The DRC Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of National Defense and Veterans Affairs Jean-Pierre Bemba has acknowledged that there are serious discrepancies in the numbers of the national army, FARDC. The man basically is incriminating Tshisekedi.
Presenting the so-called “state of national security” speech during the latest Council of Ministers meeting, Bemba’s testimony confirmed what the UN Group of Experts has reported for years: that the FDLR is part and parcel of the Congolese national army.
Bemba stated that the numbers of soldiers comprising the FARDC declared do not reflect the reality of the Congolese military strength, which is an admission that nobody knows the actual number of DRC. Bemba lamented that the available records are not credible and said there was a need for a total overhaul of the army aimed at reconstituting the records of the Congolese military.
However, what Bemba did not tell the meeting (although all of them are aware of the fact) is that the mix-up in the ranks of the army includes a huge number of FDLR genocidaires.
Although nobody is counting on Bemba to do the right thing, the reforms he is talking about would serve the Congolese people better if the FDLR were completely uprooted from the FARDC and repatriated back home for prosecution for crimes of genocide.