Le forze dei ribelli in Congo mostrano segnali di divisione
● Aperta la lotta per il potere in Congo tra Laurent Nkunda, leader del gruppo di ribelli C.N.D.P. (maggioranza tutsi) e il suo capo di stato maggiore, Jean Bosco Ntaganda (chiamato “Terminator”, ricercato dall’Aja).
o che è anche sulla tattica, con Ntaganda che spingeva per azioni più decisive contro il governo centrale, e Nlkunda che ha tenuto conto dell’opinione internazionale dopo un massacro diretto da Ntganda a novembre 2008, 150 vittime in 24 ore a Kiwanja
– mette a rischio la possibilità di una tregua, e indebolisce il C.N.D.P., le cui azioni militari vittoriose hanno portato quasi al collasso il governo congolese, e causato centinaia di migliaia di profughi.
o Ntaganda si è dichiarato la scorsa settimana leader del CNDP, avrebbe dietro sé una quota importante dei guerriglieri.
o Nkunda smentisce, manterrebbe lui il controllo del gruppo; la fazione di Nkunda sta discutendo sulla possibilità di consegnare Ntaganda alla Corte dell’Aja.
o L’ex presidente nigeriano, Obasanjo, inviato ONU, ha tentato di raggiungere un negoziato di pace tra il governo congolese e i ribelli di Nkunda.
– Nkunda e Ntaganda sono entrambi tutsi congolesi, hanno combattuto a fianco dei ribelli ruandesi tutsi che hanno rovesciato il governo ruandese hutu, dopo il genocidio del 1994;
– sono entrambi tornati in Congo, combattendo con i gruppi di ribelli sostenuti da Ruanda e Uganda, quando il Congo è stato coinvolto nel conflitto regionale;
entrambi sono stati accusati di gravi violazioni dei diritti umani, ma l’Aja ha nominato per ora solo Ntaganda.
January 12, 2009
Rebel Force in Congo Shows Signs of Division
By LYDIA POLGREEN
– Disagreements over tactics and power have split the once seemingly invincible Congolese rebel group that has played havoc across the eastern side of the country over the past year and has brought the weakened government to the edge of collapse.
– Gen. Laurent Nkunda, the leader of the Tutsi-dominated rebel group known as the C.N.D.P., is fighting off an attempt to topple him by Jean Bosco Ntaganda, his chief of staff, a ruthless fighter known as the Terminator who is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for war crimes, according to accounts from both camps.
– The rebel group has humiliated Congolese troops in battle after battle in the past year, growing in momentum and ambition to the point where it has directly threatened the regional capital, Goma. The result has been hundreds of thousands of people displaced, and a serious undermining of the government, the country’s first freely chosen one in four decades.
– Although there have been no accounts yet of actual combat between General Nkunda’s and Mr. Ntaganda’s camps, the split is likely to complicate efforts to win peace in the troubled region. Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president of Nigeria, has been shuttling between the Congolese government and General Nkunda’s rebels in their jungle hide-outs as the United Nations envoy to the faltering peace talks aimed at ending the fighting with the government.
– Jason Stearns, an independent Congo analyst who recently served on a United Nations panel examining the conflict there, said that it was unlikely that Mr. Ntaganda’s decision to split from General Nkunda came lightly, and that the split would have serious repercussions for faltering peace talks taking place in Nairobi, Kenya.
“Nobody has been able to say where the senior command stands,” he said. “We are all trying to see what will emerge. What is clear is this has produced a serious rift in the C.N.D.P., and it’s clear that it will compromise the Nairobi peace talks.”
– Mr. Ntaganda declared himself the leader of the C.N.D.P. last Monday and claims to have taken a significant portion of the group’s fighters with him.
– General Nkunda insists that he remains in control and has tried to play down the disagreement. He told Reuters in an interview that Mr. Ntaganda had been “disrespectful” but remained a member of the rebel group, and that a commission of rebel leaders had been sent “to listen to him, to bring him back to his senses.”
– The fracture seems to have been building for some time as the two men disagreed over how far the rebellion should go to achieve its aims — and in some ways over what those aims actually were, according to diplomats and analysts in the region. Mr. Ntaganda wanted to push harder and overrun Goma last year, and he told some of the rebellion’s backers that he was disappointed when General Nkunda heeded United Nations demands to hold back, according to human rights investigators.
– General Nkunda, meanwhile, was dismayed by the barrage of international criticism that came after a massacre by his troops in November that was led by Mr. Ntaganda, according to a close ally of the general who spoke on condition of anonymity.
– At least 150 people were killed in about 24 hours in the town of Kiwanja in early November. A report in The New York Times and an investigation by Human Rights Watch based on witnesses’ accounts found that fighters went door to door, killing mostly unarmed boys and young men, accusing them of being enemy fighters.
– The faction loyal to General Nkunda discussed the possibility of handing Mr. Ntaganda over to the International Criminal Court, contacting at least one international organization about how this might be achieved, according to a person at the organization who was briefed on the matter.
– General Nkunda’s group has rung up a series of military victories, routing the Congolese Army in an offensive late last year, reaching the outskirts of Goma and taking several other important towns.
But the dispute between the two most powerful men in an insurgency that has until now seemed unified and unstoppable creates the first cracks in the invincible image General Nkunda has cultivated.
– It could also offer the government some breathing room for the first time in months, said Alison Des Forges, a senior adviser for Africa at Human Rights Watch.
– “If it comes to military conflict, we could potentially see the situation dissolve into even further combat,” she said. “But it also offers an opportunity for Congo’s forces to get themselves together and gives more time to find a political solution while the two factions argue it out.”
– General Nkunda and Mr. Ntaganda share similar histories. Both are Congolese Tutsi who fought alongside the Rwandan Tutsi rebels who overthrew Rwanda’s Hutu-led government in the aftermath of the genocide there in 1994. They both found their way back to Congo by fighting in Rwandan- and Ugandan-backed rebel groups there as Congo descended into a broad regional conflict set off by the genocide’s aftermath. Both men have been accused of serious human rights violations, though the International Criminal Court has named only Mr. Ntaganda so far.
But they differ profoundly in both style and tactics. General Nkunda is well educated and a fiery and articulate speaker. He has refused virtually every attempt to settle his differences with the Congolese government, and in the wake of his military triumphs has essentially refused to recognize the legitimacy of the first elected government that Congo has known in more than four decades. But Mr. Ntaganda is much more pragmatic, and in the past few days has accused General Nkunda of blocking peace efforts in eastern Congo.
Ms. Des Forges said Mr. Ntaganda was “somebody who has made his career out of being a useful military person regardless of the cause.”
“I don’t think he has the kind of aspiration of Nkunda,” she said, “but I think he is someone who can transfer his loyalties and adapt his position depending on his interests.”