{The M23 high command has warned DRC President Joseph Kabila’s government of “consequences” for dragging its feet in the implementation of the Nairobi declarations, Chimp Corps report.}
During the 2013 peace declarations in Nairobi, the M23 agreed to end rebellion and transform itself into a legitimate political party. It also resolved to demobilise former M23 combatants.
The DRC Government, on its part committed to give amnesty and release M23 members under detention for acts of war and rebellion.
It also offered to ensure return of refugees and internally displaced persons to their homes and initiate projects to boost social services in North Kivu such as security, access to healthcare and extension of road infrastructure.
The pact saw the rebel group’s dissolution as an armed group and transformation into a political party. M23 further demobilised and renounced violence as a means of pursuing future claims.
The former rebel group now claims the DRC government is yet to live up to its commitments, saying only a few amnesty papers have been signed without implementing other terms of the agreement.
“If the amnesty is the only point being treated 16 months after the signing of Declarations of Nairobi, how long will it take to complete the ten remaining government’s commitments?” wondered M23 chairman, Bertrand Bisiimwa.
“If the government is advertising the acts of amnesty that it’s the sign for the whole purpose of announcement effects, the persons concerned for their part are not informed, many of them amnestied or not, continue to languish in the country’s jails often without regular judicial file,” he added on Friday.
M23’s warning comes at a time of heightened tensions in Eastern Congo as the government forces try to defeat armed groups operating in the restive region.
Several M23 combatants have since opted to return to their country, leaving settlement camps in Rwanda and a military facility in Bihanga.
However, the command structures of M23 movement remain intact, a situation that has kept Kinshasa on the edge.
Bisiimwa said the Nairobi Declarations provided the release of prisoners and their handover to the international Committee of the Red Cross but no beneficiary of this provision has been recorded by this organisation.
He also pointed out that the DRC government chose to unilaterally deal with its own commitments to the detriment of commissions as provided by the declarations of Nairobi.
“This attitude is a fragrant violation of the commitments undertaken and compromises the peace process. The peace process derived from the Kampala dialogue is down by the government’s own doing; therefore it will bear alone the consequences,” warned Bisiimwa.
M23 were pushed out of their mountainous bases in DRC by heavy bombardments of South African airforce and Tanzania’s artillery.
{{Source: Chimpreports}}
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