Monusco puts its foot in its mouth
The UN has problems with credibility; always has had them; always will.
But let’s be fair: this enormous, stuffed bureaucracy occasionally does something of benefit to humanity. However even a blind squirrel does find a nut every now and then.
The latest instance of ridiculous UN action comes from our region. Allegations made by MONUSCO, the dollar-hoovering operation of so-called peacekeepers based in the Eastern DR Congo are the cornerstone of a new, yet to be released report accusing Rwanda of – yes, you guessed it – wrongdoing in that country. Specifically that Rwanda is fuelling rebel wars in Eastern Congo by training fighters and sending them to join armed groups.
Monusco, for those of you who might not be familiar with them, is that fine, upstanding group of gentlemen and ladies whose members have among other things been accused of illegal trade in Congolese minerals and, or sexually trafficking girls, many not older than twelve. These are accusations made by victims of these crimes, witnesses who have been willing to go on record with the world’s media.
What evidence then does Monusco base on to accuse Rwanda, which is tirelessly working with the Congolese government of President Joseph Kabila to resolve the long-running instability in the latter’s country? No evidence at all.
Rather Monusco is ready to make damaging allegations on the basis of a bunch of uncollaborated rumors. About a dozen people claim they were trained by the Rwandan army and then sent to join Congolese rebel groups to participate in rebel wars. That is all. No documentary evidence; no recorded voices of any Rwandan army personnel conspiring to send these “soldiers”. In other words nothing admissible by any standards as proof to back accusations of such a nature, or any other nature for that matter. The accusations are so lacking in credibility that even Monusco, we have learnt, is now backing off them.
Incredibly, a big news organization like the BBC early last week was gleefully basing on the unsubstantiated rumors to air a report that “there is evidence that Rwanda is fuelling the war in the Congo”. The BBC is an otherwise fine newsgathering organization that has proved, time and time again that it can be quite shameless as well. And it can, and often is even more shameless reporting on the world’s poor, and therefore powerless, like Rwanda.
Rwanda has time and again fought off baseless, malicious reports that have been found to be seriously wanting in all objective criteria. It is never going to be easy. On the one hand we are faced with the belligerence of the FDLR, the Hutu extremists wreaking havoc in the Congo, who are the Rwandan government’s sworn enemy, and who are determined to bring Genocide back to this country.
They and other cutthroat groups like Mai Mai rebels are the main source of instability in the Congo. But you never hear Monusco make serious accusations against them. Why? Because, lets be realistically cynical here, without instability in the Eastern Congo, the reason for Monusco’s presence there ceases, and with it the billion dollars a year that is their budget, a budget that goes to pay for insane allowances, per diems and perquisites for the hundreds of Monusco personnel.
Plus, the lucrative, albeit illegal trade in gold, diamonds and other minerals too goes out the window. Not a single Monusco person, or FDLR wants that status quo to end. And they will resort to all kinds of desperate lies to discredit the people who genuinely desire it to end.
Posted by The Rwanda Focus
on Jun 4 2012. Filed under Editorial.
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They dont anything about the DRC government not respecting it’s commitments. They don’t talk about FDRL presence. They say nothing about
the DRC government soldiers harassing one particular tribe. They just want
to spend more years in there and therefore make more dollars.
There are two central reasons for MONUSCO’s regular allegations against Rwanda: first, they must provide a plausible excuse for their utter failure to carry out their core mandate to pacify the Kivus and provide a measure of protection for the provinces’ people. This despite an exorbitant US dollars one billion plus annual budget for over ten years. Secondly, they must continuously trumpet threats from countries neighbouring the Kivus in order to continue to justify their existence, even though their original and continuing mission of neutralizing the FDLR and other assorted rebel and militia groups terrorizing the Kivus has now largely been ignored. In this, MONUSCO and its large army of highly paid bureaucrats and consultants is abetted by the likes of such similarly well-financed and rabidly anti-Rwanda organizations as the HRW. Both these immoral organizations have found the misery of the local population the gift that keeps on giving in terms of attracting funding, driving careers and increasing their power and influence, and in providing opportunities for trafficking in the DRC’s rich resources, while all the time being able to moralize and shift their own sins to their scapegoats. As long as this symbiotic mercenary relationship exists and as long as Western media continues to give these self-interested parties platforms to distill their poisons, expect the misery in the Kivus to continue indefinitely, unless UN members decide that the world is getting very little returns for the costs and pulls the plug on this racket, Until then, expect the situation to get worse and worse for the locals in inverse proportion to the returns for those for whom the arrangement brings only benefits! Explain, otherwise, how a 20 thousand strong military force is unable to deal with the motley crew of FDLR and assorted militias in the area. And why when the RDF and FARDC were about to eliminate the problem through Operation Umoja Wetu, HRW and their allies, both local and international, went on a hysterical campaign to ensure that operation was halted before it could achieve its ultimate objective.