FDLR strike must be lethal

IF THE FDLR rebels don’t surrender voluntarily by January 2, the UN has backed an attack against the genocidal force; but will this impending strike be lethal enough to cripple the group’s future capacity to wreck havoc on Rwanda? I am afraid not, and here’s why. Rwanda whose security interests are the most threatened by FDLR’s continued presence in Eastern DRC won’t be part of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Monusco) forces expected to lead the strike mission in January (if it happens). That’s a major worry {to me} and again, here’s why. While on an Amsterdam bound flight from Entebbe, two weeks ago, I picked up a conversation with the passenger next to me, who, it turned out was one of the American Commandoes currently holed up in Central African Republic (CAR) jungles hunting for Uganda’s notorious rebel leader Joseph Kony. During the conversation, I learned that these commandoes are mercenaries working for a private security firm that was hired by the US Government to do the job on behalf of the Uganda. This particular commando had been in the Jungles for six weeks and was headed back home to Oregon, in USA, for leave before returning to CAR. He was excited. But what he told me wasn’t that exciting. I asked him when he thought Kony would be captured and the man, who claimed was part of the desert storm mission in Iraq, said, ‘we were told this would be a long term mission’…‘so not very soon, I guess.’ When I probed further, he told me; ‘man, this is a job and the longer it drags on the more I stay on it, it’s a good job with great benefits.” So, based on this admission, Ugandans shouldn’t expect Kony’s head in the near future, the American mercenaries on the mission view this not as an urgent problem that must be dealt with immediately but as a job and are determined to keep it for as long as they can. In fact the fellow told me that he doesn’t think ‘we are trying that hard to get the guy.’ This conversation returned to mind when I read recently, a report in which the UN Security Council was saying there should be “no further delay” in the disarmament of FDLR. But who is going to do the job? And what’s their motivation? The fight against FDLR is Rwanda’s, by all measures…because its Rwanda’s security interests at risk, it’s the security of Rwandans that FDLR wants to destabilize and therefore it’s an onus incumbent upon Rwandan security forces to stop that. So it really worries me that when it comes to this impending January strike, Rwanda won’t play a direct role. If wishes were horses, {just for once}, I would have loved to see our forces getting the permission to march into Kibua and Kalonge in Eastern DRC, where FDLR claims major strongholds and flush them out for good, after all; they have rejected a chance to surrender. Recently Eugene Gasana raised this matter before the Security Council when he suggested that some of the countries fighting under MUNUSCO actually are not that eager to really deal FDLR a lethal strike alleging a ‘hidden agenda’ to sanitise and preserve the genocidal force. We better take him seriously especially if you consider that for two decades, we are still debating on whether to strike or not and while at it, spending over $2billion a year on MUNUSCO operations. For the past two weeks that I have been in New York, the debate of the top five cable channels here has been ISIS and the threat it poses to United States security and that of allies. This week, Obama signed off additional forces to enter Iraq, train and guide Iraqi forces in a battle to defeat ISIS once and for ever in order to safeguard American security and that of its allies. If you consider the distance between Iraq and USA and that between Eastern DRC and Kigali, then it’s shocking that anyone would blame Rwanda for wanting a more direct role in efforts to defeat and destroy FDLR. The geographical proximity between Rwanda and FDLR in Eastern DRC is too close for comfort and personally, I want us to play a more active role in the January strikes but under a transparent and closely monitored process by the International community. Let’s face it, Rwanda has a dog in this fight and for our dog to win, we can’t watch the fight from TV but be right there in the battle field to shout out commands for victory. The year 2015 must be the end of FDLR existence.

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FDLR strike must be lethal