10th September 2010

Vol 51 N0 18

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Rwanda RWANDA | CONGO-KINSHASA

Kigali wins another round of the blame game

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon held an emergency meeting with President Paul Kagame in Kigali on 8 September after the Rwandan government threatened to withdraw from UN peacekeeping missions. Kigali’s logic was unassailable. A draft UN report had suggested that Rwandan troops might have committed ‘crimes of genocide’ in eastern Congo-Kinshasa in 1997; if the UN endorsed those claims, Kigali said it would have no choice but to withdraw its 3,500  troops from the UN force in Darfur, Sudan.

The credibility of the United Nations is on trial again after the leaking of its draft 545-page report mapping human rights violations in Congo-Kinshasa in 1993-2003. It seems almost certain that the draft report’s criticism of regional governments, especially Rwanda, will be substantially amended before the document is formally published on 1 October. That will spare the UN another round of regional protests during the summit meetings on 22-23 September and save the very pressed Secretary General Ban Ki-moon the effort of more restorative diplomacy. The organisational cost may be the resignation of a few UN officials in protest and yet more criticism that the UN has covered up evidence of atrocities by member states....

(This article contains approximately 1857 words)

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Keywords:

 The fog of genocide, Congo-Kinshasa, Ban Ki-moon, Kofi Annan, Burundian, Ugandan, Paul Kagame, , Robert Garretón, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, Yoweri Museveni, Joseph Kabila, Spanish, Fernando Andreu, James Kabarebe, Jack Nziza, Victoire Ingabire, Elysée Ndayisaba, Belgium, Callixte Mbarushimana, Kagame’s foes applaud, Faustin Twagiramungu, Patrick Karegeya, South Africa, Donald Kaberuka, United States, Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, Gladstone Dumisani Gwadiso, Luzolo Lessa Bambi, Jean-Pierre Bemba, Zimbabwe, Kinshasa accused, too, Gabriel Kyungu wa Kumwanza, Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi, Kabakumba Lubwoni Masiko, Lambert Mende Omalanga, Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza, Chadian, Idriss Déby Itno, Angolan, Interahamwé, Armée patriotique Rwandaise, Forces armées rwandaises, Forces démocratiques unies, Forces démocratiques pour la libération du Rwanda, Assistance aux victimes des conflits en Afrique centrale, Armée de libération du Congo, Forces pour la défense de la démocratie, Alliance démocratique des Forces de libération du Congo-Zaïre