Editor,

ALLOW ME to react to the article, "Regional leaders endorse military action against FDLR” (The New Times, March 26).

Am I the only one who thinks I have heard this same solemn declaration – numerous times – and that the reason it gets repeated over and over again ad nauseam is that it is never followed up with any action?

I must confess I have become convinced the reason no serious effort is ever undertaken to deal with the FDLR and similar bands of armed cutthroats is that the widespread depredation in eastern DR Congo and the generalised insecurity their continued existence represents for the Great Lakes Region is exactly what some powerful interests want, for reasons that are not entirely clear – at least to most normal human beings.

The continued presence of a large genocidal force just across our western border – implanted there with the connivance of the French expeditionary force (Opération Turquoise), the initial forbearance and then support of their Western allies and the UN bureaucracy, seems to fit into an overall strategy whose objectives are as yet equally not completely clear.

Anyone should know that the problems of the DR Congo derive directly from the presence there of our genocidal compatriots, initially with the acquiescence of the Mobutu government in its twilight years as it sought renewed French and UN reward for its helpfulness in their anti-RPF Grand Strategy, and subsequently with the connivance of the Kabilas, who wished to use the war-hardened and ideologically intransigent ex-FAR and killer militias as the spearhead of an otherwise incompetent army.

Until the UN really decides to go after these killers – and it is a big if since their continued presence is the one providing a justification for Monusco-FIB’s own presence, huge budget and unequalled prestige among UN operations – then we can expect the perpetuation of the status quo, until the next explosion as Congolese under the double occupation of these killers and a permanent UN force that has failed or is unwilling to resolve the problem once and for all, rebel again.

Then we shall see a new cycle of the same diplomatic shuttles and peace processes begin all over again.

Mwene Kalinda, Rwanda