As United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recommended further cut of UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, some experts questioned whether the UN’s biggest peace operation is even relevant.

Ban is recommending that 1,700 troops be cut from the UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, the second drawdown in two years.

In a report, released Tuesday to the Security Council, Ban said a further cut could be decided if progress was made in rooting out rebel groups in eastern DR Congo.

"A further reduction of MONUSCO military personnel may be envisaged without compromising the mission’s ability to implement its mandate to protect civilians, including the neutralisation of armed groups,” Ban said in the report.

But in an interview with The New Times, yesterday, John Musemakweri, former director of Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace (IRDP) – now an independent development practitioner – said the mission has not lived up to its mandate.

For more than two decades now, the UN apparatus in DR Congo has failed to eliminate the threat posed by remnants of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi who fled to eastern DR Congo jungles evading responsibility for their crimes in Rwanda.

Their different politico-military groupings have often metamorphosed into an attempt to veil their genocide ideology. For the past 16 years, they have been organised under FDLR militia, which comprises of elements largely responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi who had fled into DR Congo when the genocidal government was toppled..

Musemakweri said one needs to first understand the original goals of the MONUSCO mission in the DR Congo.Before they reduce its forces, Musemakweri said, they should tell the world, and the Great Lakes region in particular, what they have achieved for the last two decades with all the money spent.

"Is MONUSCO downsizing its forces because they have uprooted all the militias or it’s because of ongoing political problems in DR Congo? It would have been best if the interests of communities, men, women and children were met particularly in attaining total peace in the region by uprooting the very militia that are behind the unacceptable killings,” he said.

"In the first place MONUSCO should have provided technical and financial support to the affected in order for them to solve their problems of insecurity and peace building in the region.”

Ban’s proposal

The UN Secretary-General, in his report, recommended that the Security Council, when reviewing the mission’s mandate, consider a further reduction of 1,700 MONUSCO military personnel, in addition to the reduction of the 2,000 military personnel endorsed by the council.

Ban’s proposal is to be discussed at a Security Council meeting next week. The Security Council last March voted to cut 2,000 troops from the 20,000-strong MONUSCO force, and it is now due to vote before the end of March on renewing the mission’s mandate.

Ban also called for talks with the Kinshasa government on an exit strategy to wind down the nearly two-decade-old mission.

Last year, President Joseph Kabila sought an immediate cut of 6,000 troops and a clear commitment to shut down the UN peace operations in the near future.

However, Dr Musemakweri observed that decisions and constant resolutions from international capital cities have never solved regional communities’ problems.

As it has been, he noted, MONUSCO resolutions have not solved society problems. The money put into MONUSCO all these past years, he argues, was wasted.

"As peace practitioners and peace builders, we learn from past mistakes and from each other but Security Council doesn’t, whether deliberate or not. All the monies used by MONUSCO in the last two decades would have been more useful if it was invested in social economic and governance challenges in the region.”

Lack of will to fight FDLR

In March 2014, Amb. Eugène-Richard Gasana, Rwanda’s Permanent Representative to the UN, told the Security Council that MONUSCO was clearly not willing to fight FDLR.

He said claims by MONUSCO that FDLR militia are located in populated areas was "a sheer lie” since the outfit has most of its forward units in Virunga National Park in North Kivu Province and other areas in the region.

Throughout the last quarter of 2013, Rwanda was told that FDLR would be next on the list of negative forces to be eliminated but that never happened.

In late 2013, a 3,069-strong special UN Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) – the first UN peacekeeping unit mandated to neutralise armed groups in DR Cong, under MONUSCO, and the Congolese army coalition launched operations that speedily crushed the M23 rebellion from eastern DR Congo.

MONUSCO boasted a staggering annual budget of $2 billion but the same military coalition remained reluctant when it came to dealing with the FDLR.

Eric Ndushabandi, PhD, the vice-dean of School of Social, Political andAdministrative Sciences at the University of Rwanda, said after 15 years of ‘wasting’ time, it is time for the "UN to question its achievements” in DR Congo.

The political scientist believes the UN has it wrong if grounds for a troop cut are based on a view that negative forces in DR Congo were reduced and the country is stable.

Among others, the UN has also been heard to claim that it is engaged in many peace operations in the world.

These assertions, Ndushabandi said, are defective because they do not match "the reality on the field and the risk of resurgence is very possible during the coming problematic election periods.”

Ndushabandi said Congolese President Joseph Kabila needs to show the capacity of his security forces in fighting the rest of the negative forces.

"Importantly, with this deal of reducing troops, President Kabila needs to save his own image because this is the pre-election time to show to the public opinion his achievements in terms of sovereignty and stability of the country,” he said.

However, Ndushabandi said there have been tensions between UN and DR Congo government.

The UN has been reporting many human rights violations committed by Congolese troops and could now be making decisions under pressure from Kinshasa, he says.

"If the reduction of those troops is a result of negotiation with UN for political interests, my worry is a new development and resurgence of negative forces. I am not saying we need more troops in DR Congo, whether we reduce or not, what is important for me is to have a reactive and efficient number of UN troops to guarantee stability and security there,” he said.

Ndushabandi said the Congolese government should be capable of imposing its own authority and guarantee security for all in the country and develop a strong diplomacy strategy with UN as well with neighbouring countries and regional organisations as partners in peacekeeping.

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