adminNew York – The UN Security Council on Thursday urged President Joseph Kabila to sign a military plan for a joint offensive with UN troops to drive out Hutu rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.The 15-member council threatened to impose sanctions on supporters of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), who have ignored a January 5 deadline to surrender.
The appeal from the council came a day after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke by phone with Kabila to urge him to take “decisive action” against the FDLR rebels. The UN’s 20,000-strong Monusco force is preparing operations to expel the rebels, but the mission’s success hinges on an active role by the Congolese government troops.
UN officials say Kabila’s government must be ready, once the operation gets under way, to send in troops and police to secure territory in the restive east to prevent the FDLR from regaining a foothold.
“The Security Council calls on the authorities of the DRC and in particular, President Kabila as commander in chief, to approve swiftly and implement fully the Monusco-FARDC joint directive,” said.
The United Nations is pushing for the disarming of dozens of rebel and splinter groups after two decades of conflict in the eastern DR Congo, much of it fuelled by the lucrative trade in minerals.
Rwanda has demanded the disarming of the FDLR, some of whose members took part in atrocities in the 1994 Rwandan genocide before crossing into DR Congo, after it dropped its support for rebel M23 fighters last year.
The council said in its unanimous statement that operations against the FDLR must start “immediately.”
“The UN, the Democratic Republic of Congo and regional governments must now hold firm on their commitment to take immediate action to disarm the FDLR once and for all,” said US Ambassador Samantha Power. “Twenty years after the genocide in Rwanda, there should be no further preconditions or delays in bringing the FDLR’s long history of brutality and impunity to an end,” she said. – AFP
Londile Moyo
Bongani Ndlovu