Does DRC need surveillance drones?
Ladous’ proposal has met stiff resistance while Nduhungirehe (R) believes that more assessment needs to be carried out before drones are launched. The New Times/ Net Photos
As efforts towards a negotiated solution to the crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continue, the UN is pushing for deployment of surveillance drones in the area.
In a closed meeting on Tuesday, UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous asked the Security Council to support deployment of surveillance drones in the east of the DRC, purportedly to improve the UN peacekeeping mission’s ability to protect civilians.
Brieuc Pont, the spokesperson of the French Mission to the UN, also tweeted that “the UN in Congo needs additional and modern assets, including drones, to be better informed and more reactive.”
But analysts are skeptical about the drone’s effectiveness to bring lasting peace in the vast country.
Brieuc Pont, the spokesperson of the French Mission to the UN, also tweeted that “the UN in Congo needs additional and modern assets, including drones, to be better informed and more reactive.”
But analysts are skeptical about the drone’s effectiveness to bring lasting peace in the vast country.
"...drone's effectiveness to bring lasting peace in the vast country." This is just stupidity from New Times I guess when you are a state actor for the Rwandan government we should expect little else. I wonder what analysts they are on about ?
Conflict in the region has escalated since last April, when M23 rebels mutinied from DRC’s national army (FARDC).
Hundreds of Congolese civilians have since been displaced in North Kivu Province, some fleeing to Rwanda and Uganda.
Several diplomats, however, reportedly expressed reservations.
According to the Inner City Press news agency, countries including Russia, China, Azerbaijan and Guatemala, through their Permanent Representatives, also expressed concern about Ladsous’ proposal.
Conflict in the region has escalated since last April, when M23 rebels mutinied from DRC’s national army (FARDC).
Hundreds of Congolese civilians have since been displaced in North Kivu Province, some fleeing to Rwanda and Uganda.
Several diplomats, however, reportedly expressed reservations.
According to the Inner City Press news agency, countries including Russia, China, Azerbaijan and Guatemala, through their Permanent Representatives, also expressed concern about Ladsous’ proposal.
Azerbaijan and Guatemala are now permanent members of the security council ? This is why one should never under any circumstances trust a word of the Rwandan Government. They are liars. New Times is a government propaganda machine. I doubt even Pravda would at the height of the cold war attempted to get away with a lie that blatant.
Olivier Nduhungirehe, Rwanda’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, told The New Times vial e-mail yesterday that whereas Rwanda welcomes the Secretary-General’s intention to reconfigure MONUSCO [UN mission in Congo] by strengthening its capabilities and enhancing its operational mobility in order to implement its mandate, it is reserved on the use of a technology, whose implications are still being assessed.
Nduhungirehe said, “We recognise that the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in peacekeeping operations has far-reaching implications on national sovereignty and territorial integrity and thus believe that, as suggested by the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping (C-34), a clear legal, financial and technical assessment is needed before any endorsement of such technology is put forth”.
“Therefore, we express reservations about the introduction of UAVs to peacekeeping operations when the issues that go along with it are still being discussed,” the diplomat added.
This position of Rwanda, he said, has nothing to do with Congo.
Olivier Nduhungirehe, Rwanda’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, told The New Times vial e-mail yesterday that whereas Rwanda welcomes the Secretary-General’s intention to reconfigure MONUSCO [UN mission in Congo] by strengthening its capabilities and enhancing its operational mobility in order to implement its mandate, it is reserved on the use of a technology, whose implications are still being assessed.
Nduhungirehe said, “We recognise that the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in peacekeeping operations has far-reaching implications on national sovereignty and territorial integrity and thus believe that, as suggested by the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping (C-34), a clear legal, financial and technical assessment is needed before any endorsement of such technology is put forth”.
“Therefore, we express reservations about the introduction of UAVs to peacekeeping operations when the issues that go along with it are still being discussed,” the diplomat added.
This position of Rwanda, he said, has nothing to do with Congo.
What a load of shit.
“Rwanda expressed it as a member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which has expressed the same reservations. Last year, before even the creation of M23 and before the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) proposed to use UAVs in MONUSCO, we already had the same stand.
“Our position would have been exactly the same if the UAVs were proposed for Côte d’Ivoire, Somalia or Sudan! It’s a matter of principle, of sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.”
“Rwanda expressed it as a member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which has expressed the same reservations. Last year, before even the creation of M23 and before the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) proposed to use UAVs in MONUSCO, we already had the same stand.
“Our position would have been exactly the same if the UAVs were proposed for Côte d’Ivoire, Somalia or Sudan! It’s a matter of principle, of sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.”
"It’s a matter of principle, of sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.” That has to be the most unintentionally funny thing I have read for some time.
France, the US and Britain are reportedly some of the countries in support of the proposal.
Analysts say there are unanswered questions about who would receive the information from the drones and how widely it would be disseminated, among other issues. There are suspicions, especially in developing nations, that drones will become a new intelligence-gathering tool for the West.
France, the US and Britain are reportedly some of the countries in support of the proposal.
Analysts say there are unanswered questions about who would receive the information from the drones and how widely it would be disseminated, among other issues. There are suspicions, especially in developing nations, that drones will become a new intelligence-gathering tool for the West.
They are already routinely used hell even the New Zealand Police are planning to buy one.
Frederick Golooba-Mutebi, a political scientist and senior research fellow at the Makerere Institute of Social Research in Uganda, told The New Times that it is not clear why the UN only targets eastern DRC for such military interventions yet the country has many other regions infested with armed groups.
“I would think that the surveillance drones should be deployed in all the DRC regions that have armed groups, especially the various Mai-Mai militias and FDLR [Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, who are largely blamed for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda]. Why is the UN so much concerned with M23?”
Frederick Golooba-Mutebi, a political scientist and senior research fellow at the Makerere Institute of Social Research in Uganda, told The New Times that it is not clear why the UN only targets eastern DRC for such military interventions yet the country has many other regions infested with armed groups.
“I would think that the surveillance drones should be deployed in all the DRC regions that have armed groups, especially the various Mai-Mai militias and FDLR [Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, who are largely blamed for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda]. Why is the UN so much concerned with M23?”
That might have something to do with Goma, just a wild stab in the dark coincidentally something that Frederick Golooba-Mutebi probably deserves.
According to Inner City Press new agency, the concerns ranged from the control of information – that is, who would get it – to compliance with International Civil Aviation Organisation rules, and the tender process, among others.
Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) Spokesperson Col. Felix Kulayigye also said that the deployment of surveillance drones in eastern Congo can only be a viable option if UN doesn’t deploy them in a selective manner.
According to Inner City Press new agency, the concerns ranged from the control of information – that is, who would get it – to compliance with International Civil Aviation Organisation rules, and the tender process, among others.
Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) Spokesperson Col. Felix Kulayigye also said that the deployment of surveillance drones in eastern Congo can only be a viable option if UN doesn’t deploy them in a selective manner.
Yawn
Susan Thomson, a professor of peace and conflict studies at the Colgate University in New York, tweeted yesterday, “I am against the use of drones anywhere in the world. Period. Those arguing Rwanda to submit are not making a rights-based one. Shame.”
Susan Thomson, a professor of peace and conflict studies at the Colgate University in New York, tweeted yesterday, “I am against the use of drones anywhere in the world. Period. Those arguing Rwanda to submit are not making a rights-based one. Shame.”
Yes interesting pedigree that Susan has with regard to Rwanda. I would be hesitant in saying her comments were taken in context though.
Ladsous was France’s Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN Security Council in 1994 during the Genocide against the Tutsi, and at the time, he allegedly supported the escape of the genocidal machinery into eastern DRC.
Ladsous was France’s Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN Security Council in 1994 during the Genocide against the Tutsi, and at the time, he allegedly supported the escape of the genocidal machinery into eastern DRC.
The old Rwanda France argument.
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