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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 |
September 27, 1996
PRESS RELEASE Nº91
Yesterday September 26, 1996, a UNHCR envoy and UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner Mr SERGIO VIEIRA DE MELLO, while meeting the rwandese prime minister, asked the RPF government to give to UNHCR a list of "genocide suspects", so that they can be denied protection and assistance by UNHCR.
This stand by such a UNHCR officer is tantamount to giving to RPF a right to veto any application for asylum by any rwandese refugee whom it deems unwanted even for flimsy political reasons.
Three days ago, UNHCR had released another list of 20 rwandese refugees who should not only be denied assistance by UNHCR, but also cracked down by all governments worldwide.
While it is the legitimate right of UNHCR to determine the eligibility of any asylum applicant, UNHCR should not in all fairness call upon countries to deny assistance to people who have not yet been found guilty by any court of law.
Those two latest developments in the handling of the rwandese refugee crisis by UNHCR raise a number of issues that need to be addressed;
1 To ask RPF government to compile a list of "genocide suspects" that should be denied assistance worldwide defeats the spirit and purpose of the decision by the United Nations to set up a neutral and international tribunal to shed light in the massacres that bedeviled Rwanda in 1994.
Indeed, if the international community had found it fit for RPF to determine who is guilty or not, why did it set up the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda(ICTR)?
It would be indeed a very dangerous precedence for UNHCR to give to RPF an opportunity to do the justice of the (military)victor over the vanquished.
2. But this is no surprise because all along UNHCR has been rejecting applications for assistance by some rwandese refugees on the ground of appearing on one of the numerous RPF lists of "genocide suspects".
Now that UNHCR has published a shorter list of "genocide suspects" allegedly endorsed by the ICTR, could we hope that the UNHCR will withdraw the other lists at its disposal and reconsider the case of refugees who have been victimised for appearing on bogus lists compiled by RPF and taken as gospel truth by UNHCR?
3. Some of the 20 people listed on the above mentioned list have neither been summoned nor indicted by the ICTR. Where does UNHCR wants them to live while waiting for an hypothetical indictment that can take even years given the snail speed at which the ICTR is going about its business?
Should they be condemned to death before being heard?
4. Recently two lawyers of the defense were denied access to rwandese refugees camps in Eastern Zaïre by none other than UNHCR security personnel.
If UNHCR is so keen on seeing justice done, why doesn't it want refugees to give their side of the story?
5. Two years after the exodus of rwandese refugees, their status is still vague, as virtually none of them has got a refugee status. They are handled like mere displaced people.
Can the UNHCR which is so enthusiastic on blowing up the list of ineligible refugees, tell the world with the same publicity, why it is not processing the status applications for those who do not appear on any of those lists endorsed by the ICTR?
RDR does not at all oppose the cooperation between UNHCR and anybody so long as it can help speed up the trials, and lead to a fair justice. But this should in no way prejudice the prime vocation of the UNHCR which is humanitarian and not political or judicial.
