DR Congo: FDLR - " Did they expect us to treat them with any respect ? "

Radio Okapi reports ( This is translated from French )

Orientale Province: Jean Bamanisa visit the next transit camp FDLR

                                      

Bamanisa Jean, Governor of the Eastern Province, in the process of reviewing the Police (Photo Aliana Alipanagama)

Of all the rebel groups and armed militia that plague the DR Congo I despise the FDLR ( and the ADF  Ugandan Muslim rebels ), the rest I merely hate.  To put it in a western context the FDLR are the equivalent of the the skin head neo Nazi scum that occasionally surface in our communities, the big difference being the moment such scum put a foot out of line we are in a position to smash them. 

The FDLR are the remnants of the of the genocidal regime responsible for the 1994 Rwandan holocaust along with it's civilian Interahamwe adherents. My preference would be that all these pricks face the ICC which can sort out the true believers from the hangers on, but that isn't going to happen. Disarming and disbanding them is not a satisfying result but it is a lot better than having them continue to kill rape and rob with impunity in the eastern DR Congo.  

" Their presence is not to be feared , "said Jean Bamanisa.

Actually I can think of a great many reasons to fear such sick individuals, however disarmed and under I assume the guard of MONUSCO means that they will not constitute a physical threat to the people of the Orientale Province.

The Governor of the Eastern Province also reported that a number of countries have expressed their intention to host the rebels under the search for peace in the region.

Possibly but I am unaware of which countries they are. I suspect that the FDLR are now a Congolese problem and repatriation to Rwanda is not an option.                                                     

In early July, the Economic Community of Southern Africa (SADC) and the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), meeting in Luanda (Angola), granted a period of six months to disarm the FDLR. But socio-political actors both Kivu in Ecuador show their disapproval of the proposed transfer of the FDLR in another province of the DRC.

Who could blame them.

Provincial coordination of civil society in Ecuador was organized on June 14, a march "preliminary" to protest against the relocation of the rebels in the province.

The Congolese government proposes to consolidate the former FDLR who do not wish to return to their country in a military camp in Irebu before transfer to the Training Centre of the Armed Forces of the DRC territory Bikoro (Ecuador).

When it come to crimes against humanity I am very much in the " never forgive , never forget " school. However much this goes against the grain it is probably the only workable solution and the alternatives are far worse.