Can Congo benefit from mistakes leading to Rwanda?

The UN Security Council has authorized an ‘Intervention Brigade’ as the Council granted mandate renewal for United Nations Mission in Democratic Republic of Congo. The Resolution 2098, enables ‘Offensive Combat Force To Neutralize and Disarm Congolese Rebels, Foreign Armed Groups’. This is an important moment in the history of UN and the Security Council as the resolution approves the creation of the Security Council’s first-ever “offensive” combat force. Eastern Congo is experiencing renewed fighting as recently there have been clashes between the army and rebels of the “Alliance of Patriots for a Free and Sovereign Congo” (APCLS). The resolution condemned the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) “and all other armed groups and their continuing violence and abuses of human right”. Having learnt and extensively discussed the Rwanda genocide incident in the class, one cannot help but draw parallels between Congo and Rwanda. Also one cannot help but question whether this resolution was passed with the great Rwandan genocide in the mind of all the delegates in the Security Council. The fact that this is the first such combat force approved by the UN Security Council speaks volume of the impact that the Rwandan genocide had. Also the UN does not want to make the same mistake of undermining the volatility of the situation in this region. The developments regarding this issue in the Democratic Republic of Congo are extremely important especially as a reference to see how much importance is being accorded to human rights and their violations and to see what actions will be taken by the leaders of the world to prevent another Rwanda from happening.