14^th July 1995

During the visit of His Excellency the Secretary General of the United Nations in the Great Lakes region, rwandese refugees gathered together in RDR send out a true SOS to the Security Council in order for their problem to be looked into with more circumspection, more lucidity and determination.

This visit by His Excellency the UN Secretary General coincides with a pressing demand by the government of Tanzania, to urgently put on the agenda of the Security Council the repatriation of rwandese refugees.

It closely follows also a demand by the Kigali Government to lift the arms embargo imposed on Rwanda by the UN may 17, 1995.

For sometime now, rwandese refugees have been watching helplessly votes by the same council, of resolutions in which they are target, but where no slightest attention is payed to their views.

This is the case with the resolution on the preventive arrest of suspected criminals, which served as an excuse for some groups and governments with bad faith, to witch hunt rwandese refugees. Ironically, arrangements to put in place the International Tribunal for Rwanda were at an advanced stage in the same council. Since genocide is imprescriptible what is all this hurry about?

Regarding the arms embargo against Rwanda, RDR reiterates its opposition against any step towards its lifting or even relaxation, so long as the Kigali regime will have not shown more political maturity, by opening the unavoidable dialogue with its two million citizen forced into exile.

If the Security Council shares the same opinion with the Kigali Government on the danger resulting from the forced exile of those rwandese citizen,

the best way to avoid this danger is not to buy arms in order to finish off those refugees, but rather to see to it that they are repatriated as soon as possible, peacefully and in dignity.

As for the repatriation of rwandese refugees requested by some asylum countries, RDR, taking for witness the recent declarations by the UNHCR representative in GOMA as well as numerous testimonies of NGOs, and human rights organizations, reiterates that the Kigali regime has yet to put in place a conducive atmosphere for the return of refugees. Political statements must be followed by concrete actions. Didn't refugees of yesterday now ruling the country ignore appeals made by former presidents Gregoire KAYIBANDA and Juvenal HABYARIMANA, insisting on prior guarantees before the return?

Why don't they want to extend the same guarantees to refugees of today and maintain the same old and misplaced statements, pretending that refugees don't want to return because they are hostages?

On top of Nairobi summit of January 1995 and Bujumbura of February 1995, rwandese refugees have more than once outlined what should these conditions be.

Given its mandate of peace keeping, the Security Council should pay more attention to the realisation of the conditions rather than wasting time on the Kigali regime warmongering demands.

RDR would like to remind that any lifting of the arms embargo against Rwanda is neither in the interest of asylum countries, nor rwandese refugees. The latter could be seen by refugees, as nothing but a plot to prolong their calvary in exile.

RDR implores therefore the Security Council to understand that nothing short of negociations between the unpopular regime of Kigali and refugees can break the current deadlock without resulting in a new escalation of insecurity.

For RDR