The sooner peace is restored in DRC the better for the region

Editor,Yes, there is goodwill from some of the countries for whom an unstable and ungoverned Eastern DRC represents a permanent hideout for armed criminals hell bent on destabilising their home countries.I am not so sure about those beyond though as some may in fact find that country more profitable in a state of perpetual turmoil than at peace. The UN peacekeeping department has never been more powerful than today with a bloated budget and commensurate power to go with their decade suzerainty over the DRC. They have the advantage of really calling the shots there but can always blame Kinshasa (as they frequently do) or meddling neighbours (as they and Kinshasa also do) when things get screwed up (as they invariably do too).The countries that control MONUSCO and the UN peacekeeping above that, have an operation blessed by the UN Security Council with Chapter VII powers to use force to babysit their mining companies which can exploit DRC resources for as long as the current lawless vacuum of state power persists.The NGOs and all manner of humanitarian entrepreneurs have a cause they can celebrate and which gives them their raison d’être. The only losers are ordinary Congolese who continue to pay the price of misrule and instability and their neighbours for whom a lawless jungle on their borders represents a continuing danger and an opportunity cost.For the time being both the Kabila regime and the above parties for whom a DRC that remains helplessly on its back is the best option are in an alliance of converging interests. But for how long that lasts is anyone’s guess?Sooner rather than later this alliance will unravel as a result of its internal incoherencies, contradictions and the resistance of the Congolese against the role imposed on them in this game of thieves.Mwene Kalinda, KigaliReaction to the story, “The sooner peace is restored the better for the region”, (Editorial, Sunday Times, October 20)

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The sooner peace is restored in DRC the better for the region