Rwanda

Before delivering the message of the Government of Rwanda to the General Assembly, allow me to follow the Heads of State and fellow Ministers who have spoken from this rostrum and express to the President our very sincere congratulations on his outstanding election. We also pay a well-deserved tribute to his eminent predecessor, who displayed devotion, skill and readiness to serve during the last session. Our warmest and fraternal congratulations also go to the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for whom this session of the General Assembly is his first in that office. At the fiftieth anniversary session of the United Nations we took the opportunity to express loudly and clearly our views with regard to the essential reforms to be carried out within the United Nations. We welcome the proposals made by the Secretary-General, and we assure him of our support and cooperation. We also made proposals on Security Council reform. We will continue to make our contribution and lend our support to the collective efforts aimed at ensuring greater democracy in the Council. The Government of Rwanda also wishes to take this opportunity to express its great satisfaction at the appointment of Mrs. Mary Robinson as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. We assure both her and the Secretary-General of our assistance and cooperation. At this session the Government of Rwanda wishes to make its modest contribution to our consideration of some matters of concern both to Africa and to the entire international community. These primarily relate to the difficulties encountered in the process of bringing to life a new Africa and problems related to the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts in Africa. We shall also offer some thoughts on how our peoples may enjoy a relatively smooth passage into the next millennium. We will conclude with an appeal for international solidarity for Rwanda and the Rwandan people. The hope of the peoples of Africa and the third world is first of all for an understanding of their real problems, and today that understanding must be a priority. Much of the international community supports the new political order in Africa and the new African leadership and leaders who wish to create new realities for a new Africa. We had the opportunity and pleasure, at the special meeting of the Security Council on Africa held on 25 September under the presidency of the Secretary of State of the United States, of hearing comments in support of the new African leadership. We stand firmly together. The others, those who do not trust in Africa and the Africans, who attempt to hinder our continent’s efforts to free itself from neocolonialism and dictatorships, who are today trying to discredit and undermine our leaders at any cost, they are the ones we will obviously be forced to deal with when we come to them. I should like now to speak of the problems of conflict prevention and conflict resolution in Africa and other third world countries. Again, we extend our warmest thanks to the Security Council for having taken the positive initiative of convening a ministerial-level meeting on Africa on 25 September. Our contribution, beyond general considerations and some specific cases, will focus primarily on identifying the underlying causes of conflicts in Africa, conflicts which in turn create the economic and political recessions of which we in our continent — and elsewhere in certain third world countries as well — are aware on almost a daily basis. Africa and the third world in general are suffering from various ills, principal among which are ignorance, poverty, bad political leadership, coups d’état and foreign intervention. Those are the ills that have eaten away at Africa, continue to eat away at it and are the sources of every conflict on our continent. Ignorance, it is said, is the root of all evils. Poverty is the cause of all misfortune. What United Nations programme will combat ignorance and poverty in Africa and the countries of the third world, and when will these two terrible ills that ravage our continent be cured? Bad political leadership in Africa has led many countries to ruin and even led to the first genocide on the African continent, which occurred in Rwanda from April to July 1994. The United Nations was present with a military force of 2,500 men, who packed up and left, abandoning the Rwandan people to the mercy of the 26 Interahamwe militiamen of the erstwhile single party and armed forces of the day. The planning and carrying out of the genocide was the ignoble act of a bad political leadership that viewed the ignorance and poverty of the peoples of Rwanda — and, consequently, of the peoples of Africa and the third world — as a political asset to consolidate and perpetuate its dictatorship in power or to usurp power. We hope that the United Nations will support the new political order in Africa and its new leadership, and that it will oppose any manoeuvre aimed at using United Nations structures to nip in the bud the new political order that is emerging on our continent. The conflicts of which we are all aware in Africa today are the bitter fruit of the famous so-called Africa of the Generals that emerged in the mid-1960s. Those coups d’état sapped Africa with all their attendant tragedies, of which all here are only too keenly aware. What are our strategies for fighting coups d’état in Africa today? What are the strategies of the United Nations for eradicating this scourge, whose effects are realized by its creators only when they themselves fall victim to it? All of the coups d’état in Africa since 1965, whose rotten fruits we are harvesting today, were fomented by certain Western capitals in their own interests and to the detriment of the African people. Today, unfortunately, foreign manipulation is continuing in Africa, creating a new cycle of coups d’état in Africa. We urge the United Nations resolutely to attack the five scourges I have just named, which still infect Africa and are the source of all the conflicts on our continent. These problems exist and we are familiar with them. Let us not make them taboo — let us talk about them within this prestigious building; let us talk about them in the Security Council. That, perhaps, would mark the beginning of improved conflict prevention and resolution in Africa. We cannot close this chapter on African conflicts without referring specifically to some that worry us more than others. I am referring in particular to the Central African Republic, where we feel the United Nations should be on its toes and assist a country in which the keepers of the old order and their opportunistic acolytes are using violence against an elected Government. I am also referring to Congo (Brazzaville), where precisely the same scenario as in the Central African Republic is being played out on a scale far larger than in the latter country. In our humble opinion, the United Nations should also send a clear and unambiguous message to the Comorians of the island of Anjouan that the Comoros is a State Member of the United Nations and that its unity and integrity are not negotiable. We ask the parties concerned to work with the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to find an appropriate solution to their problem. Western Sahara strikes a strong note of hope in the area of decolonization. We welcome and encourage the due implementation of the agreements that have just been signed between the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic and the Kingdom of Morocco to promote the process of self-determination and independence for the Saharan people. In Somalia, the Government of the Rwandese Republic urges all the parties to the conflict to promote dialogue under the aegis of the OAU and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. Two years from the advent of the new millennium, we all have the ultimate duty of leading our peoples to the year 2000 without setback or fear of the unknown, unlike the people of the year 997 as they approached the eve of the second millennium. The twentieth century, leading into the awaited third millennium, has deeded to us the two most horrendous genocides in the history of humanity: the genocide of the Jews during the Second World War and the genocide of the Rwandans in 1994. Will we cross the threshold of the third millennium with the same racist graffiti covering the walls of our cities and airport corridors? Will those with uneasy consciences continue forever to play dumb with regard to the Rwandan genocide, the very first in the history of our continent? Will religious fundamentalism thrive at the cost of human lives? Extreme selfishness, despair, suicide, racism, crime, terrorism, drugs, paedophilia, battered women, rape: Are we going to bring all this luggage with us into the third millennium? What are we doing now? What are our strategies to eradicate all these evils? Resignation? Fatalism? Will the third millennium hold anything to shock us? We all claim to govern on behalf of our respective peoples. What actions are we undertaking today to ensure that they advance calmly, smoothly, without panic or anxiety into the year 2000? If we do nothing, how will we explain it to them on the eve of 1 January 2000 or on 27 the first day of the year 2000? Will we use the language of cynicism, pain, realism, politics, diplomacy or ritual — in just enough to get them off our backs and hustle them along into the year 2000 as into a lifeboat? What strategies do the United Nations and its agencies, present throughout Africa and other countries of the third world, have to help the Governments and peoples that must confront the anxieties of passing from one century to another, one millennium to another? In my country, Rwanda, I see no sign of any such strategy, while the country is gripped by the many traumas born from the tearing, or rather the shredding, of the social fabric by the genocide of 1994. When the traumas of genocide are complemented by millennial anxieties, what is to become of such a people if it is not helped by increased international solidarity? I have seen no or almost no sign of such solidarity in all my travels, no hint of such a project. Apparently, no one is concerned. And yet, we are only 26 months from 1 January 2000. Why such indifference from countries and from the United Nations? Should not our concerns be those of the peoples on whose behalf we govern? We should be one step ahead and thereby allay them. Before closing, I wish to appeal to the General Assembly that the United Nations adopt a mini-Marshall Plan for the moral and physical rehabilitation and reconstruction of the first African country to have fallen victim to the catastrophe of genocide: Rwanda. This mini- Marshall Plan for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of post-genocide Rwanda was drafted by Ambassador Sahnoun, Special Representative for the Great Lakes region of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations and the OAU, at the request of the Rwandan Government of National Unity. We also make a ringing appeal to the United Nations and the entire international community to provide Rwanda with substantial assistance, as it has received since November 1996 more than 1.4 million repatriated persons — one fifth of its population — who had fled to the former Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and Burundi. Following this mass return of refugees, famine has today struck heavily in over four of our provinces. For the victims of this famine, we request emergency food relief and development assistance for every sector of national life — agriculture, health, education, the social and socio-economic reintegration of the repatriated, the survivors of genocide, justice and the rehabilitation and reconstruction of basic infrastructures, including those for water, electricity and roads. As for the social and socio-economic reintegration of the repatriated, since November 1996 the Rwandan Government has been sending into the field teams led by two Ministers for each province and composed of other ministers, members of Parliament and high-level administrators. These field missions aim at supporting the local administrative authorities in their tasks of receiving and reintegrating the repatriates. The exercise has gone well and is still being successfully pursued. At the communal and municipal level, we have also created reception committees composed of local authorities and members of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Unfortunately, some troublemakers have filtered in with the 1.4 million refugees who have recently returned to Rwanda. Since February 1997, these fugitives have been committing murders among the civilian population. They have primarily targeted the survivors of genocide, in order to do away with anyone who might be a witness in a court of law, and local authorities who are devoted to the cause of national unity and reconciliation. The Rwandan Government has taken the necessary measures to ensure the safety of the people in the north of the country, which has been the site of these murders. Again, results in this area have also been quite satisfactory. In fact, a month ago I organized a meeting of the entire diplomatic and consular community at Ruhengeri, one of the provinces in the north of the country. After that meeting the diplomats had the opportunity to visit any areas of Ruhengeri they chose. Likewise, before I came to New York for the General Assembly, Mr. Pasteur Bizimungu, President of the Republic of Rwanda, headed a meeting of ministers at Gisenyi, one of the country’s three northern provinces. After the meeting the President of the Republic and the members of the Government went into the field for three days. They visited and spoke with people from all sectors of the population, including peasants on communes and in municipalities and students and State officials who had been repatriated and who were participating in orientation seminars on the positive aspects of national unity, tolerance, reconciliation, respect for human life and 28 solidarity. They also spoke with local authorities who are working to train our people. The Government of Rwanda needs support for this exercise. It needs the assistance of the international community. Before concluding, we would like to say from this lofty rostrum that we welcome the progress made towards resolving the misunderstanding on the question of the International Commission of Inquiry sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of the Congo announced at his press conference yesterday afternoon. The Rwandan Government therefore encourages those specifically involved in this matter — namely, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo — to work together to put an end to this problem. They have our confidence and support. In order to support the efforts of the Secretary- General, the High Commissioner for Refugees and the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and to enlighten better the international community about the refugee problem in eastern Zaire, the Rwandan Government calls on the United Nations to publish and circulate as a document of the Security Council the report of the International Commission of Inquiry on the trafficking in and distribution of weapons in refugee camps in eastern Zaire. The United Nations International Commission of Inquiry was established under Security Council resolution 1013 (1995) of 7 September 1995. The Commission submitted its report, duly signed by its members, one year later, on 28 October 1996. The embargo on this report, which has hindered its publication, should be lifted immediately in order to facilitate everyone’s efforts.