Today, no one is reporting the reasons M23 gives for its mutiny as outlined in the GoE report and M23 press releases (included in the annex). Perhaps this is because the reasons do not fit what media, HRW and the Congo government have been suggesting in their biased and fabricated narrative. What follows is from the GoE.
Col. Makenga (M23) loyalists presented the mutiny as a "tactical withdrawal", aimed at forcing the (Congo) Government to address their demands. In an unsigned memorandum, ex-CNDP officers demanded implementation by the Government of the 2009 Peace Agreement, in particular the return of the refugees, political integration of CNDP and better treatment in the army (see annex 25). According to the same sources, the mutiny was a larger revolutionary movement which included all ex-CNDP, but also ex-PARECO officers, and other former armed groups that felt they had been neglected by the central Government. Meanwhile, at the outset of the mutiny, ex-CNDP officers told the Group that their objective was to take the towns and drive Government forces into the hills.
For all of the griping and angst over the release of the fully available GoE interim report, the mainstream press is ignoring key findings and instead, combing the pages for any reference to Rwanda that supports rumor and innuendo.
Adding to the media feeding frenzy, Human Rights Watch issued a hastily assembled report that relied upon heresay, unproven sightings of the warlord Bosco Ntaganda at a bar in Rwanda and other anonymous witness testimony. These serious accusations were hastily compiled within weeks of the formation of M23 in May. Despite denials by M23 and Rwanda that M23 was not under the command of Bosco Ntaganda, and that M23 was not receiving aid from Rwanda, the story spread like wildfire. At the same time, the Congolese government promoted the claims against Rwanda, but offered no proof.
The President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, gave a press conference in Uragwiro Village days before his Foreign Minister appeared at the UN. Again, this important rebuttal was largely ignored by the international community, with the singular exception of a Ugandan tabloid.
Kagame's frustration was evident. He suggested that Rwanda had become a scapegoat for all that ails Congo.
Ultimately we will be forced into a situation where we will draw a line," he said without elaborating and added: "We don't respond to blackmail. Forget about Ntaganda or Nkunda (former leader of the CNDP who is now under house arrest in Rwanda). We are coming to a point where we will offload this burden and throw it back at them in order to buy our peace. Congo's problems should stop being our problems. What's going on in DRC shouldn't be construed as a problem between DRC and Rwanda but a problem within Congo itself.
Two questions emerged from this diplomatic and journalistic mess. What are the possible motivations for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Congo (MONUSCO) to participate in an orchestrated pattern of leaking material detrimental to Rwanda to the international press, and what axe does HRW, if any, have to grind?
Every year at the end of June, the MONUSCO mandate is up for renewal in the Security Council. The mandate renewal comes in the midst of the M23 rebellion and against the background of serious irregularities in the DRC presidential and legislative elections of 2011. MONUSCO in DRC, like MINUSTAH in Haiti, is viewed as a failed mandate, costing $1.2 billion on Congo operations, per year. 20,000 blue helmets are on duty there.
Although civilian protection is stated to be the highest priority of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUSCO, the mission continually struggles to fulfill this mandate. Overall, the failure of the U.N. to deal with the FDLR, as a major factor in regional instability, allows for the eastern Congo crisis to fester.
Although the final conclusion by the Enough Project suggests that the mandate should be renewed, it illustrates MONUSCO's failure over thirteen years to help the Congolese army eradicate the FDLR genocidaires who prey upon Rwandans in this porous border region. The Congolese army (FARDC) is throwing everything it has against the M23, but has failed miserably to stop the FDLR and dozens of other renegade militias.
Blaming Rwanda takes the onus off MONUSCO and the Congolese army. In fact, last year's report of the GoE (363 pages) demonstrates out and out collusion between corrupt MONUSCO and FARDC elements. "(The) Group looked into a number of human rights violations perpetrated by members of armed groups or FARDC," and "FDLR has been subject to little military pressure from FARDC," GoE writes.
IRIN, the global analysis arm of the UN High Commission on Refugees, cites 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" and found FARDC was the second greatest threat to insecurity, after armed groups.
Many observers concur that MONUSCO has failed in its mandate and perhaps the orchestrated leaks worked, because by a unanimous vote, the MONUSCO mandate has been renewed until June 2013. Blaming Rwanda was a good political strategy.
Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo suggests another, parallel reason. "In its eagerness to deliver high-profile scalps to The Hague, the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) has lost sight of its original purpose, which is to quell the FDLR threat."
If you don't feel inclined to believe the Rwandan foreign minister, please read the accounts in IRIN and Radio Okapi which detail the massacre by the Mai-Mai rebel group of 120 people, women and children, who were unlucky enough to speak Kinyarwanda.
Or consider the fact that the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) killed twenty people and injured several others Thursday and Friday, June 21-22, in the villages of Erobe and Misau in Ihana group, about 80 km from the capital of Walikale (North Kivu).
In a troubling scenario, HRW has crossed the line from a human rights investigation charity to political kingmaker and has received a free pass from the press in the process.
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