MONUSCO, THE FDLR AND OVER 200 MISSING CHILDREN

August 16, 2014 OPINION/NEWS

Lusiku08-L

 

By

Sylvain Muyali

The Information Commissioner and spokesman for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), La Forge Fils Bayeze, accused some officials of the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) of trying to sabotage the process of their voluntary disarmament.

Rwandan Hutu fighters need the international community to help them return home and begin a political struggle.

La Forge-Fils Bayeze, who refused to name names of officials who want to “sabotage” their disarmament by turning this process into “surrender”, stressed their refusal to be moved to Kisangani as “prisoners of war”.

Ray Virgilio Torres, the Head of Office of MONUSCO in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), countered that MONUSCO does not negotiate with armed groups, its role being to disarm, as stated previously on Radio Kivu1.

He said that MONUSCO, since May 30, 2014, has donated over one million US dollars towards the relocation, disarmament and demobilisation of the FDLR. Following the FDLR’s refusal to join the Kisangani transit camp, Mr Torres stated that this is not in the missions of MONUSCO.

in Tshikapa, 265 km from Kanaga (Kasai Occidental) over two hundred children have been reported missing in five years. These figures were released on August 15 2014 by the International Catholic Office for Children (BiCE) in Kasai-Occidental.

The framework within invites the Mayor of Tshikapa to strengthen security and vigilance, organising permanent controls in car parks, ports and airports in the city in an effort to prevent this.

The Association for the Defence of Children’s Rights and Oppressed Women (Adefo) is networking with officials from various government departments, hence its appeal to the heads of these services for greater control over land.

NGOs advocating for the rights of children indicate that these children are trafficked into Angola or Kinshasa. The evidence is that a ten year old flew for a year, and was returned on August 14 2014 to his parents in Tshikapa, after being found in Kinshasa by the NGO ‘Lifeblood’.

Parents concerned about this problem were therefore encouraged to bring their children’s identity to light order to aid research.

For his part, the Deputy Mayor of Tshikapa, Felix Tshihunda, has asked the public to report any suspected cases.

 

 

 

sylvain muyali

Sylvain Muyali

 

Sylvain Muyali is a Journalist, Photographer and Filmmaker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has reported previously for the Associated Press and his words and images can also be found at ‘Vivons Positivement

 

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