United Nations - Rwanda blocked a joint
US-French proposal to impose UN sanctions on two senior commanders in
the M23 rebel group in eastern Congo, arguing that the evidence against
the men was weak, Rwandan and other UN envoys said on Wednesday.
The latest diplomatic wrangling in
New York came as UN helicopters and artillery attacked M23 rebel
positions near the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
on Wednesday in support of an offensive by the Congolese armed forces.
One UN peacekeeper from Tanzania was killed and three other
blue-helmeted troops were wounded.
The United States and France
submitted documents to the UN Security Council's Congo sanctions
committee last week explaining why M23's Colonel Vianney Kazarama,
military spokesman for the rebel group, and Erick Mboneza, an M23
commander, should be hit with UN sanctions.
Among other things, those
documents, seen by Reuters, cite a July Human Rights Watch report that
accused Mboneza of ordering the summary execution of a 24-year-old man
he said was a thief.
The documents also refer to a UN
Group of Experts report that says Mboneza and an M23 Colonel Kaina, who
is already subject to a UN travel ban and asset freeze for his
activities in the rebel group, were seen meeting with Rwandan military
officers between March and May 2013.
The Group of Experts has
repeatedly accused Rwanda of supporting M23, an allegation Kigali
vehemently rejects. The cross-border accusations underscore the M23
rebellion's roots in a complex web of local politics and regional
conflicts over ethnicity, land and minerals.
Rwanda's
deputy UN ambassador, Olivier Nduhungirehe, told Reuters that Kigali
blocked the proposed blacklisting because it would have undermined
regional efforts to bring peace to eastern Congo and Kampala talks
between M23 and Congo's government.
He added that the evidence supporting the US-French proposal was “very poor.”
Diplomats said Rwanda, a temporary
council member, was the only one of the 15 member nations that opposed
the idea of blacklisting the two men.
The Security Council's sanctions
committee works on the basis of consensus, which means Rwanda was able
to singlehandedly block the proposed blacklisting.
In theory, council members could
vote on the blacklistings in a Security Council resolution that Rwanda
would be unable to block. It was not clear if the council was prepared
to do that.
Separately, Rwanda has repeatedly
rejected council efforts to issue a public statement condemning M23
attacks on UN peacekeepers last week, UN diplomats said. Rwanda
complained that the Western-drafted statement was unbalanced and
unfairly targeted the M23 while ignoring attacks by the Congolese army.
Kigali
initially criticised the statement for not mentioning shelling onto
Rwandan territory last week, though later drafts, all seen by Reuters,
did ask for the council condemn the firing into Rwanda.
A new draft of the statement was
rejected by Rwanda on Wednesday. A Rwandan delegate said in an email to
other Security Council members that it could not support some of the
language in the latest draft text.
One council delegation responded
to the Rwandan rejection by saying , “It would be the first time when
attacks on UN peacekeepers are not condemned by the Security Council.
This situation is deeply regrettable,” according to a copy of the email,
seen by Reuters.
But Nduhungirehe said negotiations on a statement were continuing. “We are now close to an agreement,” he said.
A 3 000-strong UN intervention
brigade, with a tough new mandate to protect civilians and neutralise
armed groups in the mineral-rich central African nation, sprang into
action last week after it accused the M23 rebels of shelling Goma. The
violence has been escalating there in recent days. - Reuters
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