SECRETARY-GENERAL'S VISIT TO RWANDA, 7 - 8 MAY

Press Release
SG/T/2137
AFR/66

SECRETARY-GENERAL'S VISIT TO RWANDA, 7 - 8 MAY

The Secretary-General arrived in Rwanda in the afternoon of Thursday, 7 May.

Upon arrival in Kigali, he went directly to the Rwandan Parliament. The Rwandan Foreign Minister, Anastase Gasana, who met the Secretary-General at the airport, made an opening statement, posing a series of questions about the role of the United Nations and the League of Nations in the history of Rwanda. The Secretary-General made a statement, saying that Rwandans needed to ask themselves about the origin of the "horror from within", that the entire world failed Rwanda in its hour of need, and that now the international community wanted to assist Rwanda in the establishment of good governance, the administration of justice and economic growth and reconstruction. (See Press Release SG/SM/6552.)

The Speaker of the Parliament also spoke, welcoming the Secretary- General and presenting him with a gift.

The Secretary-General then attended a reception hosted in his honour by the President, Pasteur Bizimungu. The President, however, did not show up and his spokesman later announced that the President had "boycotted" the reception to protest the Secretary-General's statement to the Parliament, which he described as "insulting to the Rwandan people".

Friday's programme went according to plan. Accompanied by the Foreign Minister and the Minister for Gender, Family and Social Affairs, A. Inyumba, the Secretary-General visited a site of genocidal killings at Kicukiro Commune. At that site, known as Nyanza, civilians fleeing the fighting had been grouped, they were told, for their safety. They were then gunned down. A marble memorial stood amid dozens of graves marked by simple wooden crosses. The spokesman for the survivors asserted to the Secretary-General that United Nations peacekeepers were nearby, but did not help. Before leaving the site, the Secretary-General and his wife Nane asked to be alone, and stood before the graves in silence.

- 2 - Press Release SG/T/2137 AFR/66 21 May 1998

The Secretary-General and his party were then escorted outside of Kigali to another genocide site at Mwurire. Here, a survivor, Charles Butera, described the residents fighting for their lives with stones and knives. Thousands were said to have been killed in the area. The victims, he said, waited for the United Nations but it never came. The bones had been collected in a corrugated tin shed, neatly arranged, with skulls on one side, and larger and smaller bones on the other. The Secretary-General laid a wreath.

The Minister for Youth, Culture and Sports, J. Bihozagara, made a statement, saying he wanted to build a durable monument on the highest hill in Rwanda in memory of the victims. He described Rwanda as a nation of tolerance and added that he hoped the origins of genocide around the world could be studied so that it might never happen again.

The Secretary-General then made a statement saying that the international community, and he personally, could only imagine what the survivors gathered there had experienced, yet he shared their tragedy and wanted to work with them to rebuild. He concluded by offering them "all our sympathy for what you have gone thorough".

Returning to Kigali, the Secretary-General went to the United Nations complex, where he addressed the staff and had lunch with the heads of United Nations agencies.

At 12:30 p.m., he met for an hour with President Bizimungu, Vice-President Paul Kagame and Prime Minister Pierre Celestin Rwigena. The President aired his complaints about the Secretary-General's speech to the Parliament. The Secretary- General explained that his intent was to repair relations between the United Nations and Rwanda. Their talks became gradually more cordial and ended on a friendly note.

At a press conference afterwards, the Secretary-General and the President were asked if they were now "friends". "We've always been friends", they both replied, and laughed.

The Secretary-General then flew to Uganda.

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