New York, US (PANA) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday appealed for decisive action against the armed Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), after the group failed to surrender on deadline.
In a phone call with President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ban reiterated that the FDLR has “failed to deliver on its promise to disarm and the deadline of 2 January has expired without significant results.”
According to a read-out of the phone call issued to UN reporters in New York, the UN chief welcomed President Kabila’s assurance that his government was ready to take action, as well as cooperate with the UN Mission in the DRC on the issue.
The Secretary-General also noted that the UN Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO) was ready to engage in operations alongside the Congolese military, also known by the French acronym FARDC, in order to bring peace and stability to both the DRC and the Great Lakes region.
Also on Wednesday, UN Force Commander of MONUSCO, Lieutenant General Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz, in an interview with UN Radio, monitored by PANA at the UN headquarters in New York, said that “as FDLR had failed to meet its deadline to surrender voluntarily, action to force disarmament may be imminent.”
“As you know, 2 January was the deadline for the FDLR to surrender voluntarily. Unfortunately, they didn’t meet expectations. One option is to defeat the FDLR and to force the surrender of this group,” General dos Santos Cruz said over the phone from DRC’s capital, Kinshasa.
He stated: “It is very important for FDLR to stop its activities in the eastern part of Congo to bring stability to the region. We don’t have only FDLR as an armed group but they are very important politically and their surrender is important to stability here.”
He explained that MONUSCO and the Congolese army have joined forces to follow up on the progress of disarming the group, saying that, “an upcoming 15 January meeting with several regional organizations is expected to focus on the matter and decide what action to take.”
General dos Santos Cruz recalled that the leaders of the 2,000-strong FDLR had initially agreed to surrender based on international negotiations.
“They need to surrender to bring more stability to the eastern part of Congo and to the whole region. If they don’t comply with that, we are ready to follow up with the political authorities and we are going to start operations against them,” the Force Commander warned.
