Dear Friends,

I greet you in the midst of these very trying times for my country. Since April, nearly a half million Congolese have been displaced and rendered homeless by a Rwandan-backed rebel movement in the east of our country. A United Nations Group of Experts report says Rwanda is training, arming and financing rebels that have destabilized the east of the Congo.

The reason we host Congo Week in the month of October is because it was in October 1996 that mainly Rwanda and Uganda first invaded the Congo and triggered the catastrophic crisis that we have endured for the past 16 years. Since we began Congo Week in 2008, sixty countries and over 300 communities have joined us to demonstrate their support and value for Congolese lives.

Due to your support along with others throughout the globe, world leaders are finally listening to Congolese voices and applying pressure to the dominant source of the instability in the east of our country. The United States, Netherlands, Sweden and a number of other donor nations are finally holding the Rwandan government accountable by withholding aid as a result of Rwanda's support for rebel groups inside the Congo.

As youth and future leaders of our country, we are clear that Congo's challenge is both external and internal. Young people will gather throughout the country during Congo Week (October 14 - 20, 2012) to discuss and examine the path that Congo took to arrive in its current condition and build on strategies for realizing peaceful and lasting change.

We call on you to join us in addressing our external challenges as we face and tackle the various internal forces that have rendered our country dependent, impoverished and unstable.

This is an historic opportunity for you to be a part of the global movement to bring an end to what is described as the greatest humanitarian crisis at the dawn of the 21st century and the deadliest conflict since World War Two.

We encourage you to seize the moment and become a part of a noble pursuit for justice and human dignity in the heart of Africa, my home, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Samya Lugoma
Student Coordinator
Friends of the Congo

Sign-up for Congo Week!
http://congoweek.org/participation-form.html

Support Congo Week!
http://www.congoweek.org/donate.html

Remember to post your event on the events calendar:
http://congoweek.org/component/events/

Share the Congo Week promotional video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0AWeWvMkHk

Download Congo Week Organizers Tool Kit and Materials:
http://congoweek.org/downloads.html

Screen our film Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering the Truth
http://congojustice.org

Participate in the CELL-OUT, on October 17, 2012. The CELL-OUT is a one-hour digital moment of silence in support of the Congolese people.
http://congoweek.org/the-cell-out.html

Follow us on Twitter @congofriends and tweet your support using hashtags #CongoWeek and #CW2012 leading up to and during Congo Week.

Since the middle of July, religious leaders throughout the Congo have been organizing to collect signatures from Congolese citizens as a form of demonstration against Rwanda's aggression against the Congolese people through support of the rebel group M23.

The petition touch on several key themes:
1. No to the balkanization (break up) of the Congo.

2. A cessation of Rwandan aggression against the Congolese people.

3. No negotiations with the rebel group M23.

4. Calls for justice for the people of the Congo who have been victims of myriad war criminals.
Radio Okapi reported that the church leaders collected 1 million signatures.

The petitions have already been presented to the Congolese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Raymond Tshibanda. The petitions will next be presented to the United Nations. The key ask from the petition is for the United Nations and the international community to help bring an end to the ongoing conflict in the Congo.

13.1 On DRC,  Summit noted with great concern that  the security situation in the Eastern  part of  DRC has deteriorated in the last  three (3) months, causing displacement of people and loss of lives and property. Summit  also  noted that this is being perpetrated by rebel groups with assistance of Rwanda, and urged the latter to cease immediately its interference that constitutes a threat to peace and stability, not only of the DRC, but also of the SADC Region.4 This situation has called for renewed and urgent attention by the Summit which fielded an Assessment Mission to the DRC. Summit endorsed a Report of the Mission which recommended appropriate action to address the security situation in the Eastern part of DRC.  Summit further mandated the Chairperson of SADC to undertake a mission to Rwanda to engage the Government of Rwanda with the aim of urging Rwanda to stop military support to armed rebels in the DRC, the so-called M23. Summit  also urged  Member States and the international Community to provide humanitarian relief to the displaced people in the Eastern part of DRC.

13.2 Summit directed the SADC Secretariat to collaborate with the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region Secretariat in pursuit of peace and security in the Eastern DRC.

Click here to download entire communique!

Keris Dahlkamp began his 22 mile 14 hour swim for Congo across Lake Tahoe today at 1:00 AM. Keris is using his talent to raise awareness about the situation in the Congo and raise funds (click here to make a contribution) for the Congo Connect Youth Initiative.


Follow Keris' swimmer via @kambale on twitter. Below are a few updates:










kambale

The Obama Administration Withholds Military Aid From Rwanda
On Saturday, July 21, 2012 the United States officially announced that it was withholding $200,000 in military aid from the Rwandan government. Although a materially insignificant sum, the symbolism has serious implications for Rwanda's image and reputation in the global community.

In withholding aid from Rwanda, President Obama is following in the footsteps of the Bush administration who pressured Rwanda to withdraw its soldiers from the Congo in 2002. In addition, the Obama administration has taken a small step in implementing the Democratic Republic of Congo Relief Security and Democracy Promotion Act, PL 109-456 - a law that he sponsored as Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton co-sponsored. Section 105 of the law says:

"The Secretary of State is authorized to withhold assistance made available under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.), other than humanitarian, peacekeeping, and counter terrorism assistance, for a foreign country if the Secretary determines that the government of the foreign country is taking actions to destabilize the Democratic Republic of the Congo."

Friends of the Congo maintains that Rwanda's repeated interventions in the Congo since 1996 has been the major obstacle to peace and stability in the region. Rwanda along with its ally Uganda have invaded the Congo twice (1996 & 1998); occupied the Congo 1997 - 2002; sponsored proxy rebel groups, mainly the Rally For Congolese Democracy (RCD), National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), and M23; fought a "six-day war" against Uganda on Congolese soil over diamonds in Kisangani in 2000 killing over 1,000 Congolese and injuring scores. Yet, Rwanda has escaped serious sanctions and have operated with impunity in the Congo primarily via its support of rebel groups with devastating consequences for Congolese civilians.

The withholding of aid by the United States government is significant because, it:
1. Sends a strong signal to Paul Kagame and the Rwandan government that they no longer have carte-blanche to destabilize the Congo.

2. Endorses the UN Group of Experts findings, which Rwanda vehemently denies.

3. Communicates a clear message to Rwanda that although its people are victims of a genocide it does not entitle the government to sponsor mayhem and atrocities in the Congo.

4. Clears the way for other donors to follow the US lead in withholding aid from Rwanda. The Netherlands is the first nation to follow in the footsteps of the United States by withholding aid from Rwanda.

5. Announces to the global community that it will no longer provide diplomatic cover for Rwanda's aggression against the Congo.

6. Sets in motion a process that will increasingly hold Rwanda to account for destabilizing the Congo. See Stephen Rapp's statements about the possibility of Paul Kagame facing prosecution at the international criminal court for arming groups responsible for atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

7. Says to Rwanda that good management of aid dollars does not give it license to flagrantly violate international law and destabilize a neighbor.

8. Establishes standards or parameters for accountability at the international level.

9. Hits Rwanda with the reality that it is not beyond reproach even if it has friends in high places (President Clinton, a staunch supporter of President Paul Kagame had just left Rwanda when the State Department announced the cutting of aid).

10. Injects a critical variable into the equation when Rwanda contemplates the implications for destabilizing the Congo in particular and the region in general.

The Congolese people are yearning for some measure of accountability, justice and an end to the impunity, not only locally but also regionally and internationally. The United States has the tools at its disposal to play a key constructive role in advancing peace and stability in the region. As the United States continue "to assess whether other steps should be taken," the government ought to be encouraged and pressured to do more until the political, military and economic stranglehold that Rwanda has on eastern Congo via its proxies is broken. Peace and stability in the region can be advanced significantly should Rwanda cease its support of rebel groups, initiate an inter-Rwandan dialogue and scale back its ambitions to control the Kivus for its economic benefit.

The US Government Statement on Withholding Aid From Rwanda
http://congofriends.blogspot.com/2012/07/us-statement-on-withholding-aid-from.html

FOTC Petition Calling on the US To Enforce Public Law 109-456
http://www.change.org/petitions/secretary-of-state-hillary-clinton-help-end-the-conflict-in-the-congo

Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering the Truth
http://congojustice.org

In light of information that Rwanda is supporting armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Department of State has decided it can no longer provide Foreign Military Financing (FMF) appropriated in the current fiscal year to Rwanda, considering a restriction imposed by the 2012 appropriation act.

As a result, we will not obligate $200,000 in Fiscal Year 2012 FMF funds that were intended to support a Rwandan academy for non-commissioned officers.  These funds will be reallocated for programming in another country.

We will continue to provide assistance to Rwanda to enhance its capacity to support peacekeeping missions.

The Department continues to assess whether other steps should be taken in response to Rwanda’s actions with respect to the DRC.

The United States government is deeply concerned about the evidence that Rwanda is implicated in the provision of support to Congolese rebel groups, including M23.

The United States has been actively engaged at the highest levels to urge Rwanda to halt and prevent the provision of such support, which threatens to undermine stability in the region.

Restraint, dialogue, and respect for each other’s sovereignty offer the best opportunity for Rwanda and the DRC, with the support of their partners, to resume the difficult work of bringing peace and security to the broader region.

We are encouraged by the ongoing high-level dialogue among the states of the Great Lakes region, and we join the Security Council in taking note with interest of the communiqué issued by the eleven member states of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) on July 12.

Developing a disciplined and unified army as part of a comprehensive security sector reform process remains critical to the stabilization of the DRC.

We support efforts to bring to justice alleged human rights abusers among the mutineers, including Bosco Ntaganda, who is the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant. We are concerned by reports that the mutineers have forcibly recruited child soldiers.

Hilary Fuller Renner
Spokesperson
Bureau of African Affairs
U.S. Department of State

Since the outset of its current mandate, the Group has gathered evidence of arms embargo and
sanctions regime violations committed by the Rwandan Government. They include:

Direct assistance in the creation of M23 through the transport of weapons and soldiers
through Rwandan territory:
• Recruitment of Rwandan youth and demobilized ex-combatants as well as Congolese refugees for M23;
• Provision of weapons and ammunition to M23;
• Mobilization and lobbying of Congolese political and financial leaders for the benefit of M23;
• Direct Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) interventions into Congolese territory to reinforce M23;
• Support to several other armed groups as well as FARDC mutinies in the eastern Congo;
• Violation of the assets freeze and travel ban through supporting sanctioned individuals.

Other Transgressions:
The Rwandan Defense Force (RDF) has also deployed demobilized former FDLR combatants to reinforce M23.

The RDF has been providing military equipment, weapons, ammunition, and general supplies to M23 rebels.

RDF units themselves have also been deployed to reinforce M23 for specific operations at Runyoni.

Senior Rwandan officials have also been directly involved in the mobilization of political leaders and financial backers for M23. They include figures such as: General Jacques Nziza, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence,General James Kabarebe, the Rwandan Minister of Defense,General Charles Kayonga, the RDF Chief of Staff.

Experts on Whether Rwanda Had Opportunity to Address Claims in Report
58. The Group has made extensive efforts to engage with the Rwandan Government regarding its findings, with some limited success. All six members of the Group participated in an official visit to Kigali from 12 to 14 May 2012, though the Rwandan Government did not receive them for any substantive meetings to
discuss these issues.

FOTC Recommendations:
1. United Nations should impose sanctions on the Rwandan regime for its violations.
2. United States Congress should hold a hearing to review aid to the Rwandan military and discern whether the Leahy Amendment has been violated.
3. United States Secretary of State should enforce U.S. Law - Section 5 of The Democratic Republic of Congo Relief, Security and Democracy Promotion Act or PL 109-456.

Download complete addendum here: http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/2012/348/Add.1

Former AFRICOM head, Kip Ward with James Kaberebe, one of  the Rwandan soldiers named in the UN  report  for providing support to rebels in the Congo.

According to leaked reports to Reuters news agency "the (UN) experts have implicated several high-ranking Rwandan officials who are directly involved." The U.N. material has been “verified by five separate sources,” identifying Rwandan “officials supporting M23 as Defense Minister James Kaberebe; chief of defense staff Charles Kayonga; and General Jacques Nziza, a military adviser to Kagame.”  Kaberebe, according to this source, was "in constant contact with M23."

The Washington Post/Foreign Policy shared excerpts from the report:

Since the outset of its current mandate, the Group [of Experts] has gathered evidence of arms embargo and sanctions regime violations committed by the Rwandan Government. These violations consist of the provision of material and financial support to armed groups operation in the eastern DRC, including the recently established M23, in contravention of paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 1807. The arms embargo and sanctions regimes violations include the following:

*Direct assistance in the creation of M23 through the transport of weapons and soldiers through Rwandan territory;

*Recruitment of Rwandan youth and demobilized ex-combatants as well as Congolese refugees for M23;

*Provision of weapons and ammunition to M23;

*Mobilization and lobbying of Congolese political and financial leaders for the benefit of M23;

*Direct Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) interventions into Congolese territory to reinforce M23;

*Support to several other armed groups as well as FARDC mutinies in the eastern Congo;

*Violation of the assets freeze and travel ban through supporting sanctioned individuals.

Over the course of its investigation since late 2011, the Group has found substantial evidence attesting to support from Rwandan officials to armed groups operating in the eastern DRC. Initially the RDF [Rwandan Defense Forces] appeared to establish these alliances to facilitate a wave of targeted assassinations against key FDLR [The Demoratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, the armed remnants of Rwanda's former genocidal government] officers, thus significantly weakening the rebel movement (see paragraphs 37 & 38 of interim report). However, these activities quickly extended to support for a series of post electoral mutinies within the FARDC [The Rwandan Armed Forces] and eventually included the direct facilitation, through the use of Rwandan territory, of the creation of the M23 rebellion. The latter is comprised of ex-CNDP officers integrated into the Congolese army (FARDC) in January 2009. Since M23 established itself in strategic positions along the Rwandan border in May 2012, the Group has gathered overwhelming evidence demonstrating that senior RDF officers, in their official capacities, have been backstopping the rebels through providing weapons, military supplies, and new recruits.

In turn, M23 continues to solidify alliance with many other armed groups and mutineer movements, including those previously benefiting from RDF support. This has created enormous security challenges, extending from Ituri district in the north to Fizi territory in the south, for the already overstretched Congolese Army(FARDC). Through such arms embargo violations, Rwandan officials have also been in contravention of the sanctions regime's travel ban and assets freeze measures, by including three designated individuals amongst their direct allies.

In an attempt to solve the crisis which this Rwandan support to armed groups had exacerbated, the governments of the DRC and Rwanda have held a series of high-level bilateral meetings since early April 2012. During these discussions, Rwandan officials have insisted on impunity for their armed group and mutineer allies, including ex-CNDP General Bosco Ntaganda, and the deployment of additional RDF units to the Kivus to conduct large-scale operations against the FDLR. The latter request has been repeatedly made despite the fact that: a) the RDF halted its unilateral initiatives to weaken the FDLR in late February; b) RDF Special Forces have already been deployed officially in Rutshuru territory for over a year; c) RDF operational units are periodically reinforcing the M23 on the battlefield against the Congolese army; d) M23 is directly and indirectly allied with several FDLR splinter groups; and e) the RDF is remobilizing previously repatriated FDLR to boost the ranks of M23.

* * *
Elevated Standards of Evidence:

In light of the serious nature of these findings, the group has adopted elevated methodological standards. Since early April 2012, the Group has interviewed over 80 deserters of FARDC mutinies and Congolese armed groups, including from M23. Amongst the latter, the Group has interviewed 31 Rwandan nationals. Furthermore, the group has also photographed weapons and military equipment found in arms caches and on the battlefield, as well as obtained official documents and intercepts of radio communication. The Group has also consulted dozens of senior Congolese military commanders and intelligence officials as well as political and community leaders with intricate knowledge of development between DRC and Rwanda. Moreover, the Group has communicated regularly with several active participants of the ex-CNDP mutiny, the M23 rebellion, and other armed groups. Finally, while the Group's standard methodology requires a minimum of three sources, assessed to be credible and independent of one another, it has raised this to five sources when naming specific individuals involved in these case of arms embargo and sanctions violations.

 * * *
Rwandan Support to M23:

Since the earliest stage of its inception, the Group documented a systematic pattern of military and political support provided to the M23 rebellion by Rwandan authorities. Upon taking control over the strategic position of Runyoni, along the Rwandan border with DRC, M23 officers opened two supply routes going from Runyoni to Kinigi or Njerima in Rwanda, which RDF officers used to deliver such support as troops, recruits, and weapons. The Group also found evidence that Rwandan officials mobilized ex-CNDP cadres and officers, North Kivu politicians, business leaders and youth in support of M23.

* * *
Direct Rwandan assistance in creation of M23 through Rwandan territory:

Colonel Sultani Makenga deserted the FARDC in order to create the M23 rebellion using Rwandan territory and benefiting directly from RDF facilitation (See paragraph 104 of interim report). On 4 May, Makenga crossed the boder from Goma into Gisenyi, Rwanda, and waited fro his soldiers to join him from Goma and Bukavu. Intelligence sources, M23 collaborators and local politicians confirmed for the Group that RDF Western Division commander, General Emmanuel Ruvusha, welcomed Makenga upon his arrival to Gisenyi. The same source indicated that Ruvusha subsequently held a series of coordination meetings with other RDF officers in Gisenyi and Ruhengeri over the following days with Makenga.

Source: http://turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/06/26/exclusive_un_panel_says_rwanda_behind_congolese_mutiny

Africa Great Lakes Coalition Calls for U.S. Action to End Instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo

A United Nations Group of Experts report has documented the Rwandan government's support for rebel groups inside the Congo. Various media have reported that the United States Mission to the United Nations, headed by Ambassador Susan Rice had first attempted to block the report and after pressure has subsequently agreed to allow the publishing of the Group of Experts report. Reuters states that "the (UN) experts have implicated several high-ranking Rwandan officials who are directly involved." The U.N. material has been "verified by five separate sources," identifying Rwandan "officials supporting M23 as Defense Minister James Kaberebe; chief of defense staff Charles Kayonga; and General Jacques Nziza, a military adviser to Kagame." Kaberebe, according to this source, was "in constant contact with M23." In spite of the abundance of evidence demonstrating Rwanda's support of war criminals in the Congo, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the U.S. State Department refuses to hold Rwanda to account in spite of a U.S. Law that calls for withholding of aid to countries that destabilize the Congo.

Atrocities continue to mount in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where over 200,000 people have been displaced from their homes in the last three months as a result of attacks by rebel groups M23 and the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP). Support of the M23 militia is only the most recent example of Rwanda underwriting rebellions that continue to devastate Congolese communities; this is the latest of many documented instances of such support. Worth noting are previous rebellions of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL) in 1996, the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) in 1998 and the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) in 2006. It is telling that former members of the RCD like renegade general Laurent Nkunda formed the CNDP and that, today, former members of the CNDP and RCD, including indicted war criminal Bosco Ntaganda, are members of the M23 rebellion. These rebellions are not separate, internal rebellions as they are often reported, but are all related recurrences of foreign intervention by the Rwandan government.

According the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navy Pillay, "The leaders of the M23 figure among the worst perpetrators of human rights violations in the DRC, or in the world for that matter, and many of them have appalling track records including allegations of involvement in mass rape, and of responsibility for massacres and for the recruitment and use of children."

While President Obama has long recognized that the DRC has been destabilized by neighboring countries, his administration has yet to get tough on those fueling the cycles of violence. The need to hold the DRC's neighbors accountable was part of the only law he sponsored as a senator in 2006: PL109-456. Section 105 of that law gives power to the US Secretary of State to withhold aid from neighboring countries deemed to destabilize the Congo. US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton co-sponsored this law.

This legislation has been on the books for 6 years, but has yet to be fully implemented. The recent flood of evidence pointing to Rwanda's military aggression in the Congo calls for an enforcement of this law. In the United Kingdom, more than 20 members of parliament have joined the call to suspend financial support to Rwanda in light of the content in the UN report implicating Rwanda in supporting rebels in the Congo. In accordance with its statutes, the US government should withhold any military, bilateral and multilateral budgetary aid until Rwanda permanently ceases its support of rebels in the DRC.

Given the Obama administration's mass atrocities prevention directive, current violence in the Kivu provinces of the DRC tests the US government's political will to fulfill its promises and enforce its laws. Will the administration recognize the atrocities in eastern DRC and use the law Obama wrote to hold destabilizing parties responsible? Historically, economic sanctions have proven effective in curtailing Rwandan aggressions across the border. In late 2008, Sweden and the Netherlands suspended aid to Rwanda after evidence surfaced showing Rwanda's support of the CNDP rebel group.

The CNDP rebellion, parent to the M23 rebellion currently led by the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted war criminal Bosco "The Terminator" Ntaganda, had been devastating eastern Congo, causing thousands of deaths and displacing over three hundred thousand people from their homes. As soon as aid was withdrawn, Rwanda arrested General Laurent Nkunda. With a law on the books requiring that the United States respond as Sweden and the Netherlands did, and as the second biggest donor to Rwanda providing nearly $200 million in aid annually, the US has the power to help stabilize the region or continue to underwrite those who are destabilizing it. In its position, the US has both tremendous leverage and responsibility to take action.

The international community failed Rwanda in 1994 when it did little to respond and help prevent genocide, and nearly a million Rwandans were slaughtered within three months. Aftershocks from that tragedy have been reverberating through the region ever since. Though Rwanda has stabilized significantly, it is still a time to respond to mass atrocity in the region, as more than six million civilians have perished in Congo since 1996, Rwanda's first documented invasion. The United States government must do its best to foster peace and reconciliation in the whole region, not just in Rwanda. This means not merely giving aid but doing due diligence; the best hope for a speedy end to the atrocities is for donor nations to begin withholding aid from governments who perpetrate instability in the region.

Please join the Great Lakes of Africa Coalition in urging the US government to take swift and decisive action in Congo. Call on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, to help end the impunity in the Congo by enforcing Section 105 of Public Law 109-456. http://www.change.org/petitions/secretary-of-state-hillary-clinton-help-end-the-conflict-in-the-congo

Signatories:
Institute for Policy Studies, Foreign Policy in Focus
Africa Faith and Justice Network
Africa Action
African Great Lakes Action Network
Mobilization For Justice and Peace
Shalupe Foundation
Hope Congo
Congolese Development Center, Inc
Chicago Congo Coalition
Friends of the Congo

FILIMBI - "My world, my village. Africa, my country. Congo my province!"

Today, June 16 2012, is the International Day of the African Child. It has been celebrated on June 16 every year since 1991, when it was first initiated by the Organisation of African Unity (now called the African Union).

On that day in 1976, thousands of black school children took to the streets of Soweto, South Africa. In a march more than half a mile long, they protested the inferior quality of their education and demanded their right to be taught in their own language. Hundreds of young boys and girls were shot down by security forces. In the two weeks of protest that followed, more than a hundred people were killed and more than a thousand were injured.

To honor the memory of those killed and the courage of all those who marched, the Congolese youth are launching a platform called FILIMBI (whistle in swahili) that will teach the people of the Congo about their rights. Organizing across the country in four major provinces simultaneously, these young Congolese women and men will blow the whistle as a beginning of a new era in the lives of many on the ground.

In support of the Congolese youth, you can do the following:

1. Support the youth project
http://friendsofthecongo.org/take-action/youth-project.html

2. Organize an action today in solidarity with them

3. Share this information with your network

4. Sign up for Congo Week
http://congoweek.org/