The UN Security Council has expressed concerns over lack of voluntary disarmament of members of the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) militia and called for attacks against the rebels by January.

Through its President—Australian Ambassador to the UN, Gary Quinlan—the Council said on Wednesday that it was deeply concerned "over the lack of progress of the voluntary disarmament process” of the FDLR.

The Council warned that there will be no further delay beyond the January 2 ultimatum set by leaders in the Great Lakes region for the voluntary disarmament process of the terrorist group.

It, hence, urged both the UN stabilisation mission in the Congo and the Congolese army to prepare for the attacks.

"The Security Council calls on Monusco and the Kinshasa government to immediately update operational plans for military action that should begin no later than January against the FDLR,” Ambassador Quinlan said in the statement.

As usual, the Council reiterated its call on the government of DR Congo, in coordination with Monusco, to immediately undertake military action against those leaders and members of the FDLR who do not engage in the demobilisation process or who continue to carry out human rights abuses.

The Council quoted an assessment done last month by the joint International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which indicated that the FDLR has made no steps to voluntarily disarm and surrender.

Last month marked the half-way point for the six-month deadline since July 2 that Heads of State and Government of the ICGLR allowed for the FDLR to voluntarily disarm.

ICGLR and SADC’s defence and foreign affairs ministers, who met in Luanda, Angola, last month, recommended that military force should be used against the FDLR if it does not disarm by January 2.

Twenty years of anarchy

Operating from the jungles in the eastern swathes of DR Congo for the last 20 years, the FDLR is a genocidal militia whose members are accused of perpetrating the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The UN says members of the group, who are under the UN sanctions, have continued to promote and commit ethnically based killings and other crimes against humanity.

Rwandan officials have expressed reservation on trusting that FDLR members are willing to voluntarily surrender within the six-month deadline.

Foreign Affairs minister Louise Mushikiwabo said in August that the country considered the deadline for action against FDLR long passed and warned against what she described as the militia’s "delaying tactics and diversions.”

Many analysts, including political scientist Jean de la Croix Nkurayija, a professor at the University of Rwanda, remain sceptical that the FDLR is willing to disarm.

Also citing lack of political will to neutralise the FDLR on the part of both Monusco and the DR Congo government, Nkurayija said other regional forces in Africa need to be involved in fighting the militia if a credible military action is to be mounted against it.

eugene.kwibuka@newtimes.co.rw