Dar es Salaam will not back down from sending troops to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as part of a United Nations intervention brigade, despite two written warnings from the March 23rd Movement (M23) rebel group, Tanzanian officials say.
Salva Rweyemamu, director of communication for the Tanzanian president, told Sabahi the government received two letters from M23, which is fighting to overthrow the Congolese government.
The first letter was directed to the Chairman of the International Great Lakes Conference, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, and copied to all heads of state in the region, including Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete.
A second letter addressed to National Assembly Speaker Anne Makinda and signed by Bertrand Bisimwa, the new head of M23's political wing, reached the Tanzanian parliament on Saturday (April 20th), sources told Sabahi.
In the letter, M23 urged lawmakers in Dar es Salaam to advise the government against deploying troops to the DRC, and even threatened a "massacre" of Tanzanian troops by M23 fighters if Tanzania went ahead with the deployment.
Restoring peace
"The intention of Tanzanian troops is not to kill Congolese but to restore peace," Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Job Ndugai told Sabahi. "M23 will find this to be a problem if they are not for peace. We are not sending our soldiers to kill people or to be killed by M23."
On March 28th, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2098, which cleared the way for the international body's first-ever "offensive" combat force. The mandate of this intervention brigade, comprised of infantry battalions from Tanzania, South Africa, Mozambique and Malawi, is to "neutralise and disarm" M23, Congolese rebels and foreign-armed groups in eastern DRC, according to a news release from the United Nations.
In the letter dated April 11th, Bisimwa warned that M23 would defeat the UN brigade headed by a Tanzanian general.
On April 7th, Bisimwa issued similar threats to South African troops via his Twitter account, but South Africa said it would go ahead with plans to join the UN intervention brigade in DRC.
According to Bisimwa's letter addressed to Speaker Makinda, Resolution 2098 "transforms [the] UN Peacekeeping Mission to DRC into a belligerent force with the mandate to carry out offensive operations against Congolese citizens".
Bisimwa, who accused the United Nations of intervening in the DRC to rescue the government in power, vowed that M23 forces would defeat the interventionist brigade.
He said he highly respects the first president of Tanzania, the late Julius Nyerere, yet M23 would have no option but to "massacre the brotherly troops from Tanzania".
Colonel Kapambala Mgawe, spokesperson for the Tanzania People's Defence Force, reiterated Tanzanian troops are going into eastern DRC to keep the peace in the region.
"Where DRC citizens' lives or peacekeepers' lives will be in danger, our troops will rescue lives and disarm those who are causing that danger," he told Sabahi. "This is a stance and directive from the UN."
Previous threats
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation Bernard Membe told Sabahi that Tanzania is used to receiving such unfounded threats from rebel groups whenever its forces intervene to save innocent people.
As an example, he cited the 2008 African Union military intervention in Anjuan, Comoros, that ousted former president Colonel Mohamed Bacar. Despite similar threats warning against Dar es Salaam's troop contribution, Tanzanian forces did not back down, Membe said.
"I think they [M23] would have honoured Mwalimu Nyerere by calling off the civil war that causes rampant rape, death for children and women, and displaces people," he said.
Membe said M23 should end its rebellion and stop killing innocent people, thereby giving Tanzania no reason to send a battalion to DRC. SOURCE SABONLINE
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