Only willing regional forces can pacify eastern DR Congo

Editor, Allow me to react to the article, “Security Council calls on Kabila to authorise anti-FDLR operations” (The New Times, January 9). If action to eradicate the FDLR génocidaires is conditional on President Joseph Kabilas authorisation and the willing engagement of the Tanzanian and South African components of the Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) then we are going to wait for such military action till hell freezes over. And lets not even give the slightest consideration for what President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has rightly called the military tourists of the rest of Monusco. Their track record (or rather the lack of it) in the military realm over the almost 20 years of their existence is an eloquent testament to unequalled effectiveness, at any rate as far as their stated overt mission is concerned. They are world champion at risk avoidance and maximisation of their own material returns and creature comfort. The only way the genocidal FDLR and the other negative armed groups will ever be eradicated fully from eastern DR Congo is to withdrawal the FIB and Monusco from the operational theatre and give free rein to forces from the neighbouring countries with the most interest to eliminate the problem to go in with maximum force and do the job. This would take less time than it took FIB-Monusco to get rid of M23 because the militaries of neighbouring countries have better knowledge of the theatre of operations and superior intelligence as to the locations of these illegal armed groups. This is the only chance to return security and stability to the benighted people of eastern DR Congo. And for those who oppose such action allegedly on humanitarian grounds because of the likely risk for the civilian population, let us know: What security and future do they now have under the sway of the genocidal FDLR and kindred murderous bands of killers, looters and rapists that have infested this area for so long spreading generalised death and misery as well as their genocidal and terrorist ideologies? Mwene Kalinda

Opinions

Only willing regional forces can pacify eastern DR Congo