RWANDA-U.N.: Rwandan Defence Chief Seeks Action on Refugee Aid

UNITED NATIONS, Dic 15 (IPS) - Rwanda's powerful vice president and defence minister Thursday tried to rouse the U.N. Security Council to act to protect the aid sent to Rwandan refugees.

Gen. Paul Kagame, who led the victorious Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) assault on the former Hutu-majority government in July, urged the Council to move to prevent the former government from using the aid to re-arm in refugee camps in neighbouring countries.

One British envoy told IPS later that Kagame's presentation to the Council was "the strongest comment we have heard" about the need to examine where U.N. refugee aid is going".

The diplomat confirmed that Kagame sought U.N. assistance to make sure that the former government forces cannot use their control over the camps to re-arm and invade Rwanda, as they have threatened to do.

But the British envoy, who asked not to be named, added that the crux of the dilemma -- how to provide aid to the genuine refugees and not the armed forces -- is unlikely to be resolved easily.

Kagame specifically asked that aid from the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) not go to armed elements.

"Refugees are clearly held hostage" in such camps as the large Goma camps in Zaire, Kagame told the Council. The Rwandan vice president argued that former government forces and extremist Hutu paramilitaries -- believed to number as many as 50,000 people -- are terrorising the 800,000 Rwandans encamped in Goma.

"They have taken over control of the food aid that is brought by these U.N. agencies and other organisations," he said. "Some organisation should feel responsible to categorise and separate these groups and make sure the right aid goes to the right people."

He added, "I do not see any justification for aid assistance to militiamen who still have arms and are still killing people or government forces who are still in uniform and still have weapons."

Many Council officials have indicated the problem may not be solved until and unless a U.N. peacekeeping force separates the soldiers from the refugees in Goma, as well as elsewhere in Zaire and in Tanzania.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service