APCLS: the quest for land and customary power in Masisi

In the early 1990s when tensions between Hutu and Hunde occurred in Masisi, each side organized a self-defence system to protect its people. At that time Hutu leaders created a small group of resistance against the coalition of Hunde and Nyaga under the name of ‘Wakombozi’ (Liberators) in which a young man called Janvier Karairi emerged and later on, with significant support from Mai-Mai groups from Walikale Territoire. In 1996, when the AFDL rebellion started, Janvier Karairi joined the AFDL Army as a fighter on Kabila’s side. In 1998 when the RCD rebellion was created with strong support from Rwanda against the Kabila Government, Karairi deserted from the army and started to organize local Hunde peasants in a militia (Mai-Mai) in Masisi against Hutu and Tutsi, considered by Hunde as Rwandan citizens.

When the operation of brassage described earlier (integrating former rebel combatants into a more structured national army) started in 2003 (following the Sun-City agreement), RCD, PARECO and all Mai-Mai groups in North Kivu gathered for training and briefing in Mushaki (Masisi) before being deployed in different provinces. However, Karairi soon became unhappy about the situation, and left the operation to return to his headquarters in Lukweti (Masisi). In December 2008, after

147 signing the Acts of Engagement during the Goma conference between the Government and different armed groups operating in eastern Congo, PARECO, CNDP and other Mai-Mai groups agreed to end the fighting and integrate into the national army through mixage (same operation as brassage in 2003). Karairi refused to sign this peace deal. This was the beginning of his militia group dropping the name of Mai-Mai and taking that of APCLS. Karairi’s main argument was that both the mixage operation and the Goma agreement favored Hutu and Tutsi at the expense of the

‘autochthonous’ groups of Masisi (audio record of Karairi’s speech officially launching the APCLS). In February 2011, Karairi addressed an official letter to the UN Secretary General representative in Congo and copied different embassies saying that “we inform you that APCLS will never allow to live under the Rwandan and western countries’ neo-colonialism, and decided to protect the population at any cost…” In a public audio declaration of January 2012, one can hear Karairi arguing that “the objective of APCLS is to fight against the countries that invaded our country which are Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and their western supporters, in order to protect our sovereign and prosperous Congo” (APCLS audio record).

In the same way as NYATURA, the Hunde community is not homogeneous in terms of political and ideology interests. Indeed, there are several trends and leaders with different visions. What seems to be common for all Hunde in Masisi is the idea of sharing the same culture, language and customary rites, which remain central to all ideological trends. However, when it comes to whether APCLS is a federating force that represents the interests of all Hunde, the views of Hunde leaders are divergent. For example, the Vice Governor of North Kivu is a Hunde, but his influence within the entire community is not clear, though his links with the APCLS leadership are highly suspicious.

Even though Karairi is still seen by some analysts as a defender of the Hunde community, this vision of Karairi and APCLS is not shared by all Hunde leaders, nor even well known by Hunde peasants in Masisi. An informant who is a Hunde youth leader put it this way:

I do not know what Karairi fights for. When he decided to create a militia, very few Hunde leaders were aware of it. It might be his own initiative, for his own ambition because he was promised by the government to recognize his rank as general of brigade. We, Hunde, at the beginning of his militia we did not understood his ideology. As a matter of fact, every time the Hunde populations

148 are killed by Hutu militias, Karairi did nothing to protect Hunde despite the fact

that he is armed (Interview Goma, V.03.14)

However, although it is difficult to say that APCLS is the protector of Hunde interests, currently Karairi remains the only Hunde military leader who continues to fight in the name of protecting the ancestral land and taking it back from the Hutu and Tutsi, seen by many Hunde leaders as foreigners. At the political level, APCLS is not structured and influential members are not sufficiently known. Nonetheless, it remains an important network for the Hunde community although many Hunde leaders with whom I discussed APCLS were very careful and sometimes vague in their answers about Karairi and APCLS. While Karairi is the military leader, important others are Bakungu Mitondeke and Feller Rutayitshirwa. In 2004, Mitondeke was the Vice-Governor of North Kivu, in charge of political and administrative questions, when Serufuli (a very important Hutu figure) was Governor. In February 2012, Mitondeke was arrested at his residence in Goma Town by public security forces, accused of trafficking weapons to supply APCLS in Masisi. Erneste Kyaviro, a spokesman of the provincial government, had this to say on radio Okapi: ‘We could see with our own eyes eight types of assault rifles AK 47 assault rifles and two Belgian manufacturing of the Fal brand, and there were plenty of Mai-Mai elements in his residency…’. Mitondeke was transferred to Kinshasa where he was judged and jailed for one year.

Later on, he was released, and today he lives in Kinshasa. Although Mitondeke prefers to stay in Kinshasa, his influence in Masisi is still important within the Hunde community.

Another leader is the current Vice-Governor of North Kivu, Feller Rutayitshirwa. In 2011 Rutayitshirwa was cited by the media as the sender of a truck (car) that was arrested by the Congolese intelligence service (ANR and T2) around Bihambwe, which is a village in Masisi.

Apart from Mitondeke and Rutayitshirwa, there is a Hunde business elite based in Goma, but with less political influence. It is not even clear whether or not this elite group plays any significant role in Masisi. Likewise, the Mwami Bashali and Mwami Nicolas (of Bahunde Chieftaincy) only hold a moral and ideological authority, and not political influence compared to the three Big Men.

Compared to Nyatura, APCLS operates on a lower scale. Although its headquarters used to be Lukweti, Karairi and his troops often move across villages at the border with Walikale Territoire.

At the provincial and national level, APCLS does not have a significant network. Even though Vice-Governor Rutayitshirwa in Goma or Mitondeke in Kinshasa are said to be supporting Karairi,

149 it is still not clear whether they do it only for Karairi and APCLS or the whole Hunde community interests in general. The lines of dependency between different Hunde leaders I met and the Hunde peasants I spoke to in Masisi and Goma remain unclear and, if there are connections, the degree of informality does not allow them to be grasped.