JB jumps gun on DRC mission

The Commander-in-Chief of the Malawi Armed Forces, President Joyce Banda, nodded to the deployment of MDF troops to combat in the troubled Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) without Parliament approval,Weekend Nation has established.

This is a continuation of such constitutional contraventions also displayed by her predecessors Bingu wa Mutharika and Bakili Muluzi.

The only difference—if the terms of reference laid by the United Nations are anything to go by—is that the two past presidents sent soldiers for peacekeeping, while the 850 troops leaving for Goma will be involved in the actual fighting to disarm M23 rebels.

According to law expert Dr. Mwiza Nkhata, Parliament’s nod is required to ensure that MDF’s involvement in such cases has the authority of the Malawi citizens to which it is subordinate.

“This is total combat and, therefore, people need to know the terms and conditions. You do not go to war without citizens knowing,” said Nkhata.

He described the anomaly as “a breach of the Constitution by the commander in chief who swore to uphold the supreme law of the land.”

“Of course this alone may not suffice for impeachment, but coupled with other breaches, this is serious,” said Nkhata.

Section 160[1] of the Constitution says “the Defence Force of Malawi shall operate at all times under the direction of those civil authorities in whom this Constitution vests such power.”

National Assembly nod

Sub section (d) narrows it down by saying: “[Malawi Armed Forces shall] perform such other duties outside the territory of Malawi as may be required of them by any treaty entered into by Malawi in accordance with the prescriptions of international law, but no part of the Defense Force of Malawi shall be employed outside the territory of the Republic for more than 90 days without the approval of the National Assembly.”

While Defence Minister Ken Kandodo this week avoided questions on the matter by promising to revert, but not doing so, and not picking up his phones, Attorney General Anthony Kamanga acknowledged that there has been no involvement of the plenary of the National Assembly on such matters.

“While your reference to Section 160 [1] of the Constitution is correct, you may wish to bear in mind that most matters relating to our men and women in uniform which require the attention or involvement of the National Assembly are actually transacted through the Defence and Security Committee of the National Assembly established under Section 162 of the Constitution because of the sensitivity of such issues. The plenary of the National Assembly rarely gets to debate such issues,” Kamanga said.

But in an interview this week, chairperson of the Defence and Security Committee of Parliament, Steven Kamwendo, said his committee has never been involved in matters of deployment.

“As far as my knowledge is concerned, there has never been consultation although ordinarily at least the committee should know. It is all good when all ends well, but what if our soldiers die there? Malawians should be aware why we got involved,” he reasoned.

Kamwendo, who is Ntcheu Bwanje North MP, added: “What I know is that this has been a preserve of the Executive arm of government.”

According to Kamwendo, the role of the Defence and Security Committee has been limited to investigating and making recommendations when issues to do with defence and security arise.

Taking government to task

Asked why the committee has not taken government to task, Kamwendo said they have tried but have been ignored.

“We know this is a lapse on the part of the Executive. We have asked some of these things, but you know the Executive, being what it is, does not take such things seriously,” Kamwendo said.

He suggested that there be a review of the systems to ensure that Parliament’s oversight role is respected.

Deputy Clerk of Parliament responsible for Parliament affairs, Henry Njolomole, also confirmed that Parliament has never been involved.

“The gist of the matter is that Parliament has never been involved in issues of deployment,” he said.

MDF public affairs officer Lieutenant Taweni Kalua said Malawi soldiers are deployed outside the country in turns of six months—which is 180 days.

“Upon deploying a group, [it] stays in the mission area for six months and fresh troops relieve them afterwards. I cannot give the exact figure of how many have participated, but from the information that I have given, you can deduce that it is thousands,” he said.

The Malawi Defence Force has been to various missions to Rwanda from 1994 to 1996. Then MDF participated in a UN mission in DRC from 2005 to 2010.

To all these, Malawi was sending between 130 and 140 troops, according to Kalua.

“And from 2011 to mid this year, we were in Ivory Coast where an 850-plus group was being deployed. Now a similar group [850] will be deploying to the DRC. In this set up, we do six months rotation,” he added.

Other sources within MDF confirmed that the group in going to DRC on a six months mission.

Apart from sending a contingent, MDF also sends Military observers who perform different duties from those that contingent personnel do.

Currently, MDF has sent military observers to South Sudan, Darfur, Western Sahara, Burundi, Liberia, Kosovo, Israel, Ivory Coast, DRC and Rwanda.

The combat deployment

According to the UN Resolution 2098 (2013)—under which the 850 MDF soldiers who are about to be deployed to DRC will operate—the mission is “offensive combat to neutralise and disarm Congolese rebels and foreign armed groups.”

According to Lieutenant General Derrick Mgwebi, South Africa National Defence Force Chief of Joint Operation, you cannot determine time on how long to deploy soldiers in this kind of operation.

Meanwhile, the US, whose army is training MDF soldiers soon leaving for DRC, has said by sending its troops in spite of serious fighting there is a “demonstration of Malawi’s strong leadership in the region.”

“The UN Intervention Brigade that Malawi is joining with its Sadc partners from South Africa and Tanzania is not a traditional peacekeeping force. It is a force that will face rebel groups that are unleashing instability not just in the Eastern Congo, but across the Great Lakes region. This is a dangerous mission,” said Ambassador Janine Jackson in a statement released on Tuesday this week.

South Africa and Tanzania parliaments have been debating the issue before allowing their respective presidents to deploy their men and women in uniform, according to international media.

The intervention brigade was created by the UN Security Council in March to reinforce the 17 000 UN peacekeepers already in the DRC.

According to the UN resolution, M23 rebels briefly seized Goma in November last year but retreated into the hills on the outskirts of the city after the international community’s call for peace talks.