Johannesburg — To the layman the emergence of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) armed group M23 might be seen as of little significance - just another band of gunmen controlling a few square kilometres of turf in a country the size of western Europe.
"This [M23] is a new configuration and a serious development. More than 200,000 people have been displaced since April [because of M23]," Rupert Colville, a Geneva-based spokesperson for the UN High Commission for Human Rights, told IRIN.
In late March 2012 Gen Bosco Ntaganda, a senior officer in the DRC national army (FARDC), led a mutiny of 300-600 soldiers following discontent over unpaid wages and poor living conditions.
Ntaganda (known locally as the "terminator") was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2006 for war crimes. On 3 May 2012 Col Sultani Makenga began an apparently separate revolt. Both men were formerly part of Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), a former DRC militia backed by neighbouring Rwanda, before it was integrated into the FARDC as part of the 23 March 2009 peace agreement.
Makenga has reportedly denied that the two revolts were coordinated or connected. However, analysts suggest the mutinies may have been sparked by indications that DRC President Joseph Kabila was about to honour his obligations to the ICC and arrest Ntaganda. The UN Security Council has condemned the mutinies.
Colville said M23, which takes its name from the date of the 2009 peace agreement, has a senior command with "substantial allegations" of atrocities against it. He said that was why UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay took "the unusual step of naming names... She is flagging the dangers of M23."
"Notorious killers"
In a UN radio podcast entitled UN human rights chief fears more rapes, killings in Congo by M23, Colville said M23 "is really a reassembling - at least at the leadership level - of very well-known human rights abusers in the Congo over the past decade... quite a collection of notorious killers."
The track record of M23 commanders included the use of child soldiers (recently 20 child soldiers had been rescued by FARDC troops from M23 senior commander Col Innocent Zimurinda's unit), and Colville feared the worst human rights abuses by M23 were just "around the corner".
A January 2012 report by the UN Secretary-General on the UN Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO) said: "The majority of acts of sexual violence in eastern DRC are committed by armed groups, notably FDLR [Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda - established by perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide], as well as by elements integrated into FARDC, including from CNDP and other former Congolese armed groups."
Thierry Vircoulon, International Crisis Group project director for Central Africa, told IRIN: "Everyone is worried about M23 because of its leaders and their involvement in killings in the past - and that there is no access to these areas [controlled by M23] at the moment."
Among those named by Pillay are: Makenga, a former CNDP commander and linked to the 2008 Kiwandja massacre of 67 civilians; Col Baudouin Ngaruye, believed to be involved in the 2009 Shalio massacre of 139 civilians while a (FARDC) commander and previously of the CNDP; Col Innocent Zimurinda - alleged to have "command responsibility for the Kiwandja and Shalio massacres"; and Col Innocent Kaina alleged to have been involved in a string of human rights abuses in Ituri and Orientale provinces in 2004 when a member - along with Ntaganda - of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo's Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC) / Forces Patriotique pour la Libération du Congo (FPLC).
Lubanga was the first person convicted of a war crime by the ICC for "conscripting and enlisting" child soldiers.
The 23 March 2009 peace accord ushered in a few years of relative stability for North and South Kivu provinces and saw thousands of CNDP combatants integrated into the FARDC. Most of M23's commanders were members of CNDP, which was sponsored by neighbouring Rwanda to fight a proxy war in the DRC against the FDLR.
However, Nkunda refused to allow his soldiers to participate in MONUC's (predecessor of MONUSCO) Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration programme and as a compromise permitted the integration of his troops into the FARDC, with the proviso that there would be no retraining or relocation outside the Kivu provinces. Nkunda is now in Rwanda.
Parallel chain of command
An analyst who declined to be named said the integration of the CNDP militia into FARDC resulted in a parallel chain of command and their demand to remain in the Kivu provinces can be seen as fulfilling their perceived role as "protectors of the Banyamulenge" - Rwandan Tutsi migrants who arrived in the DRC around the 1880s and are recognized as Congolese citizens.
"What happened with the CNDP's integration in 2009 is the way to read the crisis now," Vircoulon said. "The [CNDP] military hierarchy was never broken down - and we're going back to the situation of a few years ago and the story is repeating itself."
The M23 pedigree of CNDP has seen Human Rights Watch claim in a 4 June 2012 report entitled Rwanda Should Stop Aiding War Crimes Suspect, that the new armed group is cut from the same cloth as the CNDP and that Rwanda was actively assisting M23 as it did CNDP. This has been consistently denied by the Rwandan government of President Paul Kagame.
A report by the UN Group of Experts for the DRC is scheduled for imminent release, although a section dealing with allegations of Rwandan involvement with M23 is likely to be delayed after a veto by a Security Council member on its publication.
Failed security sector reform
A 2012 report compiled by a host of international and Congolese NGOs entitled Taking a Stand on Security Sector Reform, sees eastern DRC's cycles of violence as a consequence of "a lack of political will" by the DRC government for security sector reform (SSR) and "poor coordination" of SSR by the country's international partners.
The report said that between 2006 and 2010 official DRC development aid for conflict, peace and security was US$530 million, or about 6 percent of total aid, excluding debt relief. "Spending directly on security system management and reform is even lower - $84.79 million over the same period, just over 1 percent."
The human, political and financial cost of the DRC again collapsing back into war is difficult to fathom
The DRC grapples with a host of armed groups - from Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army and community self-defence militias known as Mai-Mai to the Allied Democratic Forces led by Ugandan Muslim rebel leader Jamil Mukulu - and some analysts have referred to FARDC "as another armed group" owing to their ill-discipline and documented human rights abuses.
A 2011 report by the Group for Research and Information on Peace and Security (GRIP) entitled Small Arms in Eastern Congo,A Survey on the Perception of Insecurity found FARDC was the second greatest threat to insecurity, after armed groups.
The report by local and international NGOs (Taking a Stand on SSR) said the "dominant" view that effective SSR was too dangerous to contemplate had to be weighed up against maintaining the status quo, and that "the most significant risk of renewed conflict comes from within the Congolese security services itself, particularly the FARDC."
"SSR would no doubt bring short-term pain, but the long-term risk of inaction is far greater. The human, political and financial cost of the DRC again collapsing back into war is difficult to fathom," the report said.
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
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TODAY THEY WANT US TO FORGET AND JOIN THEM IN HTIER PERVERSIONS WE CAN NEVER FORGET THE TORTURES AND THE HORROS OF THIER ENSLAVEMENT THE CHILD MOLESTATIONS THE HOMOSEXUALITY THESE THINSG ARE UNPARDONABLE UN FORGIVABLE; OUR AFRICAN BROTHERS AND SISTERS MUST NOT ALLOW THIS JUST TO FADE AWAY AND FORGET WE CAN NOT FORGET!!!!!!!!!!!THESE BARBARIANS ARE NOW USING ECONOMICAL PLOYS FOR AFRICANS TO SUBMIT STILL PLAYING ATRICKSTER AND DECEIVERIN ORDER FOR YOY TO GET FUNDS WHEN THE CONTINENETBIS SO SO RICH YOU MUST BECOME A HOMOSEXUAL A PEWRVERT ALLOWING FOR THEM TO COEM INTO AFRICA TO MOLEST OUR CHILDREN AS THEY DID WHEN THEY HAD THEM IN BONDAGE. FOR AFRICA TO BECOEM WEAK AND SELL YOUR SOULS TO SATAN YOUR REWARD WILL BE JUST AS PUNISHING AS THIERS. WHAT AMAZES ME IS THE FACT I SEE HOW ACCOMODATING AFRICANS WANT TO BE WHEN THEY ARE GETTING WHAT FOR" "WHAT YOU SEW IS WHAT YOU REAP!!! THEY HAVE ARE SEWING THE DEVILS SEED AROUND THE PALNET CHAOS MURDERS PILLAGING RUTHJLENESS CONFUSION TRUCKERYDISHONESTY . WHNEVER YOU SEE AND HEAR THEM ON TV EVERYTHING MOSTLY THAT COMES OUT THIER MOUTH ARELIES PLAIN FAT LIES NO HONESTY JUST COMPLETE DECEPTION" THESE PEOPLE WILL LEARN WHAT JSUTICE IS THEY WILL MEET THIER MAKER THAT IS A PROMISE!!!!!!!THEY ARE FALLING LIKE A TEN TON BRICK THIER IS NOTHING TO CATCH THEM; THEY ARE LOOKING FOR LOYAL PUPPY DOGS!!!!! WHO IS THAT???I SEE MANY LEADERS WHOM HAVE BEEN ENTRUSTED WITH THE POWER OF O GUIDANCE , BUT THEY STUMBLE, THEY BECOEM WEAK THEY ARE AFRAID OF THE DEVILTHEY WONT TRUST THE "ALL MIGHTY GOD"THERE ARE MANY MIRACLES HE HAS BROUGHT TO YOUR ATTENTION YET YOU DO NOT SEE, NOT NOLY CANT YOU SIGHT BUT THERE IS NO VISION OF TOMMOROW""" WHYAFRICA THE OLDEST THE MOST DIVERSE CULTURALY THE MOST PRECIOUS THE MOST WEALTHY THE MOST BLESSED LAND ON ALL CRAETION AND YOU DO NOT SEE IT. YOU SELL OUT THE PEOPEL AFTER THEY HAVE KEPT AND PROTECTED THESE LANDS FOR THOUSANDS OFD YEARS THOUSAND S AND YOU GIVE IT TO THE TRICKSTERS AND ENSLAVERS AS IFD IT WERE JUST RUBBISH ARE YOU PEOPLE STUPID OR JUST BORN BACKWARDS?????? UNITY IS THE KEY TO SURVIVAL THE STRENGTH OF ONE BILLION PEOPLE AND YOU STILL FORSAKE TH CHILDREN ADN THEELDERS AND ALL ORU WEALTH AND RICHES. YOU PRETEND TO EBA SOLUTION YET YOU BECOME PROBLEMS ALLYOING YOURSELVES WITH THOSE WHO ARE SURE TODECIEV YOU AND LEAD YOU INTO A WORLD OF DARKNESS. !!! WHY IS IT THAT THE ONLY PEOPLE THAT ASK YOU TO BECOME HOMOSEXUALS AND PERVERTS ARE THE ENSLAVERS HAS THAT OCCURRED TO YOU????? WHYDO THEY CONTINUE TO ASK SUCH A DISPICABLE THING OF YOU????? THEY ASK NO ONE ELSE ON THE PLANET NOR DO THEY SUGGEST FOR NO ONE ELSE ONTHE PALNET TO ENGAGE IN THESE MONSTEROUS BEHAVIOURS. THESE ARE LL REMNICENT OF THEIR SLAVERY DAYS WEHN THEY WERW ABLE TO TAKE FORCIBLY MAN WOMAN BOY OR GIRL OF AFRICAN DESCENT FOR THIOER PERVERTED MONSTEROUS DIABOLICAL SATANIC ATTROCITIES. TODAY THEY WANT US TO BELIVE THIS IS ABOTU HUMAN RIGHST, THEY ARE LIARS AND PERVERTS" DO YOU KNWO HHOW MANY CHILDREN FROM AFRICA THEYDESTROYED THIER SOULD FOR AL, TIEM DO YOU KNOW?? DO YOU AS AFRICANS THINK THIS IS SOME JOKE?WELL!!! LET ME TELL YOU THIS AINT FUNNY""" THEY ARE EVRY DEGENERATYE PEOPLE LIVNG FOR THE NEXT THRILL OF THE KILL OR THE SWINDLE, HAVE THEY STOPPED ANY FRADUSTTERS FROM MARAUDING THE PLUNDERING PILLAGING THE WORLDS ECONOMIES??? NO!!! EVERYDAY THEY SIT IN THIER BAMKS AND OFFICES DEFRAUDING THE WORLD SETTING PIRCES FIXING AVERAGES THESE THINSG ARE A DAILY OCCURRENCE YET YOU KNOW THIS AND YOU ALLOW YOUR SELVES TO BE TRAPPED BY THIS GIVING AN BEGGING FOR M,O0NEY WHEN YOU KNWO THEY ARE RIPPING YOU OFF STEALING EXTORTING YOU WHEN IS THIS GONNA EBD??ARE SOMEOF YOU AFRICAN LEDERS GOING TO CONTIUE TO BE PROSTITUTES OF THES EEPEOPLE ARE YOU THIER HOMOSEXUAL FANTASIES. TODAY WE SEEE THE VATICAN THE ANGLICAN CHURCH RENOUNCING THIS NASTINES AND SOME OF YOU WONT ATKE CUE YOU STILL ALLOW FOR THEM TO TEMPT OUR CHILDREN SELLING THESE PERVERSIONS AS IF THEY ARE RIGHT AND HONEST!! HOW COULD YOU??? THIS AMMOUNTS TO WEAK DISHONEST LEADERSHIP THOSE WHO WANT TO STAY INMPOWER YOU WHOM ARE SELLING YOUR SOULS FOR GUNS TO KILL WHO KILL YOUR BROTHERTS AND SISTERS. LOOK HOW EASY THEY GOT YOU TOBREAK YOUR CODE OF EHTICHSD NO WARFARE IN AFRICA WILL BE RECOGNISED """ ALL ISSUES MUST BE SETTLED AMICABLY OR WE WONT RECOGNISE YOU"" WHAT HAVE YOU DOEN BECOME A CRUSADER FOR THE WEST FIGHTING THIER PROXY WARS GETTING ALITTLE COMMISION FRO BEING AN INFERIOR HOW FOOLISH AND COMMON!!!!!! "INSTEAD OF BRIDGING THE GAP AND TRULY STANDING UP FOR FREEWIZE INTELLECT INDEPENCE YOU SAY NO!!! "WE WILL RATHER SUCK COCK AND KILL MY FAMILY BROTHERS AND SISTERS "WHILE YOU STICK IT IN MY BEHIND!!!!!!!!!!!! THE COWARDS KNOWS WHO THEY ARE" THE "AFRICAN UNION" IS MEANT TO BE SACRED NOT A PACE FOR UNCLE TOME AND JETHROS" THE TIME IS HERE THE PEOPLE ARE STANDING FIRM STANDING FOR FREEWIZE STANDING UP FOR THIER RIGHST AND YOU ARE SELLING THEMDOWN THE RIVER LOOK AT EGYPT THEY THE PEOPLE HAVE SAID NO MORE DICTATION NO MORE ENSLAVEMENT YET YOU STILL WANT TO CONCEDE.""" THERE IS NO NUCLEAR BOMB BIG ENPOUGH O WIPE OUT THE PLANET INSTAED OF WORKING TOWARDS PEACE YOU !YES YOU !!!"WONT STANND FIRM AND FORCE THEM TO STAND DOWN" THERE ARE CLOSE TO FOUR BILLION PEOPLE IN AFRICA CHINA AND INDIIA ARE YOU PEOPLE SLEPING OR WHAT. THERE IS ,STERNGTH IN GREAT NUMBERS""""UNITY AND STRENGTH IS THE KEY TO POWER""" THEY COULD HAVE NUKES COMMING OUT THEIR BUTTS!! ITS ALL COUNTERPRIODUCTIVE . WHEN YOU LSITEN TO THEIR FOOLISHNES THEY ARE GOINMG TO REASSURE THIER NUCLEAR CPACITY MODERNISE IT THESE ARE ALL WORDS COMING FROM A VERY WEAK PERSON THEY ARE THREATENING TRYING TO FRIGHTEN PEOPLE ! SHOULD THEY DO THAT THEN WHAT??? WHAT ARE THEY GONNA DO NEXT MOVE TO MARS SET UP THE SPACE STATION SO THEY CAN LIVE THER?? THERY ARE JSUT TALKING SO MUCH BULL SHEETE" IT IS MORE THAN RIDDICULOUS " WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE EARTH WHEN THEY DESTROY THE ATMOSPHERE AND THE EARTH'S FERTILITY ? THEY GONNAL LIVE OFF TIN FOOD? THEY KNWO FOR A FACT THEY WONT BE ABLE TO LIVE OUT ANY NUCL;EAR FALL OUT WHY?? THEY HAVE TRIED IT IN THE PACIFIC WITH THE MELANESIANS AND POLYNESIANDS THEY ALL LIVED AND ALL THOSE RELATED TO THE EXPOSURE OFTHE NUCLEAR FALL OUT THAT WERE WHITE ALL DIED!!! SO WHERE ARE THEY GOING WITH ALL THIS????ITS TIME FOR AFRICA TO WAKE UP!!! LOOKTO EGYPT THEY ARE APEOPLE WHOM ARE OUR BROTHERS AND SITERS THEY KNOW THIS IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO KNOWTHE SAMETHING. WE ALSO ARE ARBS AS THEY ALSO WERE BLACK AFRICANS WE SPEAK FRENCH WE SPEAK SPANIS WE SPEAK ENGLISH WE ARE NEITHER. OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHOM ARE ARABIC ARE OF MANY SHADES THEY ARE STILL FAMILY WE MUST NOT FORGET THAT". "ITIS TIME FOR THE UNIFICATION OF ALL AFRICAN" THIS AU MEETING NEEDS TO BE THE MEETING THAT STEERS AFRICA FORWARD THE VOICE COMMING FROM AFRICA HAS TO EB A LIBERATOR NOT A PACIFIST OR A COWARD THAT IS A YES MAN FOR THE WEST". "WHOM SO EVER LEADS "THIS GLORIOUS CONTINENT" 'MUST KNOW WHO HE IS AS A PERSON AND WHAT THE CONTINENT MEANS IN HISTORY; THE SIGNMFICANTS OF WHOM "OUR CREATOR "IS AND ,"WHY WE AS A PEOPLE HAVE BEEN CHOSEN GIVEN THE PREVILEDGE OF LIVING ON THE WEALTHIEST OF EARTHS CONTINENTS"""" THE ONE BILLION PEOPLE NEED TO BE AWAKENED SO WE CAN STRIVE TO MAKE SUREB THAT WHAT OUR PURPOSE IS ON THIS EARTH IS MANIFESTED" " WE ARE NOT HERE TO CORRUPT BRIBE MURDER PILLAGE CHEAT STEAL DEFRAUD SWINDLE NONE OF THESE THINSGARE IN OUR INTEREST."" THINK OF WHAT THEY OFFER TO YOU AS A PEOLE THEY OFFER HOMOSEXUALITY ALCOHOL SO YOU ACN LATER DIE OF ALCOHOL POISONING OR SYROSSIS OF THE LIVER ALL ROADS LEAD TO DEATH THY TAKE TH TOBBACCO AND GIVE YOU CIGARRTES WHICH WILL AGAIN GIVE YOU CANCER AS THEY HAVE FIVE THOUSAAND ELEMENTS OF POISON ONE SUCH AS TAR YOU KNOW TAR YOU DRIVE ON IT ONTHE STREET!!!! YET THYGIVEIT TOYOU TO SMOKE TO KILL YOURSELVE THEN THEY GIVE YOU GUNS ,BOMBS DEATH DEATH DEATH WHERE IS THE LIFE???? OH!!LETS NOT FORGET DEBTS DEBTS DEBTS DEBTS SO THE SCENARIO IS CLEAR DEATH OR DEBT NNO LIFE AT ALL!!!! "HOW MUCH LONGER FOR THE GRAVY TRAIN FOR THEM TO DERAIL??? " DO YOU REALY THINK THAT OUR PURPOSE ON THIS PLANET IS FOR THE ABOVE??? " AFRICA NEEDS SOLIDARITY COHESIVENESS UNIY" THESE THINGS CAN NOT FAI; "THE STRUCTURE OF POWER IS BEFORE YOU OPEN YOU EYES AND SEE THE BRIGHT VISION THAT IS AFRICA" "POWER TO THE PEOPLE"