FitzGibbon) through Victor Ngezayo, a prominent 
Congolese Tutsi businessman from Goma who is close to the CNDP, 
Nkunda's political-military group.  The letter is styled a 
"clarification" of the CNDP's October 1 statement in which the CNDP 
redefines its objective as "national liberation."  A scanned copy of 
letter was also e-mailed to AF/C. 
¶2.  Embassy Kinshasa does not/not recommend replying to Nkunda's 
letter. 
¶3.  Following is text of CNDP letter to Secretary Rice in original 
English.  Please note that the transcription below includes all 
spelling and grammatical errors as contained in the original text. 
Begin text Nkunda letter to Secretary Rice 
Bwiza, October 10th, 2008 
To Her Excellency Condoleeza RICE 
Secretary of State of the United States of America 
WASHINGTON, D.C. (USA) 
Subject:  Clarification of the CNDP's declaration dated October 1, 
2008 
 
Your Excellency 
 
In the name of the Political Direction of our Movement, we have the 
great honor to address this letter to you in order to explain to the 
Government of the United States of America the CNDP's  political 
position. It is important to clarify the CNDP's message carried on 
the radio (October 2nd, 2008).  Indeed, during our extraordinary 
congress held at our headquarters in Bwiza, territory of Rutshuru, 
Province of North-Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the CNDP 
has taken the political decision to transform itself from being 
alone regional political movement with legitimate grievances for 
eastern Congo into a political movement with national objectives. 
 
¶1. Loss of legitimacy of Kabila Government 
 
Fundamentally, we, along with the majority of the Congolese people 
throughout the country, reject the irresponsible leadership and 
mismanagement of public affairs by the Government which has since 
lost all legitimacy in the eyes of the Congolese people. Since the 
2006 elections, it has resorted back to oppressive, autocratic, 
dictatorial and brutal methods of governance, while at the same time 
engaging in organized looting of our country's natural resources on 
an unprecedented scale, to the detriment of our people. You may be 
informed of the two massacres of the Bakongo people committed by the 
State's security forces in the Bas Congo province which constitute a 
crime against humanity and which President Joseph Kabila publicly 
assumed; assassinations of civilians and members of the Political 
Opposition by the State's security forces; gross misappropriation of 
public funds by a Government which does not pay its' civil servants, 
doctors, teachers nor supply basic necessities like drinking water 
and minimal medical care; organized looting of natural resources by 
a small elite in power to the detriment of the national budget and 
the people particularly in the strategic mining and oil sectors; 
illegitimate unfair contracts negotiated by the Government with 
China and which were unanimously rejected by the Congolese Political 
Opposition and Civil Society. CNDP believe that by joining with 
other opposition groups, significant pressure can help improve 
governance. 
 
¶2.  Alliance with foreign armed groups undermines Kabila's 
legitimacy 
 
The loss of legitimacy and rejection of, the Kabila regime in the 
eyes of the Congolese people is particularly strong as regards the 
failure to resolve peacefully the crisis in Eastern DRC where the 
Government has failed to deliver on its' basic responsibilities of 
securing the people. This failure is due essentially to the criminal 
complicity, support and, in some cases, alliance of the Government 
of DRC with negative foreign armed groups who operate freely on 
Congolese territory, controlling huge portions of the national 
territory, terrorizing its' population and illegally exploiting the 
eastern mineral belt. These negative foreign armed groups which 
benefit from the safe haven provided to them by an irresponsible 
Congolese leadership include the Ugandan LRA who are currently very 
active in North-eastern DRC wreaking havoc on a Congolese population 
completely abandoned by their Government, the Ugandan ADF/NALU, the 
Rwandese ex-FAR/Interahamwe (since reorganized in Kinshasa as the 
FDLR) who carried out the 1994 Genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda, and the 
Burundian FNL.  The fact is that while the Congolese Government has 
committed itself through various Accords, including the Tripartite+1 
Agreements and the Nairobi Agreement, to disarm with force if 
necessary these negative foreign armed groups operating on its' 
territory, they have shown absolutely no political will to honor 
their commitments, on the contrary supporting and even allying 
themselves with these negative forces.  This irresponsible and 
 
KINSHASA 00000896  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
criminal policy pursued by the Kabila regime is the primary source 
of the destabilization of Eastern DRC as well as undermines the 
stability of the Great Lakes region, and it is simply unacceptable. 
 
¶3.  Failure of to honor International commitments 
 
As regards the particularly sensitive issue of the 
ex-FAR/Interahamwe (since reorganized in Kinshasa as the FDLR), one 
must point out the Government of DRC's failure to deliver on its' 
commitments made at the signing of the Nairobi Agreement  with the 
Government of Rwanda under UN auspices, and witnessed by  U.S. and 
E.U. representatives.  You may recall the Government of DRC had 
committed itself to disarming the FDLR, with the help of MONUC, by 
June 15th 2008. The Kabila regime, after months of reassuring the 
International Community that it intended to fight the FDLR, instead 
of doing so as they had committed to under the Nairobi Agreement, 
did the unthinkable:  they militarily allied themselves with the 
terrorist and genocidal military organization 
FDLR/ex-FAR/Interahamwe as well as local ethnic militias they had 
created based on a dangerous anti-Tutsi xenophobic ideology (PARECO, 
MONGOLS, Mai-Mai) and together, this negative alliance turned their 
arms against the Congolese CNDP whom they falsely accused of being 
composed only of Congolese Tutsis.  This negative alliance has since 
used all means of pressure including manipulation of the population, 
in order to strong-arm the United Nations' Mission MONUC into 
supporting their negative alliance, in violation of the UN's 
commitment to fight the FDLR/ex-FAR/Interahamwe. 
 
Prior to these recent developments, the DRC Government had entered 
into a Gentleman's Agreement during negotiations between President 
Joseph Kabila's special envoy General John Numbi and the Chairman of 
CNDP General Laurent Nkunda Mihigo, under Rwandan and South African 
facilitation. These negotiations had resulted in an agreement to 
integrate the troops of CNDP and FARDC under a "Mixage" program, 
from which they would then jointly secure Eastern DRC and rid the 
region of the FDLR. This program was immediately implemented, but 
the DRC Government reneged on its' commitment from the moment the 
Brigades resulting from "Mixage" started fighting the FDLR.  The 
reason for this sudden abandonment of its own commitments on the 
part of the DRC Government is the same: the DRC Government is 
financially, politically and militarily allied to the 
FDLR/exFAR/Interahamwe, and therefore on the one hand, it is 
incapable of disarming them, and on the other hand, it will oppose 
all who attempt to do so, the fundamental reason why it opposes the 
CNDP today. 
 
¶4.  Lack of political will to resolve underlying causes of the 
crisis 
 
Since the deliberate sabotage of the Mixage program by the DRC 
Government, and despite the organization of the Goma Conference and 
the signing of the Acte d'Engagement where the CNDP showed its good 
will in accepting to give a negotiated settlement a chance despite 
the fact that CNDP had military superiority over the FARDC's 
negative alliance, the DRC Government has shown no political will to 
reach a peaceful solution, nor tackle the fundamental national 
issues at the core of the crisis.  Given the fundamental fact that 
the Kabila regime is allied to the FDLR, it systematically torpedoes 
all efforts to disarm the negative foreign armed forces operating on 
its' territory and foments instability on its' own territory in 
order to distract attention from this reality.  At this point, one 
can question if the massive military build-up in Eastern DRC under 
its' configuration of a negative alliance is indeed directed at CNDP 
or if the final objective is to provoke Rwanda into once again 
entering into the DRC and thus, making the conflict a regional one 
in the hope that this would force the International Community into 
saving the failing Kabila regime.  MONUC, submitting to  pressure by 
the same Kabila regime, has lost its' neutrality and credibility as 
a peace-broker and peace-keeper in the DRC by taking sides and 
supporting, even militarily, the FARDC while fully informed of the 
negative alliance the FARDC has entered into.   MONUC is at the same 
time, as the UNAMIR in Rwanda in 1994, fully and passively aware of 
the policy of manipulating anti-Tutsi ethnic hatred, and targeting a 
civilian population, pursued by the Congolese national authorities. 
 
It is in light of the irresponsible policies outlined above pursued 
by a Government that we have taken the political option to join 
hands with all Congolese citizens who aspire to improve governance, 
improve security for Congolese citizens and improve economic 
conditions in Congo. We want to be clear that CNDP now considers 
itself a national opposition party, not a regionally-based and 
focused party. We want to make political change in Congo in a 
peaceful manner, not through military means. However, the CNDP will 
defend the population in eastern Congo from attack from foreign 
armed groups as well as State security forces who kill and commit 
massive human rights violations against their own people instead of 
 
KINSHASA 00000896  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
securing them. 
 
Whether it is the stand taken by the Political Opposition in 
Kinshasa against the regime, or the many social movements protesting 
bad governance, or the struggle by the Bakongo people for autonomy, 
or the struggle of Congolese Tustis, Nandes, Hundes, Hutus, Hemas, 
Lendus, etc  for their legitimate rights, these are all 
manifestations of the same unified desire of the Congolese people to 
free themselves from the chains of another dictatorship in the 
making and to finally, for the first time in history, truly reap the 
fruits of security, stability, good governance, rule of law and 
democracy. 
 
¶5.  Recommendations for the U.S. Government and the International 
Community 
 
In order to promote accountability, respect of human rights and 
democracy in the DRC, the International Community should: 
 
¶1. Investigate links between FARDC - PARECO - FDLR. All cooperation 
between the FARDC, FDLR and PARECO, military or financial, must be 
severely condemned and sanctioned. 
 
¶2. Urge MONUC to maintain its legitimacy by stopping any assistance 
- tacit or material to foreign armed groups, even when these are 
allied to or supported by the DRC regime and army. In order to 
achieve this and clear MONUC of all ambiguous actions compromising 
the UN's role in DRC, clearly define a mandate of absolute 
neutrality for MONUC. 
 
¶3. Investigate the opaque financing and arming of the current 
conflict by the DRC regime and army, including arms shipments from 
China, arms distribution to local and foreign armed groups by the 
FARDC, embezzlement of state companies' funds deviated from the 
national budget to finance the war in Eastern Congo and illicitly 
enrich Ministers and Officers involved in the conflict. 
 
¶4. Investigate xenophobic targeting of the Congolese Tutsi minority, 
including arbitrary arrests, torture, killing, exclusion from jobs, 
looting of private businesses, properties, loss of livelihood, hate 
speeches inciting genocidal acts on state media, forced exile, 
creation of a negative military alliance by the FARDC based on a 
genocidal anti-tutsi ideology, etc. 
 
¶5. Support direct political negotiations between the DRC Government 
and the CNDP in a neutral third - country and under conditions 
acceptable to both parties. 
 
Please allow us, Your Excellency, to thank you for your attention 
and continued commitment to stability, democracy and good governance 
in the DRC, particularly in Eastern DRC which is closely linked to 
the stability and development of the East African Community. 
Please accept, Your Excellency, the expression of our highest 
consideration. 
 
For the Political Bureau of CNDP 
The Chairman 
Signed 
Laurent Nkunda Mihigo 
Major General 
 
End text Nkunda letter to Secretary Rice 
 
BROCK