PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Special Security: Link between rebel groups, organised crime undermines anti-terror battle (By Kennedy Abwao, PANA Correspondent, Nairobi)
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - On the night of 26 Feb. 2011, the usual calm within the neighbourhood of Soledo Estate, a gated community in the middle-income South C district of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, was interrupted by gunshots.
At the end of the operation, Joseph Cheptarus, a Senior Assistant Commissioner in-charge of investigations at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), lay dead, shot four times.
The hit men, who also kidnapped the community's night watchman, took off with Cheptarus' car. They later dumped the watchman unharmed at a lonely spot near Nairobi’s Multimedia University.
Police in Kenya said the same hit men thought to have murdered Cheptarus also carjacked a driver, Singh Verdi, in Karen.
Kenya’s Interior Ministry said the events were unrelated to an investigation over the disappearance of 2.5 tonnes of gold from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but Cheptarus was a member of an investigating team formed in response to a request by the Congolese government for help in uncovering illegal gold smugglers.
In Jan. 2011, the Congolese Government discovered the disappearance of the 2.5 tonnes of gold, worth US$100 million, destined for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
President Joseph Kabila’s government suspected the rebels in his country's eastern and northern Kivu were behind the smuggling of the gold and that they planned to divert the proceeds to their destabilisation efforts in the DRC.
Subsequently, Martin Kabwelu, the Congolese Minister for International Cooperation, visited Kenya to gather information as part of a government delegation.
President Kabila also paid a visit to then President Mwai Kibaki, with precise details about the depot in Nairobi where the gold was hidden.
Both governments said a syndicate of smugglers using forged documents exported gold through Kenya.
Investigators discovered forged evaluation and export documents, dated 22 Feb 2011, with an estimated value of US$62.5 million, and the Congolese issued Kenya with a list of 15 suspects.
Among the suspects was a man identified as a key arms dealer and supplier linked to the rebel movements in the Kivu.
Police recovered 500g of carat gold and assorted stones in plastic bags from the home of Jean Claude Mutindo, a Congolese. Tests discovered the assorted stones were brass.
Investigators also discovered that between 25 Feb. 2010 and 20 Jan. 2011, some 2.6 tonnes of gold were processed for export to various destinations from Kenya, and concluded that criminal networks operating from Kenya carry out deals involving large quantities of gold and also traded in counterfeit gold.
The fight against armed groups and terror organisations has been thwarted by the activities of these organised criminal groups.
In the meantime, the killers of the KRA official remain free and the mystery of unresolved murders and other acts of disappearance linked to criminal networks remain common.
Efforts by the African Union (AU) to enhance the fight against armed groups saw the creation of the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA).
The AU and the UN also backed the launch of the Great Lakes region’s largest peace initiative, under the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), where 18 countries joined hands to strengthen the fight against armed groups and terrorist organisations operating in the region.
Under the ICGLR, countries have collaborated to fight rebels through the Pact on Security, Stability and Development, a deal signed in 2006. This agreement provided a platform for advancing the fight against armed groups and also includes a Regional Non-Aggression and a mutual defence pact.
Despite the pacts, the states themselves have made limited progress in enforcing them.
The pacts have attempted to streamline the use of minerals by creating a certification system that would make it possible to trace origin and trade in these valuable minerals, but security analysts say some of the armed groups operating in the Eastern Africa region enjoy the support of governments, who end up losing control of the groups.
It is currently believed that the failure to curb the menace in the region could entirely complicate the escalating civil and military conflict in the South Sudan.
Researchers from the African Centre for Strategic Studies say limited progress has been made in combating the armed groups in Eastern Africa due to various reasons.
In the first instance, the countries involved rush into joint military operations, which usually fail to net these groups which simply relocate to new territories, only to return to attack civilian targets whom they accuse of aiding the state military operations.
Even though these states have signed the mutual defence and non-aggression pact, which also seeks to eliminate trafficking of minerals, which is used to finance rebel activity, limited progress is made by the states involved due to the economic benefits accruing from the business.
Analysts insist the states involved in these conflicts see little incentives in ending their support to the proxy militias because of their national security and economic interests.
Studies by CISSA based on intelligence obtained from its state parties show terrorism, terrorists and the armed groups in East Africa stand in the way of development.
CISSA recently urged states in the region to commission studies to establish why the armed groups still existed in the region, despite the security operations launched by the various actors to eliminate them.
CISSA believes the complexity in fighting these groups is a result of their symbiotic relationship with the organised criminal networks, and that the proceeds from the organised crime are being used to finance the terror activities.
At a recent meeting in Khartoum, the members of CISSA (including Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the DRC, Djibouti, Congo Republic, Gabon, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) called for the strengthening of the ICGLR Joint Intelligence Fusion Centre in Goma, the DRC, to enhance the fight against armed groups.
“This is one of the most pressing security threats. This deserves equal measure of attention,” CISSA delegates concluded in a communiqué issued after the meeting in Khartoum.
Since then, states like Kenya and the DRC have agreed to assist each other in the arrest and investigations of these criminal networks.
-0- PANA AO/SEG 22Jan2014
At the end of the operation, Joseph Cheptarus, a Senior Assistant Commissioner in-charge of investigations at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), lay dead, shot four times.
The hit men, who also kidnapped the community's night watchman, took off with Cheptarus' car. They later dumped the watchman unharmed at a lonely spot near Nairobi’s Multimedia University.
Police in Kenya said the same hit men thought to have murdered Cheptarus also carjacked a driver, Singh Verdi, in Karen.
Kenya’s Interior Ministry said the events were unrelated to an investigation over the disappearance of 2.5 tonnes of gold from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but Cheptarus was a member of an investigating team formed in response to a request by the Congolese government for help in uncovering illegal gold smugglers.
In Jan. 2011, the Congolese Government discovered the disappearance of the 2.5 tonnes of gold, worth US$100 million, destined for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
President Joseph Kabila’s government suspected the rebels in his country's eastern and northern Kivu were behind the smuggling of the gold and that they planned to divert the proceeds to their destabilisation efforts in the DRC.
Subsequently, Martin Kabwelu, the Congolese Minister for International Cooperation, visited Kenya to gather information as part of a government delegation.
President Kabila also paid a visit to then President Mwai Kibaki, with precise details about the depot in Nairobi where the gold was hidden.
Both governments said a syndicate of smugglers using forged documents exported gold through Kenya.
Investigators discovered forged evaluation and export documents, dated 22 Feb 2011, with an estimated value of US$62.5 million, and the Congolese issued Kenya with a list of 15 suspects.
Among the suspects was a man identified as a key arms dealer and supplier linked to the rebel movements in the Kivu.
Police recovered 500g of carat gold and assorted stones in plastic bags from the home of Jean Claude Mutindo, a Congolese. Tests discovered the assorted stones were brass.
Investigators also discovered that between 25 Feb. 2010 and 20 Jan. 2011, some 2.6 tonnes of gold were processed for export to various destinations from Kenya, and concluded that criminal networks operating from Kenya carry out deals involving large quantities of gold and also traded in counterfeit gold.
The fight against armed groups and terror organisations has been thwarted by the activities of these organised criminal groups.
In the meantime, the killers of the KRA official remain free and the mystery of unresolved murders and other acts of disappearance linked to criminal networks remain common.
Efforts by the African Union (AU) to enhance the fight against armed groups saw the creation of the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA).
The AU and the UN also backed the launch of the Great Lakes region’s largest peace initiative, under the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), where 18 countries joined hands to strengthen the fight against armed groups and terrorist organisations operating in the region.
Under the ICGLR, countries have collaborated to fight rebels through the Pact on Security, Stability and Development, a deal signed in 2006. This agreement provided a platform for advancing the fight against armed groups and also includes a Regional Non-Aggression and a mutual defence pact.
Despite the pacts, the states themselves have made limited progress in enforcing them.
The pacts have attempted to streamline the use of minerals by creating a certification system that would make it possible to trace origin and trade in these valuable minerals, but security analysts say some of the armed groups operating in the Eastern Africa region enjoy the support of governments, who end up losing control of the groups.
It is currently believed that the failure to curb the menace in the region could entirely complicate the escalating civil and military conflict in the South Sudan.
Researchers from the African Centre for Strategic Studies say limited progress has been made in combating the armed groups in Eastern Africa due to various reasons.
In the first instance, the countries involved rush into joint military operations, which usually fail to net these groups which simply relocate to new territories, only to return to attack civilian targets whom they accuse of aiding the state military operations.
Even though these states have signed the mutual defence and non-aggression pact, which also seeks to eliminate trafficking of minerals, which is used to finance rebel activity, limited progress is made by the states involved due to the economic benefits accruing from the business.
Analysts insist the states involved in these conflicts see little incentives in ending their support to the proxy militias because of their national security and economic interests.
Studies by CISSA based on intelligence obtained from its state parties show terrorism, terrorists and the armed groups in East Africa stand in the way of development.
CISSA recently urged states in the region to commission studies to establish why the armed groups still existed in the region, despite the security operations launched by the various actors to eliminate them.
CISSA believes the complexity in fighting these groups is a result of their symbiotic relationship with the organised criminal networks, and that the proceeds from the organised crime are being used to finance the terror activities.
At a recent meeting in Khartoum, the members of CISSA (including Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the DRC, Djibouti, Congo Republic, Gabon, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) called for the strengthening of the ICGLR Joint Intelligence Fusion Centre in Goma, the DRC, to enhance the fight against armed groups.
“This is one of the most pressing security threats. This deserves equal measure of attention,” CISSA delegates concluded in a communiqué issued after the meeting in Khartoum.
Since then, states like Kenya and the DRC have agreed to assist each other in the arrest and investigations of these criminal networks.
-0- PANA AO/SEG 22Jan2014
