Top leaders from 12 regional countries on Monday met in New York where they called for an unconditional surrender by the genocidal militia, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). The meeting, which brought together signatories for the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the DRC and the Region, to discuss its implementation, met on the margins of the 69th UN General Assembly. It was co-hosted by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AU), Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. “We urged all remaining FDLR elements to surrender unconditionally and disarm or face military actions,” a statement from the meeting read in part. The meeting was attended by delegates from 12 member countries that make up International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). It was held about a week to the mid-term review meeting due next week in Luanda, Angola, to assess the progress in regards to the six-month ultimatum the FDLR – which is composed of elements responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi – was given to voluntarily surrender or face forceful disarmament. In July, this year, a meeting by foreign affairs ministers from ICGLR and SADC member states gave the group, which operates from DRC, up to six months to voluntarily surrender or face forceful disarmament. The decision gained backing from the United Nations Security Council, Africa Union Peace and Security Council, amongst other actors, all terming it as a way to bring to an end the FDLR threat. Through the social media platform Twitter, Foreign affairs minister, Louise Mushikiwabo said Rwanda will not keep being held back from achieving desired progress by the FDLR militia group. “Rwanda has no intention of spending another 20 years talking about the #FDLR and achieving very little or nothing. #UNGA,” she tweeted. Despites calls by various bodies and high level personalities to disarm or face forceful disarmament, the militia group has not shown any signs to lay down their arms voluntarily. Speaking to The New Times yesterday, genocide scholar Tom Ndahiro, said three months into the grace period, FDLR had not shown any willingness to honour the ultimatum. “What they have so far displayed is intransigence which probably emanates from the very decision to give them a soft path that they did not deserve,” Ndahiro said. The militia group has been given a repatriation window facilitated by United Nations Mission in DRC and the government successfully repatriated more than 11,000 former FDLR elements over the last 10 years.
