15 01 14 Reuters – Credible reports of Congo's defeated M23 rebels regrouping: U.N.

Martin
Kobler told the U.N. Security Council there were "credible reports of emerging
M23 activities in Ituri in northeastern Congo"
and called on the Congolese government to speed up the disarmament,
demobilization and reintegration of ex-M23 fighters, who ended their 20-month
revolt in November.

"At
the same time, I call upon the governments of Uganda and Rwanda to do everything
possible to prevent M23 elements from sheltering or training troops on their
territory. We should tolerate no military re-emergence of the M23," he
said.

Kobler
told reporters after briefing the council that "there might be a danger of
renewed military infiltration of the country" by M23.

U.N.
experts – who monitor violations of U.N. sanctions on Congo –
have long accused neighboring Rwanda and Uganda of backing M23, claims that both
governments have rejected.

In
a report to the Security Council's Congo sanctions committee in December, the
experts said they had credible information that blacklisted M23 leaders were
moving freely in Uganda and the group was still recruiting fighters in
Rwanda.

M23
is one of dozens of rebel groups in eastern Congo. Millions of people have died
from violence, disease and hunger since the 1990s as armed groups fought for
control of the area's deposits of gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt and
uranium.

Mary
Robinson, the U.N. special envoy to the Great Lakes who is charged with
implementing a regional peace deal, told the 15-member Security Council that
Congo and neighboring countries needed to take some confidence-building
steps.

These
steps included showing "none is harboring individuals responsible for grave
human rights violations, none is giving any kind of support or assistance to
armed groups, none is interfering in the affairs of a neighboring
country."

"There
is worrying evidence that these commitments are not yet being fully implemented
by Rwanda and Uganda," she said.

Rwanda's
deputy U.N. ambassador, Olivier Nduhungirehe, said there was no evidence that
Rwanda supported M23. He said that Rwanda had interned more than 600 M23
fighters who had fled across its border in March last year and that Kigali had
repeatedly asked theUnited Nations to
take charge of them.

Uganda's
U.N. mission in New York did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.

BABIES
KILLED, CHILDREN RAPED

Rwanda
has repeatedly intervened in Congo, saying it had to hunt down the Hutu militia
who fled after the Rwandan genocide. Rwanda and Congo have fought two wars in
the past two decades in eastern Congo.

Rwanda
has accused Congolese troops of collaborating with the Democratic Forces for the
Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which includes Hutus who fled Rwanda after the 1994
genocide of 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus. Kinshasa denies the
claim.

Kobler
told the Security Council that since the defeat of M23, Congolese troops and
U.N. peacekeepers had turned their attention to tackling the FDLR. He said first
operations against the group had cleared some positions.

"Operations
can only be successful if done jointly with the Congolese Army. I do encourage
the Congolese Forces to do more and to intensify the joint planning and
execution of operations against the FDLR," Kobler said.

He
also said military action could be expected soon against the Islamist Allied
Democratic Forces (ADF), a group that "continues to spread terror and horror" in
the Ituri region of Congo's northeastern Orientale
province.

Kobler
cited to the Security Council an example of the ADF's brutality toward
civilians.

"On
13 December, in an ADF-controlled area, 21 bodies, including the bodies of eight
babies, very young children and pregnant women, were found dead, mutilated and
some beheaded," he said. "Three of the children were reportedly raped before
being murdered."

Kobler
said that in 2013, 151 children were killed or maimed, including babies caught
in cross-fire and primary school students who were summarily executed. The U.N.
mission found that 260 underaged girls were raped by rebels and government
troops.

The
20,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo received a boost last year with
the unprecedented deployments of unarmed surveillance drones and an Intervention
Brigade of 3,000 troops to help Congolese forces hunt down rebel
groups.

"The
presence of armed groups is still strong, too strong. We need to keep the
momentum," Kobler said. "With the Force Intervention Brigade and our Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles, all armed groups are aware now that we have the will and the
means to take robust action at any time."

(Reporting
by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Richard Chang)