23 10 13 Reuters – Congo peace talks stall, U.N. concerned by military buildup

  Congolese
President Joseph Kabila's government and the M23 rebels had agreed on two-thirds
of a draft deal during recent talks in neighboring Uganda, U.N. special envoy to
the Great Lakes region, Mary Robinson, told the U.N. Security
Council.

"However,
the parties found it difficult to agree on certain contentious and difficult
issues that had remained problematic throughout the talks, namely the amnesty,
disarmament and integration of M23," Robinson told the 15-member
council.

"They
have agreed to reconvene soon in order to overcome their differences," she said
via video
link from Addis Ababa.

During
closed-door Security Council consultations after her public briefing, several
diplomats said Robinson told them that Rwandan President Paul Kagame had
conveyed a personal message to the M23 delegation to encourage them to reach a
compromise.

U.N.
experts have repeatedly accused Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo's
neighbor to the east, of supporting the M23 rebellion, a charge Kigali has
robustly denied. Kagame did not respond to an immediate request for comment on
whether he had contacted the M23.

Robinson
visited Kagame in Kigali on Friday with envoys from the United States, the
European Union and the African Union.

"The
president believed that while the M23 was not Rwanda's issue, a peace agreement
between the rebel group and the government of the DRC would benefit the entire
region," she told the Security Council during her public
briefing.

The
Congolese government said it strongly opposed a blanket pardon for the
commanders of the Tutsi-led rebellion and against reintegrating their fighters
into the national army. M23 accused the government delegation of refusing to
cooperate with its chief negotiator and of seeking a return to
hostilities.

Martin
Kobler, head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo
known as MONUSCO, told the Security Council that in recent days "we have
observed considerable military build-up on both sides of the front
line."

"At
the same time M23 has fired twice at unarmed U.N. helicopters and has
strengthened offensive positions threatening U.N. peacekeepers," he said.
"Information gathered indicates the M23 has also strengthened its frontline in
the south near Goma."

M23
briefly captured Goma in November, then withdrew to pave the way for peace talks
in the Ugandan capital Kampala. The rebellion's roots lie in the 1994 genocide
in Rwanda, where Hutu troops and gangs killed 800,000 Tutsis and moderate
Hutus.

'EXTERNAL
INVOLVEMENT MUST STOP'

Eastern
Congo
has long been one of Africa's bloodiest battlefields. M23 emerged early last
year when former rebel fighters – who were integrated into the Congolese army
under a 2009 peace deal to end a previous revolt – staged a mutiny. The group
takes its name from the deal on March 23, 2009, which fighters accused Kinshasa
of not honoring when they deserted the army in 2012.

Kobler
said that since the M23 rebellion began, the United
Nations
had sheltered nearly 200 combatants "who consistently and credibly claim to have
been recruited on Ugandan but mainly on Rwandan
territory."

"This
and other kinds of external involvement must stop," he
said.

The
United States, which has called on Rwanda to drop its support for the M23
rebels, stepped up pressure on Kigali this month by moving to block military aid
over the recruitment of M23 child soldiers in its
territory.

Congolese
forces, with the help of a new 3,000-strong U.N. Intervention Brigade that has a
mandate to neutralize armed groups, successfully pushed M23 fighters away from
Goma – a city of 1 million people – in August. The military defeat forced M23 to
return to the Kampala peace talks.

Congolese
government spokesman Lambert Mende said on Monday there was total disagreement
over the amnesty proposed for M23 fighters, while M23 said in a statement that
it was waiting for another round of talks to be organized so the remaining
points of disagreement could be discussed.

Robinson
said that in the draft deal under negotiation, amnesty and integration would be
granted to all M23 members except those indicted for suspected war crimes,
crimes against humanity, acts of genocide or gross violations of human
rights.

M23
combatants would have to make a written commitment to "refrain from acts of
rebellion" and their amnesty would be automatically withdrawn if those pledges
were violated, said Robinson, a former Irish president.

Reintegration
into the Congolese army would be on a case-by-case basis and conditions would
include swearing allegiance to the state and constitution of the Democratic
Republic of Congo and committing to serve in any part of the country, she
said.

Robinson
told Rwanda's Kagame that a peace agreement between M23 and Kinshasa "will
enable the Force Intervention Brigade to deal with other armed groups in eastern
DRC including the FDLR and the ADF."

Rwanda
and M23 have accused the Congolese army of collaborating with the Hutu-led
Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an accusation Kinshasa
rejects. The ADF is the Islamist group Allied Democratic Forces, which Uganda
says is linked to Somalia's al Shabaab.

(Editing
by Angus MacSwan and Xavier Briand)