The news these days about efforts to bring about peace and stability in the Democratic Republic of Congo seems, on the surface, very positive. Last Thursday, Rwandan and Congolese officials met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the inaugural meeting of the Joint Security Coordination Mechanism - an initiative established under the US-brokered peace agreement which the two countries signed in June, this year. ALSO READ: Why engaging Tshisekedi in good faith is a strategic mistake It is the latest in a flurry of meetings and signature-signing ceremonies resulting from mediation efforts in Washington DC, and in Qatar, to bring peace and stability to a country whose main blight is its leadership. The Joint Security Coordination Mechanism is in place to oversee implementation of something called the Concept of Operations for a harmonized plan for the neutralization of FDLR and disengagement of forces or lifting of defensive measures by Rwanda. It is itself an outcome of the peace agreement signed in June, in Washington DC. ALSO READ: Why genocide ideology doesn’t dissolve three decades after dispersion of genocidaires Also, it is a mouthful simply to indicate that DR Congo must dismantle a dangerous militia group, FDLR – an offshoot of the defeated Interahamwe militias, and the former Rwandan genocidal regime’s army that perpetrated the bulk of the massacres and other crimes against humanity during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Kinshasa has been happily in bed with this lot, for years. ALSO READ: Habyarimana's role in planning, implementing 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi Now, here is where I think everyone; all the big officials of the US, Qatar, and the African Union involved in the mediations, has to pause and ask themselves what the mere fact of the Tshisekedi regime being so closely allied, and intertwined with FDLR says about Congolese regimes. The Tshisekedists, more precisely. It’s during this man’s six-year regime that FDLR has taken up a central role in the politics, and policies of Kinshasa, of which outright belligerence and hostility toward Rwanda take center stage. ALSO READ: FDLR’s letter to Trump: When genocidaires find a stage What does it say about the character; the trustworthiness (or lack of it) of a leader of a country who spends the majority of his time, and devotes vast resources of his country to a terrorist group whose goal is to invade a neighbour, and once again perpetrate genocide? Moreover, in the process of violently overthrowing the legitimate government in place? This, in essence, is Felix Tshisekedi - a man of highly dubious moral character. Not to be forgotten is the fact that he wholeheartedly embraces FDLR’s mission, which he has made his own and often loudly proclaims that he plans to attack Rwanda, to effect regime change in Kigali. Equally remarkable: this man, allied with this same FDLR – plus militias he pays and arms the most notorious of which is the Wazalendo, not mentioning Burundian troops sent by his Burundi counterpart – has overseen massacres, rapes, and other crimes against humanity targeting Congolese. His own citizens. Only because they happen to be Kinyarwanda-speaking herder, pastoralist communities. I humbly submit that Tshisekedi is a completely untrustworthy character; one whose word or signature must never be taken at face value. All this doesn’t mean efforts at peace mediation are useless or that they should cease. Not at all. It’s just that mediators, if they are truly genuine in their efforts, better be fully up to speed with this man’s personality and character. They should know that there isn’t a single agreement, or peace deal, that Tshisekedi and his regime in Kinshasa have ever honoured, on their side. Not one. For instance, back in 2022, the East African Community, in full agreement with Kinshasa, sent peacekeeping troops – the East African Community Regional Force – as part of a regional process to bring an end to conflict, and to years of suffering. It wasn’t long however that the Tshisekedi regime began to question the effectiveness of EACRF, and issuing belligerent threats against the force. ALSO READ: Exiting EAC regional force says to hand over to SADC troops Apparently Tshisekedi’s beef against Kenyan forces (they had deployed the largest contingent) was that they weren’t attacking the M23 movement. Note that, first of all, it wasn’t the peace-keepers’ role to join hostilities, but rather to be neutral while overseeing implementation of agreements, and, secondly, Tshisekedi wasn’t in any way demanding that they attack FDLR. It’s up to everyone to note that childish petulance. An agreement is only agreement to Tshisekedi when everyone is doing exactly what he wants. To the Congolese ruler and his cabal, deals or accords are never about the give-and-take; the sacrificing of something, in return for what those at the opposite end of negotiations are willing to sacrifice. Long story short, Tshisekedi summarily kicked the Kenyans out – simply for doing that which every party involved in mediations or negotiations had agreed upon. Matters were the same with the “Luanda Process”; with all aspects of the Nairobi Process, and more. Which inevitably raises the question: is Tshisekedi going to change this time around? Your guess is as good as mine.
