Rwandan soldiers in the DRC: what evidence? (2/2)

Text by: Sonia Rolley Follow

For more than a year, the Rwandan army has been suspected of carrying out operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo against Rwandan politico-military groups based on Congolese soil, with the agreement of the government of Kinshasa. Opposition officials or civil society organizations in the two countries denounce these incursions, which are said to be accompanied by targeted assassinations and atrocities against the civilian population.

Publicity

From the Highlands of Minembwe to the plains of Rutshuru, rumors have been spreading since June 2019. Fighters of the Rwanda National Congress (RNC) , the movement of the former chief of staff of Rwanda, General Kayumba Nyamwasa , fell into three successive ambushes. "  They came out without much damage from the first two confrontations,  " said an RNC executive. "  They did not distrust enough.  Barely a few dozen would have escaped the third attack. The executive continues: “  They found themselves trapped by a river in Masisi in early June. The Rwandan army massacred the group of Ali Sibomana, wounded Major Habibou and captured it with around twenty of his men.  "

These battles, as well as the involvement of the RNC, an almost unknown group in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), went almost unnoticed at the time. The Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) and the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Monusco) have never mentioned it. Some newspapers close to the Rwandan regime, however, mentioned these clashes in the weeks that followed, even mentioning the name of Major Habib Mudathiru, better known as Habibou Moussa. The first public appearance of this retiree from the Rwandan army will not take place until four months later. On October 2, 2019, he was presented, convalescent, before the Rwandan military court in Nyamirambo, with 24 other alleged rebels, all accused of belonging to an illegal armed organization, of treason, of forming an illegal army and of conspiracy with foreign countries to destabilize Rwanda. Officially, they were arrested by the FARDC and then extradited. “  Bad news for the RNC and its sponsors. The terrorist organization, led by Kayumba Nyamwasa, has faced (and will continue to face) the military force of the Congolese army, and is now facing justice in Rwanda,  "said the Rwandan Minister of State. in charge of East African affairs, Olivier Nduhungirehe [he was removed from office on April 9, 2020, editor's note].

" Punished " for their support of the RNC

If the RNC has long gone unnoticed in the DRC, it is because it has often been confused with other groups. In Bijombo, on the High Plains of South Kivu, for almost three years, these fighters posed as Gumino, a Banyamulenge rebel group [Congolese Tutsis, Editor's Note] resuscitated by officers of the Congolese army to fight in 2012 pro-Kigali rebellion of M23 in this province. "  Kayumba had his networks here since the time of the war, he knew FARDC officers and even certain leaders of armed groups,  " said a former munyulenge rebel. These mountains are a perfect refuge for this embryonic rebellion: almost inaccessible by road, all close to the borders of Rwanda and Burundi.

The arrival of the RNC and the tensions between the eastern neighbors will lead from 2017 to months of attacks and reprisals as well as massive population displacements. The mayor of Minembwe denounced "  the black hand of the foreigner  ". Indeed, the Banyamulenge combatants who reigned supreme on the Hauts Plateaux face an unprecedented coalition made up of Mai-Mai groups, Burundian rebels supported by Kigali and a deployment of increasingly hostile FARDC officers. Since July 2018 and a meeting between the Rwandan head of state and the emissaries of his counterpart Joseph Kabila, the Congolese security forces, long accused of being accomplices of the Rwandan rebel groups, have turned against their allies yesterday. "  Kigali made us pay for our support to the people of Kayumba,  " said a former Munyamulenge rebel. "  The Guminos and the RNC started to have problems in September 2018, they couldn't agree on the management of resources and manpower and the people of Kayumba left. But despite that, we were punished.  "

Rwandan soldiers " whom we knew "

After leaving the Hauts Plateaux, the RNC combatants infiltrate in small groups, in the territory of Kalehe, further north, where they are welcomed in villages by other Rwandan rebels, those of the CNRD (National Council for the Renewal and democracy). After the Gumino, Kayumba Nyamwasa's men melted for a few weeks in this dissident Hutu group of the FDLR, at the time led by Wilson Irategeka. They do not stand out: they are for many young Hutus recruited in Rwanda, Burundi or in refugee camps in Uganda, according to the interim report of the UN group of experts in December 2018. Wherever they will be past or announced, the armed groups which helped them or their leaders will be systematically attacked.

"  On November 26, 2019, we were attacked by the FARDC and the Rwandan army in Kitindiro,  " assures a Rwandan refugee formerly settled in one of these villages. “  We spent two days in the bush in the surroundings waiting for the intervention of Monusco. She had promised us during her visit on November 21, it was a Thursday.  For several days, the inhabitants of Kitindiro have been worried, convinced that detachments of the Rwandan army were present alongside the FARDC troops deployed in the area. "  They wore the same uniforms as the Congolese army, up to the insignia, but they had ponchos and even the arms of the Rwandan army  ," this witness told RFI.

This is not the only clue that the Kitindiro refugees are raising. "  There were two of them we knew,  " says the Rwandan refugee. “  They evolved for a long time in the Congo before joining the Rwandan army.  The man quotes the name of "General Come Semugeshi". Who is that man ? This witness refuses to specify it. A general with the same name has "  evolved  " in the Congo. This former gendarme was even part of the Rwandan rebellion CNRD, before going to Monusco and being repatriated to Rwanda in 2017. This return had exceeded several civil society organizations in North Kivu - persecuted that he had participated massacres of civilians, notably that of Busurungi in 2009, but had been the subject of some publicity by the Rwanda demobilization program. From the center of Mutobo, the former rebel general had even called his former brothers in arms to leave the maquis and described the criticisms leveled against Kigali as lies.

Under what circumstances would this CNRD veteran find himself in the Congo again? "  The Rwandans return them and use them against their former comrades in arms,  " said one of the civil society leaders in North Kivu. He himself said that he had documented the presence of former FDLR in the ranks of these alleged Rwandan soldiers. “  Before, the Rwandan soldiers who came to the Congo looked like the soldiers of the APR [Rwandan Patriotic Army, ex-rebellion of Paul Kagame Editor's note]. Now, they are Hutus and they wear Congolese uniforms, you can be wrong if you are not careful.  These accusations are put into perspective by the governor of North Kivu. For Carly Nzanzu Kasivita, we must not take away the laurels from the FARDC: “  Today, if we are successful against the FDLR, people must not make assumptions. Our army does not need external support for war.  "

Do not oppose " the will of President Tshisekedi "

In humanitarian terms, operations against armed groups have also had consequences. Like other “  dependents  ” [family members, editor's note] of Rwandan rebel groups, the refugees in Kitindiro claim to be victims of abuses and claim to have received no assistance. "  Monusco replied that it could not intervene in these operations, that it could not oppose the will of President Tshisekedi,  " said one of them. At least 700 IDPs had found refuge around the temporary base in Bibatama, however, a UN source recalls.

These Rwandan civilians say they have been "  chased and killed  " by several "  forces  ": Rwandan, Congolese soldiers and even a Mayi-Mayi group, have suffered hunger in their exodus and deplored the deaths of "  many old people and children  " on the way. They fled to Kahuzi Park to take refuge with other CNRD combatants.

Others are captured and detained by the FARDC. The Congolese head of state welcomes this on December 13, 2019 in a speech to the congress. According to Felix Tshisekedi, more than 95% of the CNRD bases were then destroyed and the FARDC carried out 1,700 arrests, including those of 245 combatants. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) denounces him "  unsanitary conditions of hygiene, overcrowding, poor access to water, health care and food  ". Crowded into the Nyamuyinyi military camp, near Bukavu in South Kivu, near Bukavu, at least ten of them, including children who died of severe malnutrition or suffocation, specifies a UN source. A few days later, civilians and soldiers will all be repatriated to Rwanda by the armies of two countries which boast of a “  voluntary repatriation operation  ”. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights protests.

Despite the successes announced, military operations continued in January 2020 against the CNRD in the Mwenga territory. Others target the main FDLR commanders in the Masisi and Rutshuru territories. Allegations about the presence of Rwandan soldiers are increasing. Questioned on April 16, 2020, Monusco said it had at this stage "  no evidence of visible physical presence  " of a foreign army operating on Congolese soil. "  The only army visible in this area , insists one of its spokesmen, is the Congolese army which has denied any foreign presence . "

However, the United Nations has gathered testimonies from Congolese and Rwandan civilians, demobilized or captured from these armed groups. In mid-January 2020, a mission even visited several localities in the Kalehe territory where the villagers testified to the presence of Rwandan soldiers "  who were not hiding in their villages  " and the existence of "  graves communes  ”nearby. "  We are a partner of the Congolese army, but that has never stopped us from denouncing any human rights violation that may have been committed by the army or non-state actors,  " said one spokespersons for Monusco.

"  An almost continuous presence in the Congo since 2002  "

In North Kivu where operations continue to take place and target the last military and political leaders of the FDLR, Governor Carly Nzanzu Kasivita also assures “that  he has received no information from the military authorities  ” on a possible involvement of soldiers Rwandan. "  I believe that if we were to have military cooperation in this direction, the Ministry of Defense would have seized us and given all the information,  " explains the number 1 executive in the province. Yet the Kivu Security Tracker, an alert platform set up by the Congo Study Group (GEC), a research center at New York University, and the organization for the defense of human rights. American man Human Rights Watch (HRW), attributes at least a dozen murderous incidents to operations carried out jointly by Congolese soldiers with the Rwandan army or even to Rwandan soldiers operating alone. "  We don't know exactly the scale of this presence or support, but these operations have been taking place since last year  ," explains Jason Stearns, director of the GEC. 

In principle, continues this former member of the UN group of experts, this support of the Rwandan army to the FARDC constitutes a violation of the arms embargo imposed on the country since July 2003. Indeed, all the member states United Nations are required to notify the Security Council of their military support to the regular forces. "  The Security Council has not made this observation, even if United Nations personnel on the ground are informed of this Rwandan military presence not only today, but also in the past,  " said Jason Stearns.

For this American researcher, it is perhaps the greatest hypocrisy of this history: "  It is a little complicated to speak of the presence of the Rwandan soldiers in eastern Congo today because if we look carefully, this presence has almost never stopped since the end of the official occupation by the Rwandan army which ended in 2002.  "The director of the GEC pleads for"  more transparency  "on the part of the authorities of the two countries, alone able to guarantee "accountability". "  It is not only that the Rwandan soldiers are there to operate against the Rwandan rebels, but it has had a considerable impact on the civilian and refugee populations.  "

The UN Security Council may eventually be officially informed of this Rwandan military presence. According to information gathered by RFI, the UN group of experts, charged with monitoring this embargo, has sent a request to the Congolese authorities in which it claims to "  have information  " relating to the participation in recent operations of "  foreign armed forces   ”against national and foreign armed groups in North and South Kivu. "  They can send. You almost never respond  , ”comments a Congolese diplomat.    

RFI has asked the Rwandan government for a reaction on the content of this investigation, but has not received a response yet. The Congolese Minister of Communication said there was " no official reaction from the government yet  ".    

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• Ground floor
• Rwanda
• Félix Tshisekedi
• Joseph Kabila
• Paul Kagame
• Uganda
• Burundi

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