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Rwanda, DR Congo to seal fate of ex-M23 fighters

Wednesday February 04 2015
m23 camp

Members of the M23 rebel group sit at the Ramwanja refugee settlement on December 17, 2014. Lack of trust between the ex-rebels and the Congolese government could delay repatriation efforts. PHOTO | ISAAC KASAMANI |

Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are inching closer to reaching a deal that will seal the fate of ex-combatants of the now defunct M23 rebel group who have been grounded in internment camps in Rwanda’s Eastern and Western Provinces.

Delegations from the two countries met on Monday in Kigali to discuss the fate of over 400 ex-rebels who remain in Rwanda, fearing to return home without assurances from the government that they will not be prosecuted.

Both Kigali and Kinshasa agreed that repatriation will be on a ‘voluntary basis’ and that no deadline has been set for the rebels to return home. However, sources indicated to The East African that majority of the ex-M23 fighters remain adamant about their return.

The DR Congo Deputy Minister of Defence, Mr René Sibu Matubuka, who led the delegation, told reporters after the closed door meeting that his government is committed to facilitating the ex-combatants' to return freely and at their own volition, as indicated by international laws protecting refugees.

“We have not set any dates for repatriation but we have principally agreed that repatriation will be voluntary and will be done at a time agreed upon by the two governments through different diplomatic channels,”

“What we are saying is that even today, those who want to come back can do so. All those who will return will be given amnesty as per the agreements we have signed. As I speak, some of them have started signing their repatriation documents,” Mr Mutabuka said on Monday.

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The DR Congo official said that the delegation was shown and given a list of all the guns the rebels fled with in February 2012 when fighting broke out between two different factions of M23, one led by Sultan Makenga and the other, allegedly loyal to ICC detainee Bosco Ntaganda, led by Jean Marie Runiga.

Mr Mutabuka says that the amnesty law provides assurances to the rebels and also sets the guidelines of resettling them back into society. It also provides for reintegration into the army for those still willing to continue serving in the Congolese military.

No trust

Even then, trust between the grounded ex-combatants and the Congolese government remains low, with some ex-rebels who are wanted back home for war crimes unwilling to return.

The former M23 leaders who Kinshasa is seeking to put on trial in DR Congo include Jean-Marie Runiga and military commanders Col Baudouin Ngaruye, Eric Badege and Innocent Zimurinda.

Mr Mutabuka said that the government is yet to make a decision on the matter because ‘some crimes cannot be easily forgiven without clearing the legal impediments’.

“There are those who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity which are against international laws, these are not in the category that will benefit from the pardon,” he said.

Over the last two years, Rwanda has been appealing to the international community and especially the United Nations to intervene in deciding the fate of the rebels.

The two countries have traded blame over the ex-combatants, with Kinshasa saying that Rwanda was reluctant to hand over the rebels. Kigali on the other hand said that DR Congo was approaching the process without considering international laws that govern the process of repatriating war refugees.

One of the key concerns raised by Rwanda was that it cannot repatriate wanted persons to a country that still has the death penalty in its penal code.

The Permanent Secretary in Rwanda’s Ministry of Defence Col. Joseph Rutabana said that Rwanda has done its bit in fulfilling its international obligations stipulated in the different agreements that have been signed in the course of the process.

“We have done our bit in facilitating the delegation to meet the rebels, inspect the arms which were handed over, and principally we have agreed that repatriation takes place as soon as possible,” Col. Rutabana said.

A communique signed by the two countries after the closed door meeting partly reads that ‘the two delegations reiterated their respective governments’ willingness to respect their international obligations’.

Diminishing numbers

The rebels in the camps are only slightly over 400 while the whereabouts of the remaining rebels remains unknown. In 2013, the Ministry of Disaster Preparedness and Refugee affairs indicated that a total of 687 ex-combatants were being held in the camps.

Differing reports indicate that dozens of rebels have been able to escape from the internment camps and found their way back home, or could have slipped into surrounding areas where they would find their way back to DR Congo and beyond.

Rwanda and Uganda have been stuck with hundreds of former M23 fighters, following their routing by the Force Intervention Brigade in 2013, but the ex-combatants remain reluctant to return home.

In December, about 1,000 former M23 rebels broke out from a camp in Uganda where they were being held as soldiers were trying to repatriate them back to DR Congo.

READ: M23 ex-rebels break out of Uganda camp

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