Home News News Kinshasa, M23 sign ‘declaration,’ but will it herald peace in volatile DRC?

M23 rebels withdraw through the hills having left their position in the village of Karuba. The group and the government have signed a declaration to end animosities. AFP  

Kinshasa and the leadership of the M23 rebel movement may have finally signed what was touted as a peace deal in Nairobi, but questions remain as to whether its provisions will hold.

Besides the looseness in the wording of the so-called Joint ICGLR-SADC Final Communiqué on the Kampala Dialogue, there is still deep-seated mistrust between the two protagonists.

In the build-up to the signing of what has been termed a “declaration” and not a peace agreement (or accord as proposed by the negotiators), the government of Joseph Kabila has been reluctant to sign a binding peace deal with the rebel group, especially after the defeat of the M23 in battle by a UN combat force led by Tanzania, the Force Intervention Brigade (FIB).

His government has been particularly opposed to granting of a blanket amnesty to the M23 and its leaders, arguing that those found culpable should face trial for war crimes and other crimes against humanity.

A rather public display of division within the M23, seen in the disjointed surrender of some of its leaders and fighters, first to Rwandan troops and then to Uganda’s UPDF, only served to bolster Kabila’s stance and weaken the rebel outfit’s hand in the talks.

On the other side, a vanquished M23 had ironically become the biggest advocate of the Kampala peace process, in its desperation to get something out of its two-year insurgency against Kinshasa.

Its shopping basket at the talks had blanket amnesty for its fighters and integration into the national army as key demands.

Eventually, at Kenya’s State House in Nairobi, Kabila appears to have had his way in the document signed by M23’s political head Bertrand Bisimwa and DRC’s Foreign Affairs Minister Raymond Tshibandi at a ceremony witnessed by Presidents Uhuru Kenya, Joseph Kabila, Yoweri Museveni and Joyce Banda.

The latter is the current chair of SADC (Southern African Development Community), a key sponsor of the talks together with the ICGLR (International Conference on the Great Lakes Region).

READ: Museveni gets DRC, M23 to sign deal

The declaration that was signed states that pardon will be limited to acts of war and insurgency. This means that those M23 rebels wanted for war crimes are not likely to benefit from any amnesty.

This position was confirmed by DRC government spokesman Lambert Mende, who had earlier told the BBC’s Focus on Africa radio programme that there will be no amnesty for those wanted for war crimes.

In July this year, Kinshasa issued international arrest warrants for four former M23 leaders. DR Congo has accused former M23 president Jean-Marie Runiga and military commanders Baudouin Ngaruye, Eric Badege and Innocent Zimurinda of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and other offences.

The four former rebel leaders are close to Bosco Ntaganda, who is facing charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Gen Ntaganda was indicted of crimes against humanity allegedly committed in eastern DRC.

Gen Ntaganda surrendered to the ICC at the American embassy in Kigali, and asked to be transferred to The Hague. Kinshasa issued a similar international arrest warrant against Gen Laurent Nkunda, the former leader of the Tutsi CNDP rebels.