Kinshasa regime says it is no longer thinks of the possibility of reintegrating the M23 rebels into the national army FARDC.
Instead the government has begun a massive recruitment of youth to boost its numerical strength against the battle hardened rebels that have effectively swept through North Kivu and seizing dozens of towns.
Kinshasa prefers to describe the M23 rebels movement as a terrorist organisation.
Patrick Muyaya, the government spokesman said Saturday, November 05 in Kinshasa that the M23 had been excluded from the first session of peace dialogue scheduled for November 16 in Nairobi, Kenya.
H0wever, Muyaya indicated that the M23 could be reintegrated into these discussions provided that it withdraws upstream from all the occupied areas.
“The idea today and this must be very clear, the M23 must withdraw from the positions occupied before being reintegrated into the process like all the other armed groups because if they were excluded from the process it is because that they resorted to arms,” said Muyaya.
Kinshasa, accuses the M23 of killings, massive forced displacements of people, rapes and other serious violations of human rights and the looting of property.
The government had clarified instead that the M23 is considered a terrorist movement and will henceforth be treated as such and as such it had been excluded from the Nairobi discussion process.
This change follows the call of the President of Burundi and President of the Summit of Heads of State of the East African Community [EAC], Évariste Ndayishimiye and Uhuru Kenyatta, facilitator of the EAC on the process of peace in the eastern region of the DRC.
In this sense, they stressed the need to maintain “inclusiveness” by ensuring the participation of all stakeholders and noted that all sessions, from now on, will welcome various community leaders.
It should be noted that the M23 was the only group to be excluded from the process after the resumption of fighting. Kinshasa, which now considers it a terrorist movement, demanded and obtained the expulsion of the representatives of this movement which occupies, the cities of Bunagana, Rutshuru center and Kiwanja in North Kivu.
