Congo Rebels, After Giving Up

artappraiser — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 21:34:57 +0000

In reply to Congo's M23 rebels call off revolt (!)

Congo Rebels, After Giving Up Struggle, Are Disarmed
By Nicholas Kulish, New York Times, Nov. 7, 2013

Nairobi, Kenya — The Ugandan military has begun the process of disarming large numbers of rebels from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, a military spokesman said Thursday [....]

Capt. Ronald Kakurungu, military spokesman for the western region of Uganda, said that 1,365 members of M23 had surrendered to Ugandan forces. “We are receiving and disarming them,” he said. The surrenders were a sign that the group was carrying out its stated position to end its violent rebellion and demobilize its fighters.

“They came with a big number of weapons, but we are still counting them and categorizing them,” Captain Kakurungu said. “Everybody had a weapon.”

There were some news reports that the group’s military commander, Gen. Sultani Makenga, was among those who had crossed into Uganda and turned themselves in to the authorities there. But two spokesmen for the Ugandan military said he had not been seen among the surrendering troops. Beyond that, a man claiming to be General Makenga, reached on a Congolese mobile phone belonging to him, called news of his surrender “false reports” and “rumors,” saying that he was still in Congo [....]

A victory for a new kind of

artappraiser — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 02:11:49 +0000

In reply to Congo's M23 rebels call off revolt (!)

A victory for a new kind of U.N. military intervention and a U.N. Security Council willing to punish secondary players economically:

After Outside Pressure, Rebels in Congo Lay Down Their Arms
By Nicholas Kulish, New York Times, Nov. 5, 2013

[....] a major turnaround brought about by a rare combination of pressures from around the world, including a more aggressive approach to peacekeeping by the United Nations.

The rebel surrender offered new hope for a region where conflict — and the failed international attempts to stop it — has gone on for so many years that it has often come to seem unresolvable, even inevitable.

“In a region that has suffered so much, this is obviously a significant positive step in the right direction,” Russ Feingold, the United States special envoy to the Great Lakes region of Africa, said at a news briefing [....]

On the battlefield, the United Nations Security Council tried something new, giving its peacekeepers orders to go on the offensive and hunt down the rebels, not just wait for civilians to come under threat, for the first time.

“If there is no peace, there is nothing to keep,” said the United Nations representative to Congo, Martin Kobler, expressing the philosophy behind the new United Nations intervention brigade.

On the diplomatic front, the United States, the European Union, Britain and other nations had already begun cutting aid to Rwanda — which has been accused of helping arm, coordinate and recruit fighters for the insurrection — in a move that appears to have shorn the rebels of badly needed support.

And within Congo itself, the embarrassing loss of a major city spurred the military to reorganize its ranks. It removed ineffective officers, raised morale with better equipment and more consistent pay, and quickly became a more effective fighting force that swept over the rebels.

“This is historic,” said Jason Stearns, an author, blogger and Congo expert. “This would be the first time since 1996 that the Congolese Army defeats a major armed group and that Rwanda has no armed ally in the eastern Congo.” [....]

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Congo Rebels, After Giving Up

A victory for a new kind of