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Rebel groups unite to disarm "negative forces"

    NAIROBI

    Two armed opposition movements in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have agreed to form "a joint military force to track down, arrest and disarm negative forces" including the Interahamwe (Rwandan Hutu militias), the ex-FAR (former Rwandan Armed Forces), and the Mayi-Mayi (Congolese militias), rebel-controlled RTNC radio reported in Goma on Monday.

    Other groups will include the FDD (Burundian Hutu rebel Forces pour la defense de la democratie), the ADF (Ugandan rebel Allied Democratic Forces) and NALU (National Army for the Liberation of Uganda), RTNC radio added.

    Delegations from the two rebel movements - the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) and the Ugandan-backed Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo (MLC) - submitted a plan for their coalition to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, with whom they met in Kigali during the weekend. Kagame "encouraged them to continue working together, and to realise that only Congolese can solve Congo's problems", the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported on Monday.

    The joint delegation informed Kagame of the beginning of the inter-Congolese dialogue last week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting was suspended on Sunday 22 Oct by talks facilitator and former Botswanan president Ketumile Masire after the DRC government delegation left the talks, stating that insufficient funds prevented a fully-representative dialogue to take place. Efforts are underway to restart the talks in November in South Africa.

    The joint rebel delegation was led by the Secretaries-General of RCD-Goma, Azarias Ruberwa, and of the MLC, Olivier Kamitatu.

    On Wednesday, the UN Security Council expressed its support for "Phase III" of the UN peacekeeping operation in the DRC - a move that would involve the deployment of UN troops and military observers towards the east of the country, where the "negative forces" are based. Although the 1999 Lusaka peace agreement places the responsibility of demobilising and disarming these forces on signatories of the accord, the UN has become involved as well.

    A mission led by the Emergency Response Division (ERD) of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) recently determined that "the time is right for the implementation of disarmament, demobilisation and durable solutions initiatives as dispositions and actions exist in the region that, if reinforced, could support a [such a] process to check the continued evolution of armed groups within the DRC and the Great Lakes region".

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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