Editor, Reference is made to the Editorial, “Regional camaraderie is not about endless meetings” (The New Times, March 15). Who could quibble with that? Unfortunately the ICGLR hasn’t been able to do anything regarding the long-standing deadly band of génocidaires–FDLR—that has turned eastern DR Congo into a desolate open sore of mass murder, pillage, insecurity and a potential source of instability for the region as a whole. Yes, the UN Security Council, and especially its most powerful Western members, have refused to allow the principle of subsidiarity to apply—which would let the states that are most concerned with this issue to act. Instead they have preferred to manage the problem—completely ineffectually, almost certainly deliberately given the pro-FDLR forces they have mandated to eradicate their genocidal friends, rather than uprooting it completely. Still, the ICGLR has not been able to do anything on the most critical matter of regional security before the organisation. As important as observing elections in member states is, failure to deal with the over-riding matter of regional security will leave citizens in the sub-region seeing the body as nothing else but a talking shop. Mwene Kalinda
