Editor,

Refer to the letter, "Why FDLR militia continues to prey on civilians 21 years later” (The New Times, May 25).

To Abraham, I wish to say that those with a real interest and the means to completely do the job of uprooting the FDLR will not be allowed to do so by the very powerful interests explained earlier.

Umoja Wetu, a joint RDF-FARDC operation, was well on the way to making the FDLR history in Eastern DR Congo when those powerful actors with a keen interest in the continued mayhem in eastern DR Congo, acting through their self-styled human rights activists (on human rights organizations in geopolitics, people should read Professor James Peck’s excellent book, "Ideal Illusions”, to understand they are much less about the human rights of any dark-skinned person and more a geo-political weapon of their governments) ensured the mission did not go on.

Your scales will drop about the mission of the likes of Human Rights Watch, formerly the Helsinki Watch) and their local ‘civil society’ allies started a campaign to shut the campaign down, allegedly because innocent people being used as "human shields” by FDLR fighters were also dying.

Umoja Wetu was taking all the care necessary to minimise non-combatant casualties, but of course these can never be entirely avoided in armed conflict.

Note that in going after the M23 rebels, no such compunction was shown to the lives of civilians among whom the Congolese rebels lived. Many innocent children, women and other non-combatants were killed by aerial and artillery bombardment by UN forces without even their death being publicly acknowledged.

Note also that in the West’s multiple war-making in non-Western lands of dark-skinned people, thousands of innocent children, women and other non-combatants are being killed and dehumanized into mere "collateral damage”.

But to go back to Abraham’s question, neighbouring countries with a real interest in pacifying eastern DRC will not be allowed to do so. Some powerful actors, for their own reasons, want the place to remain safe for the FDLR.

Mwene Kalinda