CNDP Threatens Renewed Conflict

originally published in the Daily Nation, Kenya

Former Tutsi rebels integrated into the Congolese army have issued a warning of a possible return to conflict nearly a year after a peace agreement was first signed, in a document made public Friday.

Calling the humanitarian situation in eastern Congo “catastrophic” and that “hopes of peace are more distant than ever,” the National Congress for the People’s Defense railed against Congo President Joseph Kabila and Rwanda counterpart Paul Kagame, ‘undisciplined’ Congolese troops, and warn of a faltering peace agreement.

The proclamation, dated October 15, comes days after a journal written by their former leader Laurent Nkunda, before he was arrested, was published.

Mr. Nkunda, whose CNDP threatened the Congolese political establishment last year with a series of resounding victories in the east of the country, was arrested in early January by Rwandan troops in a move that realigned the security situation in the country. In a peace agreement signed on January 16 of this year, the CNDP were technically integrated into the national army.

Many, though, have gone unpaid throughout the year and command structures in the former rebel group are still in place. In the document, the CNDP said that peace agreement was “empty in content.”

Short of calling for a return to arms, the CNDP said that the peace process in eastern Congo – sparked by what they call “a secret agreement” between Congo and Rwanda – had failed, and that most CNDP soldiers remained loyal to Mr. Nkunda.

“The bulk of the army has remained loyal to its leader, General Laurent Nkunda,” the document, translated from French, reads. “It is therefore unrealistic to think that things can be done without him.”

They say that CNDP troops integrated into the Congolese army were “losing patience” with military operations against Hutu rebels in South Kivu, and that most of the atrocities committed there were by “legendary undisciplined” original Congolese troops, who they say are still working together with Hutu rebels.

While the CNDP was originally motivated by operations against the Hutu rebels, the document says, they “threaten to withdraw from operations, pending the return of the only leader we truly recognize the “Chairman’,” referring to Mr. Nkunda.

If a return to combat does indeed come, they say, the consequences could be worse than before, as neighboring Rwanda’s influence had been shed.

Rwanda was accused last year of supporting the CNDP during their successful rout of government forces in North Kivu. General Nkunda himself likened his political goals with that of Rwanda; to disarm Hutu rebels and protect the Tutsi minority.

When Nkunda was arrested by Rwanda earlier this year in part of a larger political reorientation in the region, some saw it as an act of betrayal.

“He thought he had cleared his Congolese counterpart of a painful thorn in his foot. But the spine could plunge even more deeply,” it reads.

“The consequences of the secret agreement Kabila-Kagame as they have arisen to date do not bode well for the establishment of a genuine and lasting peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

In the past, due to stopping the Rwandan genocide and afterward targeting the Hutu rebels in the Congo, Mr. Kagame has been treated as a protector of the Tutsi. Now, in their proclamation, the CNDP argue that he is “lacking in credibility.”

The CNDP declaration echoed many of Nkunda’s own demands, and called for the group to resume negotiations with the government that took place last year in Nairobi, Kenya, before Nkunda was arrested.

“We must resume the interrupted dialogue to ensure that the conditions for lasting peace in the Congo be fulfilled,” reads the document. “We have no choice in the matter.”