We shouldn't look at FDLR in piecemeal perspective

The FDLR militia is not kept alive by how strong it may be depicted. It remains alive primarily due to a large network of foreign powers and organizations, including those masquerading as having a human rights vocation, and Catholic Church-affiliated organizations.

Monday, June 29, 2015
Members of the UN Security Council pay respects to the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi during a visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in October 2013. The UN and western powers have continued to look the other way with regard to the threat posed by the DR Congo-based FDLR militia, 21 years after the Genocide. (File)

Editor,

Refer to the article, "Streamline peace building studies, researchers told” (The New Times, June 27).

The FDLR militia is not kept alive by how strong it may be depicted. It remains alive primarily due to a large network of foreign powers and organizations, including those masquerading as having a human rights vocation, and Catholic Church-affiliated organizations.

It similarly remains alive because some in the UN, from the unbelievable case of their head of "peacekeeping”, Mr Hervé Ladsous — who was very instrumental in getting the defeated génocidaires implanted in eastern DR Congo — to the entire hierarchy of those whose career prospects are tied up with the need for chaos to persist in the FDLR-infested areas, are doing their utmost to ensure the "good times” (for themselves) never end, and that they also keep alive a hole-card for potential destabilization of neighbouring countries, especially Rwanda, just in case.

Lest you think this is a preposterous conspiracy theory, just look at how much resources they deployed and the full fury of their campaign against the DR Congo’s anti-FDLR rebels—the M23—purpotedly as part of a larger campaign to eradicate all illegal armed groups in the DR Congo.

Everyone will have noticed how, once the FDLR’s mortal M23 enemy were neutralized, the UN and the big powers decided the rest of the campaign should be shelved; no need, in other words, to inconvenience of their permanent members’ protégés, the FDLR.

We can also see the anti-Rwanda destabilization efforts, including the latest case of the illegal detention of Gen Karake Karenzi in the UK on behalf of the Opus Dei-dominated Spanish establishment, as a part of the same campaign aimed at giving succor to the FDLR and its allies.

One should not forget that this attack originates with FDLR-allied, Catholic Church-affiliated organizations in Spain, with financing from Spanish local governments.

We need to keep the larger picture firmly in view, and avoid looking at the FDLR problem and its challenges from a piece-meal perspective.

Mwene Kalinda