UNAMIR mandate shifts from peace-keeping to confidence building.

Voicing "great concern" over reports of military preparations and increasing incursions into the troubled Central African country of Rwanda by elements of the former regime, the Security Council on 9 June underlined the need for effective measures to ensure that "Rwandan nationals currently in neighbouring countries" did not undertake destabilizing military activities.

In light of the current situation" in the country, the Council adjusted the size and mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR).

Under resolution 997 (1995), the Mission's mandate was extended for an additional six months, until 8 December 1995. Its force level was to be reduced from a currently authorized 5,500 troops to 2,330 troops within three months and 1,800 within four months. The present level of military observers and civilian police personnel was maintained. The Council also authorized the Mission to exercise its good offices to help achieve national reconciliation within the framework of the 1993 Arusha Peace Agreement.

The force reduction had been proposed earlier by Rwanda - currently a member of the Security Council.

By undertaking monitoring tasks, UNAMIR will also support the Rwandese Government's "ongoing efforts to promote a climate of confidence and trust", the Council stated.

Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was asked to consult with the Governments of neighbouring countries, including Zaire, on the deployment of UN military observers on their territories.

UNAMIR also was to help the Government in facilitating the voluntary and safe return of refugees and their reintegration" into their home communities, the Council stipulated. States and donor agencies were called on to give assistance for Rwanda's rehabilitation efforts.

In addition, UNAMIR would: support humanitarian deliveries and provide assistance in engineering, logistics, medical care and demining; help train a national police force until the Government enters into bilateral arrangements for other training programmes; and contribute to the security of UN agencies and the international Tribunal for Rwanda, as well as of humanitarian agencies in case of need.

The Council also welcomed the Secretary-General's intention to appoint a Special Envoy to carry out consultations regarding the holding of the regional Conference on Security, Stability and Development.

Shaharyar M. Khan, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Rwanda, told correspondents at Headquarters on 9 June that the new mandate reflected the fact that, although there had been two parties contending for power when UNAMIR was established in July 1994, now the UN was dealing with a single Government "which had stated its responsibility for the protection of its people".

He stressed: "Any effort at reconciliation in Rwanda must be based on the return of the nearly 2 million refugees" from Zaire, the United Republic of Tanzania and Burundi. "If we are to see lasting harmony and stability, these refugees have to be persuaded to voluntarily come back in dignity and in safety", he said.

Referring to cross-border military infiltration into Rwanda as a major source of tension and destabilization, Mr. Khan underscored that it was very important to control or discipline military activity in refugee camps in neighbouring countries. Their Governments wanted international support in dealing with that problem, he added.

'Radical changes'

Citing the end to the genocide, as well as positive steps recently taken by the Government, Mr. Boutros-Ghali on 4 June reported (S/1995/457) that the situation in Rwanda had "changed radically" since the civil war.

While the country was "now largely at peace" and a long and arduous process of recovery" had begun, he cautioned nevertheless that the situation remained tense, with a lack of significant advances in national reconciliation.

Changes to the UNAMIR mandate, he said, should include "shifting the focus" from a peace-keeping to a confidence-building role and reducing troop strength. The Government, he added, had proposed a "different and more limited role" for UNAMIR, a final six-month extension, and a "drastic reduction" in strength, to 1,800 troops.

However, such a reduction, he said, would leave UNAMIR without the strength to perform its tasks adequately. It "must have the capability to discharge its functions effectively", he concluded. He recommended that the force level be reduced to 2,330, subject to further consultations with the Government.

Crisis at Kibeho

In the same report, while describing the 22 April events in Kibeho, in the south-western region of Gikongoro, the Secretary-General said the deaths had resulted from "firing by government forces, trampling and crushing during the stampede and machete attacks by hardliners in the camp, who assaulted and intimidated those who wished to leave".

The deaths occurred when an estimated 80,000 displaced persons twice attempted to break out of a Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA) cordon, after having spent five days on a single hill without adequate space, shelter, food or sanitation.

(Most displaced persons in the camp were ethnic Hutu. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost during widespread violence that began in April 1994 most victims were minority Tutsi.)

According to the report, the UN had "reacted immediately" to the Kibeho tragedy, providing emergency medical assistance, evacuating the sick and injured, as well as internally displaced persons, and increasing the presence of UN troops at open relief centres, way stations and transit centres, and of its military observers to facilitate monitoring and enhance escort capability.

The situation at Kibeho, Mr. Boutros-Ghali declared, "underscored the tensions and fears that remain just beneath the surface in Rwanda".

Though the Government had been negotiating with the UN for their voluntary closure, it had launched the operation on 18 April, "without notice or consultation", in an attempt to cordon off and close the eight remaining camps in Gikongoro. The seven other camps closed "without serious incident", the report stated.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Sadako Ogata on 24 April had declared that the action had brought Operation Retour - an integrated interagency initiative launched on 29 December 1994 to facilitate the safe resettlement of Rwandans - "to a virtual standstill".

(Until then, it had been providing security for the travel of displaced persons back to their homes, protection once they reached them, and medical, food, water and sanitation assistance in the home communes.)

According to the Secretary-General, the Government had closed the camps out of concern that they were being used as "sanctuaries" by elements of the former government forces and militia. it had felt the camps were "a destabilizing factor and represented a security threat", he said.

As soon as the cordon was established, senior UNAMIR officials, including Special Representative Khan and the UNAMIR Force Commander, Major General Guy Tousignant, undertook to visit Kibeho and the surrounding areas on several occasions to assess the situation, urge restraint and help coordinate the activities of UN personnel and relief agencies.

Following the Kibeho tragedy, the Secretary-General immediately dispatched Aldo Ajello to Kigali as his Special Envoy. He visited Rwanda on 28 and 29 April and conveyed the Secretary-General's concern and urged the Government to undertake an impartial investigation. He had been assured that the Government would cooperate fully with the independent international Commission of inquiry, which it had announced on 27 April would be set up to investigate the Kibeho tragedy.

Atrocities condemned

The Secretary-General's decision to dispatch a Special Envoy had been announced on 23 April in a statement in which he also expressed his "shock and horror at the indiscriminate killing of thousands" at the Kibeho camp.

Condemning that action in the strongest terms, he demanded "an immediate end to the atrocities". The next day, his Special Representative estimated the number killed at approximately 2,000.

The Security Council on 27 April also condemned the killings and welcomed the Rwandese Government's decision to establish an independent inquiry, with UN and other international participation.

In a statement by its President, Karel Kovanda of the Czech Republic, the Council said it was "encouraged" by the Government's decision to carry out a full investigation and bring to justice those responsible.

"Concerned by the generally deteriorating security situation", it stressed that the Government "bears primary responsibility for maintaining security throughout the country and for the safety of internally displaced persons and returnees, as well as for ensuring respect for their basic human rights". The Government should intensify it "considerable efforts" at national reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The Council also expressed concern at "disturbing reports" of increase incursions into Rwanda, allegations of arms shipments and of former government forces being trained in a neighbouring country. it called on States to prevent incursions into Rwanda from their territories.

Concerned over the number of deaths resulting from overcrowding in Rwanda's prisons, the Council asked the Secretary-General to consider measures to improve conditions. International support was needed for reestablishing the justice system "as a contribution to confidence-building and the maintenance of law and order", it said.

Reiterating a call it had made on 27 February in resolution 978 (1995), the Council urged the arrest and detention of "persons against whom there is sufficient evidence of responsibility for acts within the jurisdiction of the International Tribunal for Rwanda". The Secretary-General was asked to facilitate the rapid establishment of the Tribunal.

In keeping with recommendations adopted in February at the Regional Conference on Assistance to Refugees, Returnees and Displaced Persons in the Great Lakes Region, held in Bujumbura, Burundi, States should facilitate the return of refugees, the Council said. In this context, the Dar-es-Salaam trilateral agreement of 12 April 1995 on the voluntary repatriation of Rwandese refugees from the United Republic of Tanzania was welcomed.

The Council also reaffirmed its view that an international conference would contribute substantially to peace and security in the subregion, and welcomed the Secretary-General's intention to consult with concerned parties on holding a conference as early as possible.

Also on 27 April, the Secretary-General urged the Government to "refrain from the use of force" in dealing with the situation of some 1,000 internally displaced persons who had stayed behind in Kibeho following the killings. They were apparently refusing to leave and Rwandese authorities were refusing to allow any supplies through.

Humane treatment

urged

UN High Commissioner Ogata on 24 April stated she was "appalled and outraged by the brutal events" at Kibeho that had left thousands dead and wounded, and forced tens of thousands to flee "with nothing but the clothes on their backs". She urged humane treatment of survivors and said UNHCR had redeployed staff and vehicles to the area to help with the emergency.

Although UNHCR did not work in the Rwandese camps for internally displaced, it did participate in Operation Retour, "providing transport, aid and monitoring for internally displaced people who volunteered to go back to their homes", she said.

On 21 April, UNHCR had deplored the forcible closure of camps, warning of a "catastrophe" unless urgent assistance was delivered to the people who had regrouped on the hill after being driven from the Kibeho camp.

General Assembly President Amara Essy of Cote d'Ivoire also on 24 April said the violence was "a source of profound disquiet for Africa and the world", particularly for the UN and the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Which had "spared no efforts to help bring about the normalization of political and social life in Rwanda".

Commission reports

On 19 May, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that the "tragedy at Kibeho" was neither planned by Rwandese authorities "nor was it an accident that could not have been prevented".

However, there was "sufficient reliable evidence" to establish that unarmed internally displaced persons had been subjected to "arbitrary deprivation of life and serious bodily harm" by RPA personnel, as well as by armed elements among the internally displaced themselves.

The reactions of RPA soldiers to the threat had been "disproportionate", with indiscriminate firing, as well as summary executions by individual troops. Because of "an inability to distinguish between hostile and non-hostile targets" during the night of 22 April, UNAMIR soldiers had been unable to respond, the Commission stated.

As a result of "logistic and time constraints", it had not been possible to determine the exact number of fatalities, according to the report. While evidence did corroborate that bodies had been buried outside the camp, an "unusual discrepancy between the various initial counts and estimates of fatalities and the actual number of non-fatal casualties" suggested that the initial fatality counts had been overestimated.

The Commission called on the Rwandese authorities to carry out a "thorough, prompt and impartial investigation of individual responsibilities within its armed forces". The UN system was asked to review its chain of command and operation procedures.

`Renewed tensions'

Mr. Boutros-Ghali, in a 9 April report on UNAMIR (S/1995/297), had warned that the progress achieved in Rwanda since the installation of the new Government on 19 July 1994 was "threatened by renewed tensions". The Government and the international community must put the country back "on the road to stability, reconciliation and reconstruction", he declared.

At the same time, those goals were "likely to remain elusive" as long as 2 million Rwandese remained in refugee camps outside their country. The Government should make "more determined efforts to foster a climate of trust and confidence and to create conditions that will encourage refugees and displaced persons not suspected of involvement in the genocide to believe that they can return to their homes in safety", he stated. Steps should be taken to bring those guilty of genocide to trial as soon as possible.

Speaking of a deteriorating security situation, he pointed to reports of possible infiltrators and the rearming of former government forces. In addition to a considerable decline in the repatriation of Rwandese refugees from Burundi, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zaire, over 200,000 internally displaced persons remained in camps inside Rwanda "because they fear insecure conditions in their home communes or because of intimidation by extremist elements in the camps", he added.

Within the context of Operation Retour, the Secretary-General reported that while activities to expedite the voluntary return of internally displaced persons were continuing, "certain quarters in Rwanda" viewed the camps "as breeding grounds for destabilization activities" and the Government was anxious to close them.

He called the establishment of an effective judicial system "one of the most pressing problems facing the Government". Despite efforts to follow correct procedures, arrests were sometimes arbitrary and individuals were being held without hope of timely trial proceedings, Mr. Boutros-Ghali said. According to the report, some 27,000 people were being detained in Rwanda's "desperately overcrowded prisons". Kigali prison, built for 1,500 inmates, alone held over 7,000 detainees in early April.

The Secretary-General reported that the UN Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda had strengthened its monitoring activities. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Jose Ayala-Lasso had launched an international appeal, with a view to assisting the Government to re-establish the judicial system, he said.

Emergency relief

The UN humanitarian programme had been maintaining an emphasis on the provision of emergency relief, as well as on activities meant to enable the Government to function effectively, the report stated, but progress had been affected negatively by "the paucity of resources" available.

To date, only a relatively small portion of contributions pledged at the UN Development Programme (UNDP) round-table conference (Geneva, 18 an 19 January), as well as those pledged to the 1995 consolidated inter-agency humanitarian assistance appeal launched in January by the UN Department for Humanitarian Affairs, had been "converted into actual disbursements".

Stressing that the Government "can not by itself address all the problem facing the country", the Secretary-General said the assistance and cooperation of its neighbours and the international community were needed, and donors should "accelerate the flow of aid".

UNAMIR had been "working under additional pressure" due to the deterioration in the security situation and its troops had been "deliberately targeted" in the first such incidents since the end of the civil war, he noted.

In an 11 April statement, the Secretary-General had deplored "speeches of a highly inflammatory nature, and containing completely unfounded allegations" made against UNAMIR and the UN at a demonstration outside the Mission's headquarters. He particularly expressed regret at the fact that "some responsible officials in Rwanda" were reported to have made "unfortunate statements". All segments of Rwandese society should "exercise restraint at this critical time in order not to exacerbate tensions further", he urged.

Refugee problems

Shortly before the Kibeho events, the Secretary-General had appealed to Member States to take urgent actions to "achieve the enormous task of ensuring that all the refugees and the displaced persons in the Great Lakes region voluntarily return to their homes and communities". That would require the combined efforts of the countries of origin and of asylum, as well as the international community, he said in a 14 April report (S/1995/304) on security in the Rwandese refugee camps.

Food shortages in the camps had led to the beginnings of malnutrition among women and children, and refugees believed that the international community was using food as a weapon to force them to return to Rwanda, the Secretary-General reported. The deteriorating food situation was "a sign of serious fatigue" on the part of donor nations, and he appealed to them to "reverse this situation".

The plan of action adopted at the mid-February regional conference on assistance to refugees in the Great Lakes region had stressed voluntary repatriation as the preferred solution to the refugee problem.

Security in the camps and eradication of intimidation and blackmail of refugees, he stressed, were among desirable short-term measures. Solving the problem in the long run would require the combined efforts of African Governments and the international community, with the full involvement of the civil society.

The Secretary-General also expressed concern over the closure of borders and attacks on refugee camps which, he said, were "in blatant disregard" of the Bujumbura agreement. States should act in accordance with those recommendations.

Genocide: One year ago

On 7 April, the Secretary-General, in conveying sympathy and condolences to the survivors of the genocide that began one year earlier in Rwanda, said: "Never should the world allow such a tragedy on our planet. Never should the perpetrators of such crimes be permitted to get away with impunity."

The international community must recommit itself to the "objective of a better world as envisaged in the Charter of the United Nations and, to this end, reaffirm our collective faith `in the dignity and worth of the human person"', he continued. It should intensify its efforts for reconstruction and reconciliation in Rwanda as a most fitting and enduring tribute to those who had lost their lives. He pledged that the UN would continue to support "all endeavours aimed at building a new Rwandese society based on tolerance, harmony and justice".

Special Representative Khan on 4 April had expressed the hope that the first anniversary of the ethnic massacres would be marked peacefully. Overcrowding in prisons and the growing number of arrests by the authorities remained sources of tension, he said.

Tribunal begins work

An active investigation into acts of genocide and serious violations of humanitarian law, focusing on approximately 400 identified suspects, was being conducted both inside and outside of Rwanda, the Secretary-General said in a 30 June report (S/1995/533) on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

At the Tribunal's first plenary session (26-30 June, The Hague, the Netherlands), Laity Kama of Senegal was elected President and Yakov A. Ostrovky of the Russian Federation as Vice-President. The Tribunal's rules of procedure and evidence were adopted as well.

The session was held at The Hague because arrangements for the Tribunal's seat in Arusha, the United Republic of Tanzania, had not yet been finalized. The Secretary-General hoped his would be done soon.

On 25 May, the General Assembly completed the election of six judges for the Tribunal's Trial Chamber, from a list of 12 candidates established by the Security Council in resolution 989 (1995) of 24 April.

The Tribunal - consisting of two Trial Chambers, a five-judge Appeals chamber, a Prosecutor and a Registry - is mandated to prosecute persons who committed acts of genocide and other serious violations of humanitarian law between 1 January and 31 December 1994.