No negotiations with FDLR, says US envoy

The United States Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region, Russ Feingold, has said there was “no justification” for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) militia’s demand for political negotiations, and that they should demobilise no later than the end of the year. Feingold made the remarks yesterday at the sidelines of the on-going US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington. The Congo-based militia group is composed of elements responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. “There is no justification for FDLR’s continued presence in Eastern Congo; the origins of the FDLR have to do with the genocidaires – those who were involved in the horrific crimes in the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda, and they cannot simply be allowed to be comfortable in Congo,” Feingold said. “The US strongly believes that the military option with regard to the FDLR has to be not only on the table, but ready to be used, but at the same time, we are trying to facilitate, if there is in fact a legitimate desire on the part of the FDLR to surrender. We are trying to see if that is true and to make sure that those who have opted to surrender do so quickly,” the former US senator said. He acknowledged that nothing had been done with regards to eliminating the FDLR apart from requesting it to surrender. “They are an illegal armed group that should be eliminated and we are simply interested if they are willing to surrender in the near future and if they don’t, we strongly believe that an appropriate military action must be taken”. The envoy expressed concerns over the six-month timeframe given to the FDLR by SADC countries to surrender, saying the group was supposed to have surrendered on May 30, 2014, but only a handful turned up. Feingold’s comments come at time when several scholars are criticising the international community for its sluggish will to address the FDLR threat, yet they believe that the US has the ability to provide more facilitation to flash out the militia group but has given it little attention. International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) has, on its part, been rallying for the elimination of the FDLR and calling for support towards the cause. Macdonald Mwakasendile, the ICGLR Communication Officer, told this paper that though the US has been offering support, any further cooperation in addressing the concern was welcome. Some of the proposals that think-tanks and activists are putting forward is for the US to fly in military support to the Eastern DRC and help eliminate FDLR. Dr Charles Kabwete Mulinda, the Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Rwanda’s College of Arts and Social Sciences, suggested that the US should impose serious sanctions to nations supporting the militia groups operating in the DRC jungles. “US can also initiate the revamping of joint military operations like Umoja Wetu involving nations affected by these groups but also give financial support toward the cause. The Americans have the means, African countries have the will, what remains is working out a best mechanism and the rebel groups like FDLR can be eliminated,” he said. Another political scientist, Prof Jean de la Croix Nkurayija said without addressing serious issues of insecurity, the outcomes of the US-Africa Leaders Summit will only benefit Americans and not Africans. “Before you achieve economic progress and democracy, you must have peace, meaning the issue of insecurity must be addressed with utmost urgency,” Nkurayija said. “As long as superpowers like the US do not help stop these rebel groups, we will keep in the vicious circle of insecurity and in the end the affected African countries will remain the losers while the West will remain the winners in terms of economic prosperity”. He, however, added that the best approach would be devising local means and relying less on western interventions. Enough Project, a US-based think-tank yesterday released a list of proposals on how best the US government could intervene in dealing with the issue of FDLR and insecurity as a whole. “The US should press Congo (DRC government) to suspend and prosecute its army officers involved in collaborating with the FDLR. The Congo-FDLR links are documented year after year in UN reports, and yet not a single suspension or trial has ever occurred,” they wrote. In addition, they said Congo and the region must agree on three-month benchmarks for FDLR disarmament that include the demobilisation of at least half of the FDLR’s senior leadership, not simply rank-and-file militia. “The US should offer Special Forces military assistance to the UN’s special unit, the Intervention Brigade, in fighting the FDLR,” said the organisation. “US Special Forces advisors and aid have been a major factor in reducing the strength of a similar nearby militia, Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Washington should build on successful tactics against the LRA and work with the UN to apply those to the FDLR”. However, Aloys Mahwa, the Executive Director of the Interdisciplinary Genocide Studies Centre (IGSC) in Kigali, believes the proposal of the US sending in troops may not necessarily work, and instead blames the continued presence of the militia to lack of political will from the DRC government and the United Nations. “We have seen US troops intervene in several countries, but we are yet to see tangible results of their interventions, so we cannot count on that. There are over 20,000 UN peacekeepers in DRC who have not only been reluctant to push out the FDLR, but have decided to let the group operate, which is a sign of lack of will. The US can only support through imposing influence on both the DRC and the UN peacekeepers,” he said.

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No negotiations with FDLR, says US envoy