Rwanda has again blasted the Security Council and the United Nations (UN) Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for failing to address the threat posed by the FDLR in the eastern parts of the country.
During a council session on the work of the UN’s Stabilization Mission in DRC MONUSCO, Rwanda’s envoy Richard Gasana criticized the slow progress in getting the rebel group to voluntarily disarm.
Regional leaders agreed in July to extend for six months a deadline for the FDLR to disarm to January 2 next year, but Rwanda blasted the Council for what it called collective inaction against the group which undermines the credibility of the Council.
Reports indicate that over 1 500 FDLR members remain active in the jungles of eastern DRC.
Gasana believes they’ve been let off the hook by the collective inaction of the international community. “Why 20 years after our collective resolve of the abused words “never again” is the Security Council still struggling to find a lasting solution to a genocidal negative force whose leaders and members are among the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Why?”
The FDLR comprises primarily militias who fled into the DRC after carrying out the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and while the UN’s Force Intervention Brigade enjoyed quick success against the M23 rebel movement last year, a lack of offensive military actions against the FDLR made the envoy point to the high cost of the UN’s work in the DRC.
The twin process of dealing with FDLR and M23 should continue to receive our full attention
He says, “$2 billion per year and we are sitting here, 20 years. I mean, this is insane, this is a shame.
What do you want to tell to your taxpayers today, keep spending, and feeding an organization which is not doing anything. 20 years and we are talking about a genocidal force and we are all committed to that great word ‘never again’.”
The UN for its part, wants to neutralise the group but calls the path of non-violence the best option.
The Secretary General’s Special Representative, Martin Kobler addressing the Council says, “Taking the fight to the jungle will be long and difficult. It will result in many casualties. I, for one, do not want to see that. But it is up to the FDLR to prevent this scenario. They have exactly two months and six days left to disarm, unconditionally, and go to Kisangani transit camp as envisaged by the Government of the DRC or leave the country, either voluntarily via the DDRRR process or to third countries.”
The Security Council established a Force Intervention Brigade last year to neutralise armed groups that threaten the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework in the region.
Great Lakes Envoy Said Djinnit is driving the framework after replacing Mary Robinson in August.
He says, “The twin process of dealing with FDLR and M23 should continue to receive our full attention but so too should the resurgent threat posed by the ADF, whose horrendous acts perpetrated recently against the population of Beni come as a sad reminder that the security situation remains fragile and that the hard won gains against negative forces can be reversed.”
ADF combatants, originally from Uganda, brutally massacred over 80 civilians in the Beni region in eastern Congo over two weeks starting in early October, sending a violent message to locals not to support the DRC government’s military actions against them.