Editor, 

REFER TO the article, "US backs offensive on FDLR” (The New Times, March 12). It is long past time they stopped talking up a good fight and put their money where their mouths are.

Monuc (now Monusco) originally came into the sub-region with a mandate to eliminate these direct heirs to the génocidaire FAR (ex-Rwandan army), Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi militias whose implantation into eastern DR Congo with the help of (France’s) Opération Turquoise represented a continuing security threat for Rwanda and a source of tensions between Rwanda and the DRC. 

Thirteen years later, under a new name, Monusco, they continue paying only lip service to the purpose for which they were created. And yet it is clear when the interests of major Western mining and other interests are concerned – for instance with the rise of CNDP/M23 rebellions to defend local populations targeted by lawless Congolese soldiers, their frequent allies (FDLR) and assorted bands of anti-Rwandaphone armed groups – the UN finds both the material means and the political will to deal with this threat to Western commercial interests very quickly and decisively. 

Why can’t they, or more likely won’t they, deal with the FDLR with similar will? How long will they allow this existential threat to Rwanda’s security to continue thriving on our western borders?

Mwene Kalinda, Rwanda