The report, not made public but made available to The Associated Press, reveals that supporters in North America, Europe, and Africa have become the backbone of the group’s day-to-day operations, including in formulating its military strategy.
The Congolese army has also funneled weapons and ammunition to the rebel militia in violation of UN sanctions and its own interests of eradicating the group, said the report, a charge Congolese army officials denied.
“There is no army officer or soldier who’s helping and arming rebels,’’ said Colonel Delphin Kahimbi. “I don’t understand how you can help the same people we are fighting.’’
The report also says the military operation mounted earlier this year against the rebel group has largely failed. Although the militia was initially dislodged from strategic positions, it has since regained much of the lost territory and has launched reprisal attacks against civilians.
The UN Security Council met in a closed-door session yesterday for a briefing by its sanctions committee on Congo but members did not take up the report, said UN associate spokesman Farhan Haq. The council is likely to discuss it Monday, he said, but an official involved in the debate says that council members are trying to table the discussion because the findings include evidence of material support to the rebel group by member states.
The report says the rebel group continues to control lucrative gold mines in eastern Congo, allowing it to traffic millions of dollars in minerals through the country’s porous borders.
The FDLR is a rebel group made up of Hutu refugees from Rwanda who took cover in neighboring Congo after the end of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide of half a million Tutsis. Many of its founders and leaders are accused of having led the genocide.
