The US has for the first time on public record made inference to the evil alliance between the Congolese government forces and the FDLR, a sanctioned terrorist group founded by perpetrators of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. During a security briefing on the Democratic Republic of Congo that was held by the United Nations Security Council, the US delegation to the New York-based body expressed concern over the FARDC’s collaboration with armed groups in the eastern part of the country, “especially the FDLR.” They also sounded an alarm over the growing hate speech that is mostly targeting Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese, which has led to attacks, including public executions, of the targeted group. These are concerns that Rwanda has been echoing at different fora since the renewed conflict broke out in eastern DR Congo last year but nothing has been done, especially by the UN. In fact, the same indifference was witnessed when in the final “presidential document” that was released by the Council after the meeting, where these concerns by the United States had been omitted. While we cannot speculate about procedures of how the final document is arrived at, one can only draw comparisons with the situation in Rwanda nearly three decades ago. Within the same room where the Security Council sits, attention was brought to the members about a genocide that was taking place in Rwanda, and, as it later emerged, the council members wasted valuable time debating on the appellation of the events that were taking place and whether they qualified to be called a genocide. Because of this, over a million people were killed in Rwanda, and the sad bit is that history could repeat itself in the neighbouring country. We have senior public servants, include members of the military addressing rallies calling on the population to attack their compatriots. None of these people has been reprimanded for this, which only removes any shred of doubt that the state is behind this systematic persecution. The most unfortunate bit is that unlike in Rwanda where the peacekeeping force was thin on ground and ill-equipped, DR Congo currently hosts the largest and most expensive peacekeeping force in the world.
