RALLY FOR THE RETURN OF

REFUGEES AND DEMOCRACY IN

RWANDA

R.D.R

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

18th March, 1997

 

Your Excellency the Head of State,

Your Excellency the Head of delegation,

 

Your Excellency,

 

I have the pleasure to forward to You for consideration a memorandum which the Rally for the Return of Refugees and Democracy in Rwanda (RDR), an organisation that represents interests of refugees and those who are excluded from the governance of the country, has prepared on the present crisis in the Great Lakes Region.

RDR is attaching herewith a testimony of an eye witness to the genocide being perpetrated by the RPF soldiers in Eastern Zaire against hutu refugees and hutu population in general.

RDR would like to point out that the systematic physical elimination of hutu refugees who feel unsafe to go back home or are unwilling to accept the undemocratic regime in Kigali will not end the rwandan conflict. The rwandan conflict is political in nature and once political problems that underlie the crisis are not solved, it will remain intact. It would not find a realistic solution as long as the maintenance and consolidation of the RPF regime remains the main premise to any search for a solution to the rwandan conflict.

The challenge to any mediator is to bring together all protagonists to the same table to discuss the best governance for their country particularly the management of the present conflict. If mediators remain contended with consolidating and imposing the present regime on a people that doesn't like it, they are likely to fall into a trap of certain regional and extra continental powers which have so much invested in RPF that they cannot disassociate themselves from it.

As a matter of urgency, RDR would like to request Your Excellency to do every thing possible to stop the carnage of hutu refugees being carried out by RPF soldiers. The UNHCR should organise the repatriation of those who so wish and find alternative areas or countries which can provide security to those refugees who still feel unsafe to go back.

Hoping that the memorandum will get Your kind attention, please accept Your Excellency the assurances of my highest consideration.