VZCZCXRO1619
OO RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #0919/01 2961603
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 221603Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8653
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000919 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL MOPS KPKO KTIP CG
SUBJECT:   INTERVIEWS WITH ESCAPED CNDP SOLDIERS 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  On October 20 Goma Poloff had the opportunity to 
speak with three escaped CNDP soldiers.  The soldiers, 13, 15, and 
23 years old, had been brought to Goma by MONUC.  The interview took 
place on the MONUC DDRRR compound where a handful of CNDP and FDLR 
escapees trickle in on a daily basis.  They reside briefly in four 
tents on the compound before they are either taken back to Rwanda or 
handed over to MONUC Child Protection for reunification with their 
families.  Interestingly, CNDP and FDLR escapees are intermingled in 
the same tents with no apparent problems.  All three individuals 
spoke Kinyarwanda.  If their stories are true the CNDP has been 
forcibly recruiting child soldiers after agreeing, via the Goma 
accords, to not do so.  End Summary. 
 
Jean-Claude 
----------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The first interviewee, Jean-Claude, was a 23 year old 
Rwandan citizen from Kigali and a sergeant in the CNDP. 
Approximately one year ago, a young friend from his neighborhood 
approached him and assured him he could find him a job in Goma. 
Jean-Claude, along with five other boys and young men, paid 2,500 
Rwandan francs (approximately $5) for a bus ticket to Gisenyi, the 
Rwandan border town adjacent to Goma.  A man, who would later be 
their field commander, met them.  The young men spent the night at 
the man's house in Gisenyi, at which point Jean-Claude learned that 
he would be going to join the CNDP.  He still believed he would be 
able earn money, however, and decided to continue. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The next morning at 6:00 am, one and a half hours before 
the official opening of the border, the six were taken to the 
border.  On the Rwandan side they spoke to no one and showed no 
papers, though Jean-Claude had an identity card in his possession. 
On the DRC side they again did not have to show any documents, but 
did have to pay money to the guard.  Since it was early on a Sunday 
morning there was almost no one at the border.  Once in Goma, a man 
in a mini bus picked them up and drove them directly to Mushake, 
where they were given food and water and were told that training 
would begin the next day. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The training consisted of weapons training, but nothing on 
small unit tactics.  The fighting he experienced was all in the 
Mushake sector of the CNDP-controlled area (Mushake, Sake, and 
Karuba) and took place in September and October this year.  Life in 
the CNDP was extremely difficult, particularly because there was not 
much food - mostly cornmeal and water.  Also, Jean-Claude 
complained, since arriving in Mushake he had not been paid one 
franc.  Thus, three days prior to the interview, he decided to leave 
the CNDP.  He was sent on an errand to fetch milk, but instead ran 
into the bush to wait for nightfall.  At 7:00 pm he approached 
Mushake town and found a cow herder who, upon learning his 
intentions, told him to approach the MONUC base in town with his 
rifle over his head.  Jean-Claude did this and was taken into the 
base and later to the DDRRR camp in Goma.  When asked if other 
soldiers in the CNDP knew they had this "option" of leaving the 
CNDP, Jean-Claude assumed they did, but noted that it was not 
something that was discussed with others; it was a decision taken 
individually. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Jean-Claude stated that the CNDP had been recruiting many 
young boys locally.  Theoretically no one under 16 would be 
recruited, and those under 18 would serve only as porters and not 
participate in combat.  (Note:  Other interviewees revealed that 
this system was not always respected.  End note.)  Forced 
recruitment had escalated recently - as human rights organizations 
in Goma also have confirmed - with 100 individuals recruited in a 
single day in Mushake, of whom roughly 40 were below the age of 18. 
The population was not happy with these developments, so some 
families decided to leave the area to avoid forced recruitment. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Jean-Claude, when prompted, also commented on other 
aspects of CNDP life.  He said a common punishment was to be beaten 
with a stick.  Examples of punishable crimes included the deliberate 
killing of a civilian and rape (Note:  Poloff had heard CNDP leaders 
state this before, though groups such as Human Rights Watch claim 
that indiscriminate killing and executions of collaborators were 
common. End note.)  Jean-Claude had himself not witnessed any 
executions. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) From his position (which was one of receiving orders 
rather than giving them), Jean-Claude always felt that Laurent 
Nkunda was firmly in charge.  He had not been aware of any potential 
divisions in the CNDP command structure.  He also did not remember 
seeing any RDF (Rwandan Defense Force) officers, though the CNDP 
commanders would often allude to the notion that at the last minute 
the Rwandans could come across the border and save the day.  He said 
taking Goma was regularly portrayed as the ultimate military 
 
KINSHASA 00000919  002 OF 002 
 
 
objective for the CNDP, but that the leadership did not want to 
openly confront MONUC.  Finally, when asked what kind of movement he 
felt the CNDP was, Jean-Claude said it was a Tutsi movement, but 
that many Hutu were in its ranks.  He said this was not a source of 
internal division among CNDP soldiers. 
 
Luc 
--- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Luc was a 15 year old Congolese boy from the Mweso area 
who had fled from the ranks of the CNDP two days earlier.  In early 
April 2008, his church was surrounded by CNDP soldiers during a 
Sunday service.  The commander entered the church and told the 
priest they would be taking all the young boys.  The CNDP 
"recruited" 16 boys under the age of 18 and some younger than 16. 
Within a month he had learned to shoot and in May was involved in a 
firefight (he was uncertain whether it was against FARDC or PARECO) 
in the Mweso area during which three of the 16 boys were killed. 
(Note:  There did not seem to be as many children within the CNDP at 
the time  -- just the 13 remaining boys out of 200 individuals -- 
compared to the more recent situation described by Jean-Claude.  End 
note.) 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Luc said that living conditions with the CNDP were bad. 
Like Jean-Claude, he received cornmeal to eat and it was often 
spoiled.  He was a porter and was not expected to participate in 
combat operations unless the fighting was intense.  During the 
fighting in September he did not participate in the attack on 
Nyanzale but he did end up fighting PARECO later around Mweso.  When 
he saw his chance, Luc left his unit at night and walked about eight 
kilometers before sleeping.  The next day he made his way to 
Kitchanga where he approached MONUC and was then brought to Goma. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) When asked, Luc said he took drugs -- a marijuana-like 
substance -- while with the CNDP.  However, he did this because 
everyone else did, mostly to distract themselves from the fact that 
they were tired and hungry.  The drugs could be purchased in most 
major markets, usually with some of the money that officers had 
given them to buy food.  He did not give the impression that drugs 
were supplied to the children in a deliberate fashion by the CNDP 
leadership. 
 
Patrick 
------- 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Patrick was also a Congolese boy, 13, from around Mweso. 
He claimed to have been recruited a year ago.  His abduction 
happened while he was in school.  Approximately a dozen CNDP 
soldiers came to the school and informed the teacher that they would 
be taking the oldest boys.  There had been older boys in other 
classrooms, but Patrick thought they must have known what was 
happening when they saw the soldiers arriving because they fled and 
escaped.  Patrick was also involved in combat against PARECO in 
early October.  Six of the people in his unit of 100 were young 
children.  Two days prior to the interview he had also left his 
guard post with three other boys and went to Kitchanga where MONUC 
took him in.  Both Patrick and Luc had no idea where their parents 
were.  However, they feared going home, because that was where they 
had been abducted and they might face punitive action if caught by 
CNDP. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Comment:  The accounts of these young combatants is a 
vivid description of the continuing tragedy of forced recruitment of 
child soldiers in the eastern DRC.  Although many, if not all, armed 
groups in the Kivus are guilty of this practice, these youngsters 
were abducted by the CNDP, which has denied accusations that it 
recruits child soldiers.  As Luc's claim that he and other children 
were forcibly recruited as late as April of this year -- after the 
Goma agreements were signed -- this also calls into question the 
CNDP's good faith, from the beginning, vis-a-vis the Amani process. 
End Comment. 
 
BROCK