SUMMARY

In the tumultuous year of 2004, all of the former insurgents were to be integrated into the new Congolese National Army (FARDC) under the Sun City agreement. Some of the commanders either refused to be integrated or defected after only a short period of time. Many accused Rwanda of trying to instigate a new insurgency in the northwest.

The commanders that stayed outside of the integration process met with the opposition in early January 2004, discussing the formation of a new movement Front for the Liberation of East Congo (FLEC), in 2004 many rumors mentioned the group, but the organization never got prominence and was soon forgotten. At the same time Rwanda was forging ties with commanders still loyal to them. Fighting, between commanders loyal to General James Kabarebe Kagunda, the Rwandan Army’s Chief of Staff, and those loyal to Kinshasa, was a common phenomenon.

In December one of these groups, partly integrated into the national army but at the same time frequently clashing with pro-Kinshasa forces, attacked civilians after fighting with a Mayi Mayi militia led by Jackson Kambale. The group was part of the 12th Brigade (123 Battalion) and led by Major Christian Pay Pay.

RCD – Christian Pay Pay faction first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 2004, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in December that year when the group killed at least 30 civilians in the village Buramba in North Kivu.