Andrew Mwenda, Uganda Working With M23 Rebels – UN Panel of Experts

A team of UN experts has accused Uganda of training M23 rebels. The same team also claims that Andrew Mwenda, a veteran journalist and former liaison contact between Uganda and Rwanda, of having links with the rebel group.

The claims came two months after three M23 leaders, including Lawrence Kanyuka and Desire Rwigyema, met Mwenda at his office in Kampala in March 2024.

The M23 leaders were seeking Mwenda’s help in convincing western powers – through their embassies – to open communication channels with Kinshasa and urge President Felix Tshisekedi to embrace talks to absorb the rebels into the national army.

Mwenda accuses the US of reporting to the UN based on conversations their mission (embassy) staff had had with him.

“In early May I got a call from the Uganda Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They said they had been contacted by the UN security council on behalf of a ‘panel of experts’ on the DRC. The panel claimed I was involved with M23 trying to help them talk to ‘several western embassies’ to remove sanctions against the rebel group,” he wrote.

“The officials at foreign affairs gave me the dossier of what the ‘panel of experts’ was claiming. It even claimed Uganda trains M23. It was clear the Americans are the ones who reported this to the UN based on the conversations I had with their staff.”

Mwenda has written a piece titled USA and the abuse of the UN, first published by his The Independent news magazine, detailing how events unfolded between March and May 2024, and criticizing the UN and western powers.  Here it is below:

Sometime in March of this year, I received a telephone call from an anonymous number. I rarely pick calls from numbers I do not know. By a strange coincidence I did.

The caller told me that there was a group of M23 leaders in Uganda who would like to meet me. As a journalist, newspaper columnist, radio talk show host, television show panelist, social media personality and owner of a media company, I was interested.

My work and opinions require collection of information from primary sources. I talk to people of all backgrounds to inform myself. I was therefore most keen to talk to M23 leaders to hear their story.

I met them around March 11th at my office. They included Lawrence Kanyuka, Desire Rwigyema and a third person whose name I cannot remember.

I had always thought M23 was an ethnic militia of the Tutsi of eastern DRC. To my surprise Kanyuka told me he is from the Luba ethnic group, just like President Felix Tshisekedi.

They gave me the list of their leaders, political and military, most of whom were not Tutsi. In fact one of them is a Hutu Congolese. I was intrigued and we sat down to a long conversation.

They told me that in October 2020, Kanyuka had led an M23 delegation to Kinshasa. They spent there 14 months negotiating a peace settlement with the government. The peace discussions agreed that M23 should demobilise and have their fighters integrated into the Congolese army.

But just when the M23 were grouping to surrender in November 2022, they were attacked by Congolese forces. Many of their soldiers were killed. M23 protested to Kinshasa and got no response.

However, they told me they do not want to continue fighting. They want the peace process back on track.

They said they want me to help them contact the embassies of the USA, France, Belgium and the EU. These four, they said, have influence in Kinshasa and can help establish a communication channel with the government.

Immediately, I saw a chance to bring the two sides to talk, end the fighting in Congo and bring about peace. I have read about such intractable civil conflicts in many nations: Vietnam, Iraq, Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique, Uganda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Columbia etc. In all of them, a purely military solution has been elusive.

The lesson from my wide reading is that only when governments seek political accommodation with rebels does military victory on the battlefield translate into permanent peace at the political level.

Thus, I felt that such an opportunity should not be missed. DRC has been mired in this intractable conflict for decades. I therefore called the U.S., French and EU missions in Kampala and briefed them on my meeting with M23. I told them that these rebels are looking for someone with influence to help establish a channel of communication with Kinshasa. The aim is to inform the government of DRC that M23 is willing to surrender.

The officer at the French embassy told me outright that they are not allowed to meet M23. The officer at the U.S. embassy told me their political secretary was interested but needed to consult Washington first. Two days later, he told me Washington had declined. However, the U.S. embassy official asked me if M23 leaders had met anyone from the Uganda government to which I said I do not know. If they did, it would be a low-ranking person because I know Uganda is managing a very delicate relationship with DRC and would be afraid to antagonise Kinshasa. However, I got the impression that the Americans were on an intelligence gathering mission.

To Americans and French officials, I explained the importance of establishing an informal contact with M23 using intelligence services.

I know the USA, even though it had declared the Taliban a terrorist organisation, established such informal channel in Afghanistan that led to formal talks in Qatar, which eventually led to the USA withdrawing from the country. The same had happened in Iraq.

None was willing to take this step.

The officer at the EU agreed to meet M23 leaders and said this was purely informal. We met and had a discussion that lasted four hours. He asked many questions and took voluminous notes. I did not hear from any side after that.

In early May I got a call from the Uganda Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They said they had been contacted by the UN security council on behalf of a “panel of experts” on the DRC. The panel claimed I was involved with M23 trying to help them talk to “several western embassies” to remove sanctions against the rebel group.

The officials at foreign affairs gave me the dossier of what the “panel of experts” was claiming. It even claimed Uganda trains M23. It was clear the Americans are the ones who reported this to the UN based on the conversations I had with their staff.

I wrote this explanation to the Ministry of Foreign affairs which was given to this panel. I was shocked, though not surprised, that the same “panel of experts” produced a report repeating their original allegations without any reference to my explanation. They deliberately refer to me as “a public figure” ignoring the fact that I am a journalist, I own and run a newspaper and host a radio show and appear as a panelist on television shows. Instead, they said I work as a liaison person between Kigali and Kampala something I last did in 2018.

I lost my faith in these “international organisations” (read American or Western) a long time ago. When they investigate an issue, it is not to search for the nuanced truths. Instead, they begin with prejudices, assumptions and suspicions.

Then they grab every straw in the wind that confirms these biases. Americans and their Western allies who control these international organisations always have an agenda. Intelligence gathering is only used and manipulated in pursuit of that agenda. Sad!

In my case, Americans claimed I was trying to help M23 get rid of sanctions. M23 leaders did not talk to me about sanctions and neither did I to the Americans. I imagine Americans recorded my conversations with them. They must have an accurate record of our discussions. Why then, did they cook up such lies?