12 12 13 KPFA – Kampala 'Declaration' would contract DRC to concede to M23

Transcript: 

 

KPFA
Evening News Anchor Anthony Fest: At
the end of November, headlines around the world announced the Congolese Army’s
defeat of the M23 Congolese well wishers draped a
Congolese flag around the shoulders of their army's Operations Commander,
Colonel Mamadou Moustafa N'Dala, after the defeat of M23 during the first week
of November. But, many are now asking what sort of contract DRC is being asked
to sign, regardless of whether it's called a Declaration or an
Agreement. Militia,
with the help of UN intervention forces, in eastern Kivu Provinces, on the
Rwandan and Ugandan borders. Since that time, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo has been under pressure from Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and his
so-called mediators, and from US Envoy Russ Feingold and UN Envoy Mary Robinson,
to sign an agreement with M23. KPFA’s Ann Garrison obtained a copy of that
agreement, which, to the shock of many Congolese people, includes language that
would secure the ongoing occupation of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
by M23's backers Uganda and Rwanda. KPFA's Ann Garrison is live in the studio
with the story.

 

KPFA/Ann
Garrison: The
agreement proposed between the Democratic Republic of the Congo, also known as
the DRC, and the M23 militia backed by Rwanda and Uganda appears to have been
re-labeled a "Declaration" to satisfy critics who have said that the DRC should
not sign any contractual agreement with a militia that it has defeated. However,
the text makes it clear that this is still a contractual agreement to be signed
between M23 and the government of the DRC, and that it is a contract to ensure
the ongoing occupation of the eastern Congo, of its Kivu Provinces, by M23’s
backers, Uganda and Rwanda. Article 10 of the proposed agreement reads,
quote:

 

“The
government [meaning the DRC] reaffirms its determination to finalize the
implementation of the commitments that have been made under the agreement of
March 23, 2009, signed with the CNDP.” Unquote.

 

This
is a shocking stipulation to ask the DRC government to agree to, because, the
March 23, 2009 agreement was a de facto surrender of territory to Rwanda and
Uganda’s CNDP militia, and its disastrous consequences were detailed in
the 2009 UN Group of
Experts Report on the DRC.
 

 

The
M23 militia arose and took its name from that very March 23, 2009 agreement,
after saying that the agreement’s contractual elements had not been met. So, the
agreement calls on the DRC to concede everything that M23 demanded, despite
M23’s defeat.   

 

Earlier
this year, Paul Rusesabagina, author of the book whose simplest heroic elements
became the movie Hotel Rwanda, told KPFA that the Kampala talks were no more
than a facade because they were being hosted and, quote unquote, “mediated,” by
one of the principle aggressors, the Ugandan government and its President Yoweri
Museveni.  

 

Paul
Rusesabagina: Uganda
has been accused many times by the international community, including the United
Nations and the Congolese government, as one of the perpetrators, with Rwanda,
supporting M23.  

 

Today,
Uganda positions itself as now, a mediator. How can one, in history, be a
perpetrator and a mediator at the same time. Can one be a perpetrator and a
judge? It can’t be. So, you can see this is why, all that is taking place in
Uganda, in Kampala, today is just a kind of facade. 

 

KPFA: The
Congolese Parliament has passed a resolution calling on President Kabila to,
quote, “reject any agreement with ex-rebels of M23, which are considered a
negative force by various relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security
Council." Unquote.

 

The
cost of the Kampala negotiations has been underwritten by Howard Buffett, the
son of Omaha billionaire investment manager Warren Buffett, who has also
announced that he now plans to fund the building of a dam in eastern
Congo. 

 

Though
Buffett did not announce that this was his intent, the business press has been
reporting on the need to address the shortage of electricity to power resource
extraction in eastern Congo.  

 

In
Berkeley, for Pacifica, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio,
I’m Ann Garrison.  

 

http://www.anngarrison.com/audio/2013/12/10/478/kampala-declaration-would-contract-drc-to-concede-to-m23