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M23 rebels sit in a truck as they patrol a street in Goma in the eastern DR Congo, on November 20, 2012. PHOTO | AFP
Dar es Salaam. The M23 rebel movement has asked Tanzania to scrap plans to contribute troops to the future United Nations intervention brigade to fight armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to media reports.
The M23 rebels, who deny UN expert claims that neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda support them, “have consistently prevailed over much larger and better equipped forces,” the movement’s political leader Bertrand Bisimwa warned in a letter to Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete dated April 11., Kenya’s Saturday Nation reported yesterday.
“The same will happen to the Intervention Brigade if your wisdom does not prevail to intervene and stop this dangerous adventure in its tracks,” Bisimwa allegedly wrote.
“For this reason the M23 invites the parliament and the people of Tanzania to carefully re-consider this situation and prevail upon the Tanzanian Government... not to send the sons and daughters of this noble nation to engage in an absurd war against their Congolese brothers,” he is quoted as saying.
The M23 is reported to have warned Friday that they would retaliate if attacked by the intervention brigade which would be part of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission tasked with protecting civilian populations.
However, speaking with The Citizen on Sunday, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Bernard Membe denied any receipt of the letter while also insisting that the government was never in contact with any rebel group in DRC.
“Tanzania’s State House and my ministry are yet to receive any such letter and in fact, we don’t have any contact with any rebel group in DRC,” Mr Membe said in a telephone interview.
On March 28, the UN Security Council unanimously approved the creation of a brigade of more than 2,500 troops with a mandate to conduct “targeted offensive operations” against rebels in eastern DR Congo, a mineral-rich area that has been gripped by conflict for more than two decades.
The new UN force in the east is due to consist of three infantry battalions, an artillery company, a reconnaissance company and “special forces”. The troops are being mustered by South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania.
Tanzania has promised to contribute a battalion to the international neutral force, which would be deployed to protect and monitor the border between DRC and its neighbours.
Mr Membe told reporters earlier this month that Tanzania’s military contribution to the international neutral force was meant to protect the border and deal with negative forces in the context of international forces, which will mainly come from the International Conference on Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and the SADC Region.
He said then that two ministries -- Defence and National Service and Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation are engaged in the mission. Tanzania pledged to send a battalion under the SADC umbrella to fight back the rebels. A battalion comprises between 700 and 800 soldiers.
SADC was set to send about 4,000 soldiers to Congo after the UN confirmation of issuing a Chapter 7 mandate, which specifically provides for action to be taken with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression.
It marked the first time that UN peacekeepers were given a mandate to conduct offensive operations. Many rebel movements and armed tribal militias are active in the east of the country.
M23, named for a peace deal with the government signed on March 23, 2009, emerged out of an ethnic Tutsi mutiny in the army in April 2012, on the grounds that Kinshasa was not upholding the pact.
The rebels briefly seized the North Kivu provincial capital Goma in November last year. In a letter dated April 3, the M23 had already urged the South African parliament to not contribute troops to the brigade.
The Congolese foreign minister Raymond Tshibanda said the brigade would be deployed by the end of April, but the United Nations expects it to be operational in several weeks
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