PRESS CONFERENCE BY RWANDA ON PROPOSED MULTINATIONAL FORCE IN GREAT LAKES REGION
Press Briefing
PRESS CONFERENCE BY RWANDA ON PROPOSED MULTINATIONAL FORCE IN GREAT LAKES REGION
19961115
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
At a Headquarters press conference this morning, the Ambassador of Rwanda to the United States, Theogene Rudasingwa, and the Permanent Representative of Rwanda to the United Nations, Gideon Kayinamura, briefed correspondents on developments in the Great Lakes region of Africa.
Ambassador Mr. Kayinamura said that in the past 48 hours, thousands of refugees in the Mugunga camp in eastern Zaire had broken free of their captors and returned to Rwanda. There was a steady stream of refugees into Rwanda, where the entire cabinet led by the President was at the border to welcome them.
He said that the administrations of local governments in the area were being mobilized to set up camps for the returnees. They were also working with United Nations agencies to assist in the quick repatriation of refugees.
Declaring the humanitarian tragedy over, Ambassador Kayinamura said that the mandate of the proposed multinational force was, in the circumstances, "no longer relevant". What was required now, was support to rehabilitate the returnees inside Rwanda.
Asked if he would stop the Security Council resolution, Ambassador Kayinamura stated that he had already talked to the President of the Council and representatives of the countries concerned about the latest developments. Since the mandate of the proposed force was not to disarm the militias, he did not know whether that would now change. In any case, the problem posed by the militias was now "far, far, reduced", he said. He added that the militias had been fighting side by side with the Zairian army against the internal rebellion in that country, and might continue with that activity.
In response to a question as to whether Rwanda would allow the force to go into the country should the Council go ahead with the draft resolution as it stands, Ambassador Rudasingwa said that because of the dramatic changes in the situation, his country would no longer be a party to an intervention force or process. Instead, it was insisting that resources -- including what would have gone into supporting the multinational intervention -- should be used in the process of resettling the returnees.
Ambassador Rudasingwa speculated that the changes in the last 48 hours were brought about because of a tilt in the balance of the forces. In the fighting between the internal rebels in Zaire and those holding the refugees
in the Mugunga camp, the remnants of the militia could no longer control the camp. Worried about confronting the multinational force, or about their own fate, he continued, the militias decided to make the refugees flee westward with them. That action might have triggered the resistance of the refugees who then opted to go east, back to Rwanda.
"That is the basis of our argument, that until and unless the multinational force confronts this group of people, it becomes irrelevant, it becomes useless", Ambassador Rudasingwa stressed.
Asked if the country would cooperate with the Security Council should it opt to go ahead with the draft resolution, Ambassador Kayinamura advised it to take an "enlightened decision based on the situation on the ground", instead of hurrying through a resolution that would be irrelevant immediately after adoption. There was a greater need to consider a different resolution reflecting the current situation.
In replying to further questions, Ambassador Rudasingwa refuted the suggestion that there was a coincidence in the return of the refugees on the eve of the Security Council action. He pointed out that there had been serious fighting in the past few days, in which the militias in Mugunga camp had shelled Goma.
He explained that the events of the past few days justified what his country had been saying: that there was a crisis in eastern Zaire, that people were dying and the world was not responding. In retrospect, people would look at the evolution of the crisis in eastern Zaire as being advantageous to Rwanda, and feel that Rwanda may have participated in creating the situation, he added. Stressing that his country had no expansionist or territorial ambitions, he said, "Our hands are tied with the numerous problems we have inherited from genocide and I am sure several generations of Rwandans will be confronting the legacy of genocide."
Ambassador Rudasingwa added that his Government was interested in the security of its people and their return, not in exporting any problem to other countries which had their own problems.
Asked whether he was concerned that the multinational force would end up protecting the Hutu militia, he asked the correspondent what was going on in his own mind upon learning that the Security Council was sending to Rwanda a very powerful force with robust rules of engagement, but which would not disarm the militias.
He pointed out that the multinational operation would not even force its way into the refugee camps, but would secure airports which had already been secured. "The French are already in eastern Zaire, and the Zairian representative said that was a matter of bilateral cooperation, although the French representative was quick to deny it", he said.
Rwanda Press Conference - 3 - 15 November 1996
He added that there were some countries which were thinking of extending the force's mandate beyond the humanitarian mission. Nobody, he noted, was thinking about consulting the rebels who were an important variable in the issue. Some people, who were likely to be participants in the multinational force, might have motives that had nothing to do with the humanitarian tragedy in eastern Zaire. "How would you justify their not acting in the last few years, but at a time when everybody is worried that Zaire is going to disintegrate?" he asked.
Replying to further questions, he rejected the marginalization of African countries in the multinational force. Only Senegal was being invited as of yesterday, he noted, and that was probably not accidental. Even stranger still, was that none of the other countries that had offered troops was being involved. And while there was general talk about the establishment of a trust fund, African countries that wished to participate were being told that they could "on their own" support the African component of the force.
Ambassador Rudasingwa emphasized that African countries were being involved neither in the planning, nor in the strategy or tactics of the proposed operation. He said that Africans felt that they were not being catered for because they did not have the money and were merely getting the western world to pay the costs.
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