New rebel group in DRC?

A new militia has emerged in the DR Congo this time round from the central region of the country and with unusual demands – installing veteran opposition politician Etienne Tshisekedi as president.Tshisekedi is a long time opposition politician who is among the contenders in last year’s DRC presidential elections. He contested the results insisting he was the legitimate president-elect.In an interview with Radio Okapi, the militia commander Lt. Col. John Tshibangu formerly of FARDC referred to his rebel group as the Movement for Claiming the Truth of the Ballot Box.Two days later, in another phone interview with the opposition news website Congo Indépendant, he called his movement the Congolese Peoples Army for Change and Democracy.According to agencies, Col. Tshibangu went AWOL with 12 other fellow tribesmen from the ranks of the FARDC on August 12, and was second-in-command of the 4th FARDC Military Region based in Kananga, Occidental Kasai.By the time Tshibangu emerged to announce the creation of his Luba tribal militia in a phone interview with Radio Okapi on Thursday, August 16, hed already promoted himself to Lieutenant General.However, speaking to The New Times yesterday, the head of DRC intelligence services, Col. Kalev Mutond, denied a new armed group had been formed, calling the reports lies.“There is no rebel movement in Kassai region. It is not true. That is not correct,” he said. There are several armed groups in D R Congo, including the so called Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Mai-Mai, Congolese Resistance Patriots (PARECO), Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (FPLC), Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) of Joseph Kony. Others include Front for Patriotic Resistance in Ituri/Popular Front for Justice in Congo (FRPI/FPJC), Independent Movement of Liberation and Allies.Meanwhile, reports have emerged indicating that the evidence contained in a document released by the UN Group of Experts on DRC accusing Rwanda of aiding M23, a new rebel group fighting the government of Joseph Kabila, may have not only been untrue but premised on forgery. For example, a one Captain Saddat Janvier the Group claimed to be a Rwanda Defence Force soldier, is a FARDC officer with ID number 166964208920.Contrary to the experts’ allegations, the officer in question was integrated into the FARDC as a former CNDP officer in 2009, and was recently arrested as a potential mutineer and imprisoned in Butembo after serving as Company Commander within the 807th regiment, 1st Battalion, C Company.Col. Mutond could not confirm whether the said officer belongs to Congolese army, but said the matter would be handled through the Joint Verification Mechanism Committee set up to verify such claims between Rwanda and DRC.“We can examine this problem through the committee,” he noted.The Group first accused Rwanda of backing the M23 rebels in an addendum to an interim report to the UN Sanctions Committee on June 21, 2012, to which Rwanda provided a rebuttal.Kigali has dismissed the latest allegations, accusing the Group of bias.

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New rebel group in DRC?