South Africa’s stupid army: 2,000 troops TRAPPED!!! – SA troops remain trapped in perilous, threatening conditions in DRC, with no rescue in sight
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2002: Why Black People struggle
This is an article I wrote in 2002, which was published on an American website called Etherzone. In this article I‘m diplomatic and I‘ve written it for Liberal Americans.
About 2,000 South African troops are still effectively prisoners of war in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with no visible signs that they are likely to be released soon.
The troops have been trapped in their bases in the provincial capital of Goma and the nearby town of Sake since they were overrun by M23 rebels strongly backed by Rwanda last month.
The conditions of their incarceration are “perilous, threatening and in squalor”, a military source said.
South African National Defence Force reinforcements, including aircraft, have been flown to the DRC city of Lubumbashi, more than 1,000km south of Goma, hoping to extract the trapped troops, according to Defence Minister Angie Motshekga.
This would start with the injured, she told Africa Report.
Last Friday, the bodies of the 14 SANDF soldiers killed in fighting with the M23 between 23 and 27 January around Goma and Sake were eventually returned to South Africa after difficult negotiations with the M23.
Motshekga did not appear to be suggesting that the SANDF reinforcements had been deployed in Lubumbashi to forcibly extract their trapped comrades. She indicated to Africa Report that the release of the troops would be negotiated, but added that they could not retreat without a resolution from the Southern African Development Community since most of them were there with the SADC Mission in DRC (SAMIDRC). Some are there with the UN peacekeeping force Monusco.
It seems the SANDF sent the reinforcements to Lubumbashi just in case the negotiations for the release of the troops goes wrong.
Asked to confirm the deployment of reinforcements to Lubumbashi, SANDF spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini said he was not aware of Motshekga’s discussions with Africa Report as they had taken place in Addis Ababa.
The SADC has announced no plans to meet to review the SAMIDRC’s mission and when he received the bodies of the fallen soldiers at Waterkloof Air Force Base on Friday Ramaphosa said that “we must fulfil our duty to complete their mission”, suggesting that he had no intention of terminating the SAMIDRC’s deployment in the DRC.
This has annoyed some people in the military community who say Ramaphosa’s government is denying the reality that the SANDF soldiers in the DRC are prisoners of war.
“Yes, we are part of SADC’s mission there, and yes, it can only end if SADC so resolves. That, however, doesn’t do anything for those stuck in Goma and Sake who can’t be removed unless the terms of their removal are negotiated with the M23. Two different things,” one military source said.
It appears that the South African government is counting on peace processes supposedly being managed by the SADC and the East African Community (EAC) to reach a peace agreement that would allow the return of the SANDF troops. The two regional organisations held a joint summit in Dar es Salaam on 8 February and directed their defence chiefs to meet within five days to devise a plan for a ceasefire, for humanitarian assistance including the repatriation of the dead and wounded, for opening up communication corridors to and from Goma and for the immediate reopening of Goma’s airport.
Defence ministers would meet within 30 days to approve the defence chiefs’ plan.
But military sources said the defence chiefs had not yet met. They blamed the delay on Zimbabwe which, as current SADC chair, was supposed to convene the meeting, but is dragging its heels.
Dlamini declined to comment on this delay, saying questions could best be answered by the EAC/SADC secretariats. “I do not speak for the two organisations.”
AU communique
Meanwhile, the AU peace and security council (AU PSC), which met in Addis Ababa on Friday to discuss the DRC crisis, has issued a communique which “reiterates the total respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of Congo” and “unequivocally condemns the activities of M23 and its supporters, Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and other armed groups; and calls for the immediate and unconditional ceasefire, and cessation of hostilities and the immediate withdrawal of all uninvited foreign forces, armed and terrorist groups operating in the DRC”.
The AU PSC supported the decision of the joint SADC/EAC summit to merge the Luanda and Nairobi peace processes for the DRC. The Luanda process is based on talks between the DRC and Rwanda while the Nairobi process focuses on dialogue among and disarmament of the many armed groups in eastern DRC.
At the AU summit in Addis Ababa at the weekend African Union leaders expressed increasing concern about “an open regional war” erupting over the eastern DRC, the continental body’s peace and security commissioner, Bankole Adeoye, said.
He was speaking as M23 continued its march, capturing the city of Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province. The rebels are now very close to Burundi, sparking fears that Burundi could be drawn more deeply into direct warfare with Rwanda. Burundi troops had already been engaged in helping the DRC fight the M23, alongside SAMIDRC and some DRC militias.
The M23 has expressed its intention to march all the way west to the DRC capital Kinshasa, to take over the country. The group comprises mainly ethnic-Tutsi Congolese. Rwandan President Paul Kagame has denied that his troops are supporting the M23 but says they have genuine grievances as they are being persecuted by Rwandan Hutus who fled Rwanda after the 1994 genocide and are being supported by the DRC.
Adeoye said the AU was also now looking at the implementation of the Peace, Security and Cooperation (PSC) Framework agreement for eastern DRC – signed by 11 regional African countries, including South Africa, in February 2013 – after the first eruption and capture of Goma by the M23.
Adeoye said this framework had ensured that the M23 and all negative forces in eastern DRC had remained “virtually inactive until about 2 years ago when we had the resurgence of M23”.
He said the AU was looking at implementing the framework because it was comprehensive and included all of the actors in the conflict at national, regional and international level, including the UN, AU and regional organisations.
He also said the AU was ready to mediate negotiations to resolve the conflict, under the umbrella of the Luanda process.
It has now become unclear, though, where negotiations, if any, are under way and who is leading the effort. DM
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