RDR has learnt that the Security Council may have "clarified" that the arms embargo imposed on Rwanda in May 1994 applied henceforth to "rwandese living in neighbouring countries, implying refugees.

For sometime now, RDR had denounced in vain RPF provocations and the campaign carried out by its sponsors for the lifting of the arms embargo.

In making that "clarification" the Security Council missed yet another opportunity to prove its capacity to resist the dictates of RPF and its sponsors, especially that it comes at a time when a decision has been taken, under pressure, to reduce the number of UN troops (UNAMIR) in order to do away with any embarrassing witness to massacres of innocent people carried out by the RPF like it happened in KIBEHO.

The lifting of the embargo, at a time when war in looming in Rwanda and in the many countries of the sub-region, is to add more fuel on the fire.

Consequently, if the Security Council does not have any sympathy for the millions of rwandan refugees who fled RPF oppression, would it not be proper to at least consider the financial burden carried by countries and humanitarian organisations by keeping that mass of refugees?

If it is legitimate for the Security Council "to make peace with the bloodthirsty regime of RPF, that peace should not be concluded at the expense of the rwandan people hurt by more than 5 years of a war imposed by the RPF.

The RDR hopes that the Security Council is aware that it is creating a dangerous precedent and that the arms to be bought are not to be used neither for peacemaking nor for reconstruction but to wage war.

RDR hopes that peace loving countries will maintain unilaterally the embargo as a sign of solidarity with the rwandan people and bringing about everything will be done to help in dialogue and reconciliation, prerequisites to durable peace in the region

NZABANDORA Chris

Director of Information