{The M23 has rejected the accusation of UN representative of the Secretary General in the Democratic Republic of Congo to recruit the new fighters.}
Martin Kobler told the UN Security Council that he has reliable information that M23 has continued to recruit new fighters.
In a statement released by the M23, the movement slams the accusations and reminds the public that “the M23 is a signatory of the December 12 declaration in Nairobi and keeps strict respect of its commitments,” read the part of the statement released on Wednesday.
It added: “Our ex-combatants, starting with the Military High Command to the rank soldiers, have all been submitted in their country of refuge, to the process of disarmament, cantonment and are placed in well-known and accessible sites.”
M23 says the number of ex-combatants is known to all the media and other relevant organizations (EJVM / ICGLR, UNHCR, ICRC …)
“These ex-combatants who have crossed the border regard themselves today, as refugees and do not intend to adopt an attitude contrary to that of their current status. Regarding those ex-combatants who remained in the DRC, the Congolese Government has always claimed publicly that they were.”
On the political side, the Movement has already announced the end of a state of rebellion and has begun the process of its transformation into an organization under the Congolese law whose formalization awaits the promulgation of the disarmed and confined to a site in a sector of Kanyaruchinya pending their social integration…
M23 questions whether “Mr. Kobler and those who think like him (who are the advocates of licensed death of the M23 military) simmering in trying to make the world believe that the M23 has an oversized capacity capable to regenerate and operational capability! “
“On our part we have to say that henceforth we have learn from the past because there are those who for a long time have used (and dream of carry on doing so) the existence of our movement as a diversionary strategy for not to fulfil the obligations which nevertheless justify their presence in the DRC, including those of getting rid in our villages, our cities and our streets of the root causes of the decades of conflict.” Says the statement.
M23 warns that following the deplorable security table currently displayed in some provinces of the country,” our movement will not give them the slightest opportunity to distract the public opinion and to continue to mock Congolese victims of conflict, so it is their responsibility to courageously face the real threats that threaten the Congolese civilian population rather than wasting time and energy trying to invent on the M23 Movement’s back. “
Equateur Province is now invaded by the former Central African Armed Forces, Orientale Province is the host of Seleka, MBORORO and elements of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), North Kivu continually suffers from ADF-NALU, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the provinces of South Kivu and Maniema remain subject to the National Liberation Forces of Burundi (FNL), the FDLR, etc.. Not to mention the fifty local armed groups such as Bakata Katanga of Katanga Province, the Raïa Mutomboki, APCLS of Janvier, Nduma- Defence Force (NDC) of Cheka, etc..
“We denounce and condemn those who want to use as pretext the Phantom of the M23 Movement for not fighting all these groups and create favorable conditions for the return of refugees in the country for the establishment of a lasting peace and genuine national reconciliation’ M23 says in a statement
The East Province of DRC was the hideaway of army group from 1996 up to now.
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