RWANDA: U.N. Envoy Warns of Greater Tensions with Government

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 31 1996 (IPS) - Relations between Rwanda’s government and U.N. peacekeeping and civilian officials — most of whom are expected to depart by March — are increasingly strained, the special U.N. envoy to Rwanda says.

Although the Rwandan government has done much to rebuild the country since the 1994 massacres in which as many as one million people were killed, “underneath the appearance of normalcy there is an undercurrent of great tension,” Shahryar Khan warned Wednesday.

That came out sharply, according to Khan, when three representatives of the International Tribunal charged with investigating the 1994 killings were beaten up by officers of the Rwandese Popular Army (RPA), the country’s defence force.

“They went through a roadblock by mistake,” Khan told IPS. “They were stopped by an RPA picket. It was there that they were assaulted.”

According to Khan, the three Tribunal members believe they were first attacked because the RPA soldiers mistook them for peacekeepers in the U.N. Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR).

But the envoy added that the soldiers continued to beat the Tribunal members after they identified themselves as non-UNAMIR personnel. The Rwandan government has since arrested three soldiers for involvement in the assault and has apologised to the United Nations, Khan said.

Nevertheless, the incident attests to the growing gap between the United Nations and the RPA, the former rebel army that is now the dominant force in Rwanda.

In recent months, Rwandans in army uniform have reportedly stolen dozens of cars, computers and other U.N. equipment. The government blames the thefts on infiltrators wearing army uniforms.

But Khan said the latest assault cast doubt on the government’s credibility, and particularly its promise to protect all international workers in the country once UNAMIR is gone.

As UNAMIR prepares for its final withdrawal from Rwanda, slated for Mar 8, both sides say the world body’s credibility is low.

The RPA and other parties are understandably upset because they feel UNAMIR did very little to prevent the 1994 genocide, Khan said. The killings are largely blamed on the previous, Hutu- dominated government which was ousted by the RPA in July last year.

The new RPA-backed government also contends that too much international attention and aid are being focused on the refugees outside Rwanda’s borders — including many former government officials accused of genocide — and not enough in Rwanda itself, Khan added.

Manzi Bakuramutsa, Rwanda’s U.N. ambassador, argued last week that the United Nations has at times been unfair to the new government, accusing it of being overtaken by “hard-liners” unwilling to negotiate with the previous regime.

U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali used that term, Bakuramutsa noted. “I told him, ‘There are no hard-liners in Rwanda; they are here’,” the Rwandan envoy said.

Moreover, he added, U.N. plans to resolve Rwanda’s problems have too often been decided at the headquarters in New York, without any consultation with the Rwandans themselves.

The envoy says Kigali has appreciated U.N. assistance. But he added that the victims of the genocide have been asked to concede too much — largely because the United Nations wants the more than one million Rwandan refugees, including supporters of the former regime, to feel secure enough to return home voluntarily.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have faced suspicion in Rwanda over the refugee issue. Bakuramutsa accused some NGO groups of paying greater attention to recent — and mostly Hutu — refugees than to older, mainly Tutsi refugees who were expelled from Rwanda from 1959 and are only now coming back. Once again, he argued, the victims of the genocide are being neglected.

Sometimes, Khan argued, such sensitivity leads to over- reaction. “Sometimes you get an irrational approach to a basically sincere effort,” he said.

Khan pointed to the expulsion of 32 NGOs at the end of last year, arguing that the sudden order for so many NGOs to depart was an arbitrary act of the government.

Bakuramutsa said that the government only had intended to ensure that all NGOs are properly registered, and that those which did not register with the government were either placed under investigation or told to leave. But Khan countered, “I know for a fact that very few notices were given” to register.

Despite the fractious relationship, all sides maintain they work together and negotiate all problems. Khan is exploring whether a U.N. civilian office can remain in Rwanda after the peacekeepers leave in March.

And Justice Richard Goldstone, prosecutor for the International Tribunal, told IPS that four Rwandans arrested in Zambia on immigration charges may be formally indicted for war crimes within the next few weeks. They could thus be the first Rwandans to face trial by the tribunal for the massacres.

Those trials may go a long way toward restoring Rwanda’s faith in the United Nations, Bakuramutsa said. “My government has strongly supported the Tribunal…but we have to see them working,” he urged.