MONUSCO Should Use Peaceful Measures in Resolving FDLR Issue

Following the announcement by the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) that its Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) had launched offensive operations against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), we call on the UN to prioritise peaceful means of resolving the issue of Rwandan rebels based in the DRC known as the 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 result in loss of lives on both sides of the belligerents. Thus all means possible should be used in order to avoid armed confrontations, because there is no value above even a single human life.

The best way to achieve that is through peace negotiations. The UN has a huge track record and expertise in relation to organising peace talks to end conflicts around the world.

The UN should use all its powers and mandate to bring the Rwandan government and the FDLR to a negotiation table.

The Rwandan government has argued that it cannot hold peace negotiations with a group that is suspected to have committed atrocities including genocide. On the other hand, the FDLR has also accused the Rwandan government of having committed massacres of Rwandan refugees in the DRC (a UN mapping report has documented these accusations). The FDLR has also claimed that some of their fighters are survivors of those massacres, or children of those killed.

UN-facilitated peace negotiations 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 MONUSCO to use military force to resolve the issue of the FDLR will only prolong the issue, strengthen the resentments of those rebels, and more importantly it will regrettably and unnecessarily cause loss of human lives.