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RALLY FOR THE RETURN OF | |
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4, RUE A. CLUYSENAAR 1060 BRUXELLES BELGIQUE Tél: 32-2-5348035 Fax: 32-2-5348053 |
7, RESIDENCE MONTESQUIEU 49000 ANGERS FRANCE Tél/Fax: 33-41489987 |
12th November 1996
Chairman of UN Security Council
New york,
Mr Chairman,
It is with deep sorrow and anguish that I am writing this letter to you to draw your attention to the great responsibility that the Security Council bears and will carry along before humanity and history over the present genocide against the hutu population being committed by omission by the international community.
The rwandan people has had the greatest shock of their lives and learnt in tears and anguish how the world can be so unhuman and the international community so much in contradiction with its own principles. The world community has so much power to act yet is so marked by inaction even in the situation where lives of millions are at stake, so knowledgable and yet so much manipulated by those who have mastered the art of falsehood, so vocal about human equality and human rights and yet watches helplessly over massacres and starvation to death of more than one million people.
The Rally for the Return of Refugees and Democracy in Rwanda (RDR) has condemned without reservation massacres committed against the tutsi population in 1994 and has for that reason welcomed and supported the establishment of the international Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to identify and punish the culprits. At the same time however it would like express its deep disappointment and shock over the tendency to put under the carpet the massacres and all other forms of crimes committed by the RPF against the hutu population since the war started in 1990 and to turn the International Tribunal into a court of the victor against the vanquished.
No pretext should be used to exterminate a people. It has now been established that more than one 1,000,000 hutu have been so far massacred by the RPF regime since the war started in 1990. Any body asking for an international commission of inquiry over these crimes is labelled as a hutu extremist or supporter of killers.
The present human holocaust in Eastern Zaïre was carefully planned and is executed by the rwandan, burundian and ugandan troops in the framework of allegedly trying to break the backbone of any future resistance to the RPF and BUYOYA regimes.
The Rally for the Return of Refugees and democracy in Rwanda (RDR) had warned the International Community on the planned joint attack Rwanda-Burundi and Uganda against rwandan and burundian refugees in its press release nº 85 dated June 17, 1996.
RDR had warned the international community over the impending catastrophe if the plan were to be carried out, and had called on the same international community to pre-empt this horrendous plan. It is hardly understandable that such a plan be carried out without an assurance of support from powerful backers to ward of any condemnation.
Once again the rwandan people are stunned over the delay in sending an international force to help survivors of the holocaust or to allow a burial of the dead. This inaction is likely to give credence to the view that the delay is a deliberate move to intervene when the great majority of the refugees will be dead physically or morally hence ending once and for all the problem of refugees in Zaïre and ensuring a durable political security to the RPF and burundian minority government.
The Rally for the Return of Refugees and Democracy in Rwanda (RDR) has always stated that the rwandan crisis is essentially of a political nature although it is equally humanitarian. After consultation with refugees the RDR had come up with a detailed programme for quick, peaceful and permanent return of rwandan refugees.
In point 12.1 regarding the role of refugees themselves in the rapatriation exercise. It is stated that " the right of every refugee to go back home, when he or she wants, has been reaffirmed and must be respected by everybody. Nobody has a right to go against that will". RDR called however on Kigali Government to create conditions of security for refugees.
In order to make the process of return succeed the following accompanying measures were proposed:
1. Allow refugees to discuss freely the issue of their repatriation without being branded as "intimidators". These measures would definitely enhance the repatriation process. This presupposes the recognition of the official and legitimate representation of refugees and making it responsible. There are people in the camps with a clear record, who enjoy the trust of the people and are prepared and open for dialogue with the Kigali government. It is the collaboration of such people who are competent and capable of taking up their responsibilities that a program for a massive, quick, permanent and peaceful return of refugees can succeed. Harassing these personalities and labelling them as intimidators due to pressure from forces that are foreign to the region will prove counter-productive.
2. The trauma created by the fear of being expelled any moment as well as the contingency measures taken against refugees, (stopping humanitarian assistance, prohibiting the movement of people, stopping all income generating activities, closing down of schools), have seriously undermined the confidence which refugees had placed in the people and governments which had come to their help in the most difficult times and carried the burden of their presence. Dropping these measures, would reinforce the confidence of refugees in the provisions that these host countries would take in regard to the repatriation process. In this manner, refugees would respond positively to the encouragements made to refugees to return home.
3. Host countries and their leaders saved lives of refugees which were threatened. Refugees would like these countries to be part of the machinery of an ad hoc follow up which would follow up the fate of refugees once they are inside Rwanda.
4. Host countries, in their diplomatic relations and at international meetings, should force the RPF government to stop demonising refugees and to obtain from it guarantees of safety and reintegration of refugees under conditions that are compatible with human dignity and human rights.
The answer to the proposals made by refugees to the Kigali government has been a campaign of assassination of prominent exiles, two were murdered in Nairobi on the 6th October 1996, and abduction of 7 others from Tanzania. It has been crowned by attacks against refugee camps and trying to starve refugee to death.
This brutal behaviour has compounded the fear and mistrust of refugees towards the RPF administration. Borrowing from the science of hunting animals, refugees are hunted down by surrounding their sanctuary, spraying it with bullets and leaving one well selected outlet by the hunter. The refugees are given one outlet, the RPF government hunting them down. Is it realistic and humane to ask people to trust those who are killing them ?
The Rally for Return of Refugees and Democracy in Rwanda (RDR) would like to point out that the elimination of the more than one million refugees will secure the RPF government or provide a lasting solution to the rwandan crisis. This brutal adventure will create more distrust within the rwandese community and make peace and reconciliation more elusive.
The best solution to the rwandan crisis is political dialogue and not naked force. History has shown that such politically expedient solutions had produced more disaster. The more lives are saved now, the less bleak will be the future for Rwanda and rwandans including the extremist group which are unleashing terror and death on people they are supposed to protect.
Hoping tat you will act quickly to save the more than one million refugees, please accept , Mr Chairman, the assurances of my highest consideration.
For RDR
Dr BUTARE Innocent
Executive Secretary
CC:
- Members of the Security Council.
- UN Secretary General.