What then when “Umoja Wetu” comes to an end, will MONUC cope?

The DRC-Rwanda joint task force is well and truly in full swing in its quest to rout rebels of the genocidal Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). The threat that the FDLR has been posing to Congolese nationals in the eastern parts of the country for the past 15 has suddenly started to stick out like a sore thumb. Now the world – with the UN peacekeeping force, MONUC – at the forefront, is starting to sit up and listen. Even fervent defenders of the FDLR Status-Quo for the last decade and a half have surprisingly kept quiet in the last week, and it is understandable: Their protégés have shown their true colours, the same ones they refused to shed since the 1994 Genocide of Tutsis back home. The FDLR apologists have been left holding the leash in the hands, the beast having escaped long ago, a menace now prowling in remote villages of Masisi leaving behind a trail of bloodshed.