Why Tanzania should take FDLR militia links seriously

Editor, Refer to the article, “New UN report pins Tanzania on FDLR militia” (The New Times, January 20). It is always a grace for a country to have deceitful leader. My country Tanzania has always maintained the face of a peaceful and friendly country on the continent. This long enviable history, however, started to suffer when Jakaya Kikwete assumed presidency. Indeed all that is happening (as far as FDLR is concerned) should not be blamed on Tanzania as a nation or as a people. How I wish President Kikwete and his few henchmen in the foreign and security services stopped tarnishing the image of our country and people! They are supporting the genocidaires not because they lack facts about who the FDLR are and what they stand for, but because of selfish personal interests. It is also a well founded fact that those people are serving certain segments of western forces that have persistently tried to frustrate the socio-economic development that’s happening in Rwanda. Do not be fooled, they are also amassing unstinting wealth out of these treacherous betrayal acts. I wonder what legacy Mr Kikwete wants to leave after 2015. Tanzania should take the findings of this UN report seriously. Rwanda is and will always remain a neighbour. Unfortunately, we do not choose our neighbours, we only find ourselves adjacent and, so, we can only do what it takes to build the best rapport to gain strength and remain secure. We cannot get strong as a nation through manoeuvres geared to destabilising a neighbour. As a nation, we have not heard of anything traitorous or two-faced that Rwanda, or indeed, its leadership could have done to Tanzania. Unfortunately, we continue to witness bad games played by our Tanzanian leaders, ranging from indecent expulsions of innocent civilians, to working with negative FDLR genocidal forces to destabilise Rwanda, and on and on. From the look of all this, it seems Kikwete and his group have waited it too long to see Rwanda responding. Abdul Kanoti ******************* If the UN Security Council has the smallest confidence in reports of their Group of Experts (GoE) — and I always read them with a large pinch of salt, given how politicised they have shown they can be and their hatchet job on Rwanda last time under Hege —then they should recognise that the Tanzanian contingent in the FIB is utterly unfit to fight the FDLR, since Dar es Salaam is thoroughly compromised by its support for that genocidal band of killers. Not withdrawing the UN mandate for forces of a country that its own experts report says is linked to the FDLR which it is supposed to fight would confirm that eradicating the FDLR from eastern DRC was never an objective. And given the operational links between the FDLR and the RNC, hosted by the Zuma Government, the South Africans contingent is similarly compromised by its government’s associations. Let us not talk about Kabila’s Government and his so-called army of killers and rapists who are completely penetrated by the FDLR or are their close business partners. And many Monusco contingents are themselves deeply compromised by their trafficking relationships with the same FDLR (Monusco aptly refers to them as ‘clients’ though the correct term should really be ‘partners’). And so, when one looks closely at this entire tableau of shame, it becomes clear why nothing is being done or will be done to dismantle this genocidal group. I do not expect any of the forces on the ground to fight a group which their governments support (Tanzania and South Africa) or whose fighters are integral components of your army (FARDC), or who are trafficking partners (components of Monusco). Monusco won’t fight also because the governments of troop contributing countries sent them there as peacekeepers—not peace-enforcers—and do not want any of them militarily taking on dangerous local fighters and being returned home in body bags. Amazing situation we have here! Mwene Kalinda

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Why Tanzania should take FDLR militia links seriously