The UN Security Council must sanction the Rwandan government for violation of the arms embargo and the Geneva Conventions

Press Release.

The Group of Experts of the UN Security Council has just published a new report which shows that, despite strong warnings to the Rwandan government and the Rwandan-Congolese rebels of M23, the enrolment in fighting of child soldiers and former rebels of the FDLR, which were forcibly repatriated, continue unabated. Massive violations of human rights such as summary executions of new recruits and prisoners continue on a daily basis with impunity. These facts, which constitute war crimes under the Geneva Conventions, are carried out while the rebels of M23 and the Rwandan regime continue to defy current arms embargo and sanctions applicable to eastern Congo. The Rwandan government, whose soldiers have never left the Congolese territory, continues to support the rebels of M23 through diverse supports including political advice, intelligence services, supplying weapons and encouraging desertions within the Congolese army.

This report is timely after the publication of the Amnesty International report on Rwanda, a report that shows torture, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners while in detention in illegal and secret detention facilities in Rwanda^[1]. These facts which are also relevant to Geneva Conventions continue to occur even though the blood of hundreds of thousands victims reported in the UN Mapping Report on the DRC continues to flow afloat while unfortunately the main culprits from the Rwandan regime continue to walk freely without any concern prosecution. It is important to recall that these massive violations of international humanitarian law and human rights have been described by the UN as war crimes, crimes against humanity, even as probable genocide committed against Rwandan Hutu refugees.

One can clearly see, from both inside and outsideRwanda, that the Rwandan regime has adopted with impunity and for so long, the attitude of a terrorist government with similar methods of violations of international humanitarian law. It is high time that the governments of some of the countries that protect such a regime, if they do not denounce these crimes and demand justice, understand that the Rwandan people will from now on hold them as accomplices for these crimes.

To do so, the political party FDU-Inkingi is asking such countries but also the countries that are known to be critical of the Rwandan regime but have up to date remained in solidarity with the Rwandan people and Congolese to support the lawsuit against President Kagame and his close collaborators which was introduced at the International Criminal Court on August 17, 2012 under the leadership of the political parties FDU-Inkingi and Rwanda National Congress.

The party FDU-Inkingi requests the Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council to urge all States to freeze assets of any individual or entity associated with the Rwandan government and the rebels of M23, ban them from entering into their respective territories and prevent any supply, sale or transfer of weapons and related materials directly or indirectly to such individuals or entities and, more importantly, impose an air embargo.

Because the Rwandan regime has become the worse enemy of international peace, the party FDU-Inkingi strongly urges the UN General Assembly and the Security Council to reject the application of the Rwandan government to serve as a non-permanent member of the Security Council.

Done inLausanne, Switzerland, on October 18, 2012.

Dr. Nkiko Nsengimana
Coordinator of the Coordinating Committee of FDU-Inkingi.

 

^[1] Rwanda should definitely get rid of a justice system which is under total control of Mr. Kagame