August, 31, 2010
Kigali: Ex-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the UN Human Rights Commission came under fierce scrutiny Tuesday as government claimed they have deliberately continued to “diminish” the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis.
“As we know from the UN Human Rights Commission, this report started under [Kofi Annan],” said Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo.
“I would have a lot to say about the former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan…Both as Secretary General, as an African and responsible human being…I want to say that his record as far as Rwanda and the Genocide [is concerned] is pitiful,” charged Mushikiwabo at a press conference.
Describing the ex-UN chief as a “man who has never taken his responsibility”, Mushikiwabo said Kofi Annan who was head of peacekeeping at the UN headquarters in 1994, “failed miserably”.
“I am not surprised and my Government is not surprised that he would be the one making sure that there is funding for this kind of report to ensure that it was an important gesture he would pose before he leave office,” said Mushikiwabo.
She said the involvement of kofi Annan in the “making of this report is there. There is no question about it.”
Turning her guns on the UN Human Rights Commission which commissioned the controversial document, the Foreign Minister said it has also deliberately continued since 1994 to undermine the Tutsi mass slaughter.
“The report reminds us of the climate and the approach that was taken especially by the United Nations Human Rights Commission which instead of dealing with the then extremely grave situation of the Genocide, it was interested in elections,” said Mushikiwabo.
She accused the Commission of asking for elections for purposes of “cleaning up, sanitizing [and] providing legitimacy to individuals and groups” which had committed the Genocide in Rwanda.
“Before the bodies were even buried in this country this UN human rights commission was calling for elections,” said Mushikiwabo.
“Therefore, the diminishing and the lack of decency in front of the Genocide, is what we see today in this report. For us the Government of Rwanda, this report is nothing new. It’s a manifestation of a state of mind.”
Government also fired at the methodology used in compiling the 600-page document branding its methodology as “malicious” because Rwanda was consulted.
The Foreign Minister admitted however that government had received the draft document from the UN Human Rights Commission, but did not say when government got it.
Speaking about the licking of her letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warning him about the release of the document, Minister Mushikiwabo was bitter.
“It is an irresponsible gesture,” said Mushikiwabo. “We don’t like it.”
She said release of the letter to the media shows a conduct that is problematic” to the UN.
The Minister denied that Rwandan forces killed any civilians because of their ethnic orientations.
The Minister also said Rwandan army and police on peacekeeping missions in five countries around the world will be ordered back home immediately the report is published by the UN.
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