Following the announcement of United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) that its Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) had lunched offensive operations against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), we call UN to prioritise peaceful means of resolving the issue of Rwanda rebels based in DRC known as FDLR.
Peace talks should be prioritized over military actions. Military actions have demonstrated in various UN missions to be ineffective in resolving conflicts in sustainable ways. The worst part is that conflicts inevitably results to lose of lives at both sides of belligerents. Thus all means possible should be used in order to ovoid armed confrontations because there is no value to even a single human life.
The best way to achieve that is through peace negotiations. UN has huge track records and expertise in relation to organising peace talks to end conflicts around the world.
UN should use all its powers and mandate to bring the Rwandan government and the FDLR to a negotiation table.
Rwandan government has argued that it cannot hold peace negotiation with a group that is suspected to have committed atrocities including genocide. On the otherwise the FDLR has also accused the Rwandan government to have committed massacres of Rwandan refugees in DRC (a UN mapping report has detained these accusations). FDLR has also claimed that their some of their fighters are survivors of those massacres other children of those killed.
UN facilitated peace negotiation are the best platforms in which these counter accusations and other demands from both sides can be heard, discussed and dealt with in order to achieve everlasting solutions.
The decision of the MONUSCO of using military force to resolve issues of FDLR will only prolong the issue, strengthen resentments of those rebels, more importantly it will regrettably and unnecessary cause lost of human lives.
Source:GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR RWANDANS’ HUMAN RIGHTS
