Inside Story: Why DRC Expelled Ugandan General Brig Gen Geoffrey Muheesi Fresh details have emerged on DRC’s expulsion of UPDF Brigadier Geoffrey Muheesi who has been the coordinator of the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism (EJVM). , EJVM is a monitoring team composed of 24 senior military officers drawn from the member states of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) which was deployed in DRC in September last year. Chimpreports investigations Unit on Tuesday broke the news that Muheesi had been expelled from the DRC after being accused of being friendly to Rwanda and M23 rebels in the DRC conflict. The UPDF spokesperson Lt Col Paddy Ankunda said the army heard about Muheesi’s expulsion from the media “because so far the DRC government has not formally communicated to us about their decision.” “What I know for the record is that the DRC government expressed their discomfort over Brig Muheesi before declaring him persona non grata,” Ankunda told this investigative website on Wednesday morning. Sources said Muheesi was seen as an obstacle in DRC’s plan to wage war on M23 rebels in contravention of the ICGLR ceasefire agreement that demanded Kinshasha and the militants to pursue a political solution to their conflicts. In the previous weeks, DRC troops have been battling the M23 rebels in several areas around Goma especially Kanyarucinya. Chimpreports today brings to you an inside story on behind-the-scenes events that preceded Brig Muheesi’s expulsion from Congo. INSIDE STORY When Gen. Muheesi was declared persona non grata, the development was not officially communicated to ICGLR organs until his deputy, Col. Leon Mahoungou (Congo-Brazaville) sent a letter to the Chairperson of the ICGLR Chief of Defence Forces, Uganda’s Gen. Katumba Wamala, on August 12. “Following the ICGLR meeting held on 28 July 2013 in Nairobi, the Government of DRC declared Brig Gen Muheesi, persona non grata. Subsequently the DRC government directed all border posts to bar Brig Gen Muheesi from entering DRC,” according to the letter, copied to the ICGLR Executive Secretary, Alphonse Tumba Luamba. He added, “This development was confirmed by DRC EJVM Expert, Col Emmanuel Kaputa, and Goma Immigration Office. However, ICGLR Secretariat and EJVM have not received any communication from Kinshasa to that effect.” Gen. Muheesi’s expulsion came hot on the heels of the latest ICGLR Heads of State and Government Summit, held late last month in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, during which, sources say, the EJVM chief presented a report of their latest findings. According to sources, Gen Muheesi was candid in his presentation, laying bare Kinshasa’s provocations against Rwanda, including shelling the Rwandan territory. It is understood that this infuriated the Congolese delegation who subsequently protested and requested the Council of Ministers of Defence to relieve Gen. Muheesi of his duties, accusing him of bias. During his presentation, the head of the neutral monitoring team confirmed that mortar fire from DRC had landed in Gasizi and Kageshi cells in Busasamana Sector, Rubavu District, on July 15, despite earlier denials by Kinshasa and the UN Stabilisation Mission in the Congo (Monusco). “The two bombs were fired from the direction of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The direction of the firing weapon was determined to be at a compass back bearing of 3800 mils and 4100 mils,” reads part of the EJVM report. The ICGLR joint verification team said it dispatched a team of six senior military analysts who analysed the bomb craters and separately interviewed 10 eyewitnesses, including “village chiefs, local elders and residents” all of whom confirmed the bombs came from the direction of Kanyarucinya in DRC. In Kanyarucinya, the Congolese troops are said to be co-located with both the Monusco troops and the FDLR, the infamous Rwandan militia responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which claimed at least one million people. The team concluded, “It is clear that there was violation of Rwandan territory from DRC.” In addition, Gen. Muheesi is said to have openly stated that FARDC troops are co-located with FDLR with neither attacking the other, a phenomenon observers interpreted to mean that the two sides were actually collaborating. Both Kinshasa and the UN Brigade have denied these allegations, with the latter insisting FDLR is among the armed groups it targets to eliminate or at least neutralise. But the ICGLR joint verification mechanism also linked the Congolese army to several dreaded militia groups in the country’s east, including Mai-Mai Nyatura, Mai-Mai Shetani and APCLs, who all share extreme hatred and have committed atrocities against perceived Tutsi communities in the Congo. It is these damning details revealed by the EJVM, according to a well-placed source, that seem to have rubbed Kinshasa the wrong way, effectively attracting DRC’s hostility towards the ICGLR joint verification commander. The EJVM team was formed to investigate and verify allegations and counter-allegations of hostilities along the troubled frontier, including verifying claims that Rwanda and DRC were supporting rebels opposed to each other’s government. This was intended to help restore confidence among regional states and to create favourable conditions for a peaceful resolution of the endemic crises in eastern DRC, which have over the years strained relations tensions between DRC and its more stable neighbours, who accuse the former of harbouring negative elements. A smaller version of this framework existed earlier between Rwanda and DRC, and it had been hoped that expanding it to all the 12 member states of the ICGLR would make its findings more credible and acceptable to all the various actors in eastern Congo. The ICGLR is composed of Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, DRC, Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and new member South Sudan. Poll question: Do you think the DRC government was right to expel Brig Muheesi without consulting or notifying the UPDF?
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 06:41:19 +0000
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