UN Employs Genocide Suspects?

In two separate stories previously carried in this column (see our "Insider Report" items "'Genocidaire' on UN Payroll" in our March 12, 2001 issue, and "UN Investigator Charged with Genocide" in our July 2, 2001 issue), THE NEW AMERICAN has described how the UN has employed figures suspected of involvement in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. At least one individual, Simeon Nchamihigo, was actually working as an investigator for the UN's international criminal tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The UN subsequently suspended four additional investigators from the tribunal on suspicion that they were involved in the genocide -- but the post-genocide Rwandan government insists that suspected genocidalists are still on the ICTR's payroll.

"Our investigation has revealed that the majority of the investigators in the ICTR are suspects of genocide," declared Martin Ngoga, Rwanda's special representative to the tribunal, in early December. According to a December 4th Reuters story, the Rwandan government "said it had investigated 10 other defense investigators [apart from Nchamihigo] and found nine were genocide suspects." Adama Dieng, registrar for the UN tribunal, told Reuters that he had not seen the Rwandan government's report -- and that it was immaterial in any case. "We'll not accept any names from the Rwandan government," Dieng commented. "We have an independent way of conducting our investigations for any doubtful character."