The External Militarization of Local Politics in North-Eastern Congo RIFT VALLEY INSTITUTE | USALAMA PROJECT
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RIFT VALLEY INSTITUTE | USALAMA PROJECT UNDERSTANDING CONGOLESE ARMED GROUPS UPC IN ITURI THE EXTERNAL MILITARIZATION OF LOCAL POLITICS IN NORTH-EASTERN CONGO RIFT VALLEY INSTITUTE | USALAMA PROJECT UPC in Ituri The external militarization of local politics in north-eastern Congo HENNING TAMM Published in 2013 by the Rift Valley Institute 1 St Luke’s Mews, London W11 1DF, United Kingdom PO Box 30710 GPO, 0100 Nairobi, Kenya THE USALAMA PROJECT The Rift Valley Institute’s Usalama Project documents armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The project is supported by Humanity United and Open Square, and undertaken in collaboration with the Catholic University of Bukavu. THE RIFT VALLEY INSTITUTE (RVI) The Rift Valley Institute (www.riftvalley.net) works in Eastern and Central Africa to bring local knowledge to bear on social, political, and economic development. THE AUTHOR Henning Tamm is a doctoral candidate in International Relations at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, and a pre-doctoral fellow with the Program on Order, Conflict and Violence at Yale University. RESEARCH ASSISTANTS: Jean Paul Basila and Daniel Litsha. Neither bears any responsibility for the contents of the report. RVI ExECUTIVE DIRECTOR: John Ryle RVI PROGRAMME DIRECTOR: Christopher Kidner RVI USALAMA PROJECT DIRECTOR: Jason Stearns RVI Great LAkES PROGRAMME MANAGER: Michel Thill RVI PUblications MANAGER: Fergus Nicoll RVI Information OFFICER: Tymon Kiepe Report DESIGN: Lindsay Nash MAPS: Jillian Luff, MAPgrafix PRINTING: Intype Libra Ltd., 3/4 Elm Grove Industrial Estate, London SW19 4HE ISbN 978-1-907431-11-1 COVER: Child soldiers conscripted by the UPC await orders in Bule, Ituri district (2003). Photograph by Marcus Bleasdale. RIGHTS Copyright © The Rift Valley Institute 2013 Cover image © Marcus Bleasdale/VII 2003 Text and maps published under Creative Commons license Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/nc-nd/3.0. Printed copies available from Amazon SOUTH SUDAN HAUT- O DEMOCRATIC G N UELE O REPUBLIC C N OF THE CONGO ARU Aru ANGOLA C E V I N MAHAGI MahagiMahagi R O P L E DJUGU TA Djugu N Lake E ITURI I Albert R MAMBASA BuniaBun O Irumu Mambasa KasenyeKasenyi L IRUMU e n d a Oicha i TSHOPO k li KKamangoamango u m Beni Se Kampala L in BEBENINI d i Butembo LUBERO UGANDA Ma ero Lubero iko Lub Lake Maiko Edward National Park NORTH KIVU ViruVirunganga International ru ilat u NaNationaltional boundary B i h s t t Park u u R R KIVU Province WALIKALE Mabenga RutshuruRutshuru Lu RUTSHURURUTSHURU Bunagana ITURI District (Orientale) bongo MasMasisiisi Walikale UVIRA MASISI NYNYIRAGONGOIRAGONGO Territory Goma MANIEMA Lake Kigali National capital KKivuivu Kigali Kahuzi-Biega Chief town – Kalehe BugarulaBugarula Goma provincial National Park KALEHE IDJIDJWIWI RWANDA KABAREKABARE Bunia Chief town – district KaKabarebare Bukavu ShabundaShabunda Walungu Uvira Chief town – WALUNGU territorial R National park u Mwenga z i z SHABUNDA i MWENGA UVIRA Selected road Bujumbura or track SOUTH KIVUUvira Selected river DDEMOCRATICEMOCRATIC BURUNDI Lake RREPUBLICEPUBLIC FIZI 0 km 100 MAP OF THEa CONCONGOGO Fizi m grax Lua Kabambare Lake TANZANIA © Rift Valley Institute 2013 Tanganyika Boundaries and names shown do not imply 2013 MANIEMA www.riftvalley.net endorsement by the RVI or any other body Map 1. The eastern DRC, showing area of detailed map on the following page N ARU HAUT-UELE Aru DEMOCDEMOCRATICRATIC REPUBLICREPUBLIC UGANDA OF THE CONGOCONGO MAHAGI Mahagi ITURI ORIENTALE DJUGU Kpandroma Fataki Mongbwalu Dhego Bule Kilo Djugu Blukwa Largu Iga Barrière MAMBASA Lake Katoto Albert Marabo Bunia Mandro Rwampara Kafe Irumu Tchomia Key UPC Bule training centres Nyankunde Songolo Bogoro Kasenyi International Nombe boundary KIVU Province ITURI District (Orientale) Gety IRUMU IRUMU Territory Chief town – Bunia district Irumu Chief town – territorial Kasenyi Other town or village National park Selected road NONORTHRTH or track MAP Selected river Oicha KKIVUIVU Lake grax Virunga Kamango © Rift Valley Institute 2013 0 km 25 Boundaries and names shown do not imply 2013 National Park www.riftvalley.net endorsement by the RVI or any other body Map 2. Ituri, showing key UPC training centres Contents Previous RVI Usalama Project publications 6 Preface: The Usalama Project 7 Summary 8 1. Introduction 11 The formation of Hema self-defence groups 14 2. Creation of the UPC 17 RCD-K/ML power struggles and the CMF mutiny 17 The failure of the FLC merger 21 From political party to armed movement 23 3. Six months in power 27 Political organization 27 Military organization 29 Escalating violence and new alliances 32 4. Things fall apart 35 Fragmentation and the struggle for Bunia 35 Split into two: Lubanga versus Kisembo 39 5. Political transformation and armed resistance 41 Continued fighting, arrests, and the birth of the MRC 41 Violent legacies 44 6. Analysis and conclusions 46 Appendix 1: UPC executive in September 2002 49 Appendix 2: Evolution of Congolese armed groups linked to 51 Ituri, 1998–2007 Glossary of acronyms, words, and phrases 52 Bibliography 55 Map 1. The eastern DRC, showing area of detailed map on 3 following page Map 2. Ituri, showing key UPC training centres 4 Previous RVI Usalama Project publications Reports From CNDP to M23: The Evolution of an Armed Movement in Eastern Congo North Kivu: The Background to Conflict in North Kivu Province of Eastern Congo PARECO: Land, Local Strongmen, and the Roots of Militia Politics in North Kivu Ituri: Gold, Land, and Ethnicity in North-eastern Congo All titles are also available in French Briefings ‘M23’s Operational Commander: A Profile of Sultani Emmanuel Makenga’ Preface: The Usalama Project The Rift Valley Institute’s Usalama Project (‘peace’ or ‘security’ in Swahili) is a response to on-going violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The protracted suffering of the inhabitants of this region in the past two decades has resulted in the expenditure of billions of dollars on conflict resolution. Yet the Congolese armed groups at the heart of the conflict are still poorly understood by the international organisations that operate in the DRC—and even by the Congolese government itself. The Usalama Project examines the roots of violence, with the aim of providing a better under- standing of all armed groups, including the national army, the Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo (FARDC, Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The Usalama research programme is guided by a series of questions. What is the history of these armed groups? Who supports and controls them? What are the relations of particular groups to the state, to neighbouring states, to business interests and to the Congolese armed forces? Why have some groups been so difficult to demobilize, while others have disappeared? And are there patterns to be discerned in the ways that groups proliferate, negotiate with the state, and then vanish again? The project takes a primarily qualitative approach. It analyses historical sources––and the small amount of quantitative data available––and traces the origins of armed groups through interviews with politicians, businessmen, representatives of civil society, and members of armed groups. The Project involves extended fieldwork by both international and Congolese researchers. The outcomes include reports on specific armed groups and wider geographical areas of conflict, and a series of seminars and workshops in the DRC. Many of the interviews for this report were conducted on condition of anonymity. Where confidentiality was requested, identifying information in the report is limited to a number with a location and a date, e.g. Usalama Project Interviewee #105, Goma, 28 August 2012. In the course of the research, accounts of significant and potentially disputed events were confirmed by multiple sources with first-hand knowledge of the events under discussion. 7 Summary The Ituri district in the DRC’s north-eastern Orientale Province has been the scene of some of the worst violence of the Congo wars. Three leading figures from Ituri’s armed groups have stood or are standing trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and a fourth has been indicted. Since 2007, however, Ituri has witnessed a sharp decline in violence and displacement. While several attempts have been made since then to launch new insurgencies—some in connection with the M23 rebellion in North Kivu, which emerged in April 2012—they have had only modest success. This report examines the convergence of factors that helped create and then broke apart the Union des patriotes congolais (UPC, Union of Congo- lese Patriots), one of Ituri’s most powerful armed groups. Created in the context of Ugandan occupation, which led to an increased militarization of politics, the UPC represented a local attempt to regain political and military control over the district. The movement was largely driven by elite interests from within the Hema community, the socio-economically dominant ethnic group in Ituri, and attracted external support first from Uganda, then from Rwanda. The initial impetus behind the UPC was a bloody land conflict that erupted in 1999, the result of long-standing tensions born out of a history of economic and political inequality between landowning Hema and Lendu farmer communities. In July 2000, Hema officers of the armed group that controlled Ituri, the Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie–Kisangani/Mouvement de libération (RCD-K/ML, Congolese Rally for Democracy–Kisangani/Liberation Movement), mutinied in protest against what they saw as a pro-Lendu stance by their political leadership. Thomas Lubanga, who began his political career in an opposition party that advocated non-violent resistance, quickly positioned himself as a spokesman of the mutineers and then initiated the creation of the UPC in September 2000. In the following two years, Lubanga and his local allies were able to exploit tensions between the RCD-K/ML, Uganda, and 8 SUMMARY 9 Rwanda, transforming the UPC into a fully-fledged rebellion in August 2002 and taking control of Bunia, Ituri’s district capital.