Kigali fears FDLR could be regrouping
Photo: FDLR soldiers in 2009. The rebels remain a security headache
for Rwanda. Photo/FILE
By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT The EastAfrican
Posted Saturday, April 19 2014 at 09:36
In Summary
Rwanda National Police said Thursday they had arrested six more local
leaders in the north of the country in connection to links with FDLR.
Kigali has since 2010 accused FDLR and the RNC of carrying out grenade
attacks inside Rwanda
Going by the recent developments, it appears FDLR's strength cannot be
underestimated.
The arrests of a prominent musician, a journalist and several local
leaders in different parts of Rwanda over the past one week have
rekindled fears that the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of
Rwanda (FDLR) — a DR Congo-based rebel group linked to the 1994
genocide — could be regaining a presence inside the country.
Fighting an invisible enemy in Congo
Rwanda National Police said Thursday they had arrested six more local
leaders in the north of the country in connection to links with FDLR.
Police said the six, who are executive secretaries of different
sectors in Musanze district, were working with the rebel group.
The arrests of Faustin Muganijimana, a lands officer in Musanze
district, Amiel Ndahiro, Jean Marie Nduwayezu, Francois Kanaburenge
and two more local leaders who were reported missing have triggered
fears that FDLR could be re-infiltrating parts of Rwanda, particularly
those neighbouring DRC.
Alfred Nsengimana, the executive secretary of Cyuve sector in Northern
Province, is also in detention and has also been charged with working
with FDLR. Several local leaders have also been arrested in the
western district of Rubavu.
According to the director of Criminal Investigations Department Theos
Badege, police are aware of a "big network" inside the country working
with FDLR and Rwanda National Congress (RNC), an opposition group
formed by exiled former government officials.
READ: Unease in Kigali as opposition ties up with FDLR
Mr Badege, who was speaking during the parading of Kizito Mihigo, a
prominent musician and Cassien Ntamuhanga, a director of a local radio
station and two other people accused of planning grenade attacks
inside the country, claimed that FDLR and RNC are now recruiting
inside the country.
READ: The shocking tale of Kizito Mihigo
"It's a big group. We are aware of their activities and each one of
them will be arrested and brought before the courts of law," said Mr
Badege.
Kigali has since 2010 accused FDLR and the RNC of carrying out grenade
attacks inside Rwanda but seems not to have been unduly concerned
mainly because the militia group, which has been inside DRC since
1994, was considered weak.
But going by the recent developments, it appears FDLR's strength
cannot be underestimated.
Security sources said that if indeed it is true that FDLR is
recruiting local government leaders at the grassroots, chances are it
could have a spill over effect on the ordinary citizens they lead.
An emergency security meeting convened in Musanze district on April 17
by security organs and district authorities warned local leaders
against collaborating with subversive groups intent on threatening
state security.
The mayor of the district, Winfried Mpembyemungu, who earlier this
year survived a grenade attack on her home, warned that whoever is
involved in these activities will be apprehended and charged in court.
The district has suffered a series of grenade attacks recently, which
have been linked to FDLR.
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Kigali-fears-FDLR-could-be-regrouping/-/2558/2285484/-/ibbykhz/-/index.html
[...] More Reporting On FDLR ///Begin [...]
(long knives) the FDLR carry in North Kivu Province's Rutshuru
Territory village of Bishongera are commonplace within agricultural
societies while the AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades
have been stashed away since the Congolese national army (FARDC) and
Malawian soldiers from the UN Stabilisation Mission in the DRC's Force
Intervention Brigade (FIB) began preparations in the area for an
offensive against them.
Look at the footwear
The trick, according to Patrice Munga*, a civil society activist based
in Tongo, a few kilometres down the mountainside, is to look at the
footwear: "The ones wearing the gumboots... they are FDLR."
In the valley below, a UN helicopter gunship traverses the Virunga
National Park.
The clatter of its rotors does not elicit a glance from the roughly 10
young men in gumboots, some brandishing pangas, gathering around the
only bench in the village, on which Agathe Nzabonimana* sits.
The black-shod senior FDLR officer barks orders in Kinyarwanda at the
encroaching men and they move away.
"We [FDLR] don't have uniforms. We don't have support from a foreign
country," he says, a direct nod to M23, an alleged proxy force of
neighbouring Rwanda.
M23 was the first to be targeted by FIB, established after a February
2013 UN Security Council resolution to "neutralise" and disarm all
armed groups in DRC. FIB has since shifted its sights to other armed
groups.
The 3,069-strong FIB — a unit shorn of any civilian functions — is
made up of soldiers from Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania equipped
with heavy weapons and helicopter gunships and works in tandem with
the FARDC.
Military operations in North Kivu Province are either under way, or in
preparation, in the districts of Masisi against Janvier Buingo
Karairi's Alliance des patriotes pour un Congo libre et souverain
(APCLS); in Beni against the anti-Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces
(ADF-Nalu); and in Rutshuru against the FDLR.
In a joint March 5 letter to the UNSC on the renewal of the "robust"
military mandate, a host of NGOs noted that the "upcoming military
operations carry with them high risks for the civilian population of
DRC."
But the heavy weaponry of the FIB — which proved decisive against M23
— will be less effective against the FDLR, which has integrated within
Congolese communities over the past two decades.
In Tongo, where soldiers are gathering with the support of FIB's
Malawian contingent, a FARDC major in the 601 Regiment — commonly
referred to as the "Chinois Commandos" in reference to their three
years of training by Chinese military instructors — told us the
difference between M23 and the FDLR is that the latter mix with
civilians.
"M23 had military emplacements; so when we used heavy weaponry, we
knew we were hitting military targets," he said. "It makes FDLR very
hard to attack…
"The FDLR is essentially using civilians as human shields.
"There are FDLR in every village [of the Rutshuru operational zone].
The local population does not collaborate [with the FARDC] as they
fear retribution after we leave."
But Nzabonimana dismisses the notion: "We live very well with the population.
"Why is it necessary to do this operation? I have no problem with the
FARDC, but if they come here, they will kill the population…"
He added: "I am not afraid of the FARDC."
(*Not a real name)
[...] More Reporting On FDLR ///End[...]
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