Leaked UN report causes major controversy

On Friday, a year after its completion, a historic and controversial draft report by the United Nations was leaked to the media before its scheduled release today.

It is believed that the authors feared that top UN officials were going to have it changed to avoid potentially harmful consequences from one of its findings.

That finding is that after the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the new Rwandan government's forces then carried out their own genocide on the retreating Hutu people.

The purpose of the report

The purpose of the report was to document and highlight the horrific human rights violations that took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1993 and 2003.

There, in what has become known as ‘Africa’s world war’ and is the world’s deadliest since World War Two, eight countries and 21 rebel groups were involved at various times in trying to gain control over the country and its lucrative natural resources (or in some cases, seek revenge).

The huge and unprecedented 545-page report was prepared by a 20-strong team working for the UN High Commission for Human Rights.

They gathered evidence on 600 serious violations, with their standard being two independent sources for each incident.

The report warns that it isn’t based on the standards of judicial investigations, and that an international court will have to be the final judge.

But as it states in its foreword, “it is meant as a first step towards the sometimes painful but very necessary application of the truth.”

The report’s findings

Among the findings of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the various parties involved, the most controversial is the claim of massacres carried out by Tutsi Rwandan forces and their ally, the AFDL rebel group (RPA/AFDL).

After the 1994 genocide by ethnic Hutu militia on the ethnic Tutsi people in Rwanda, over a million Hutus (militia and civilians) fled across the border into DR Congo fearing the backlash from Tutsi soldiers.

The Tutsis followed them, and the report claims that between 1996 and 1997, RPA/AFDL soldiers murdered tens of thousands of Hutus, the majority of whom were women, children, the elderly and the sick.

The killings were often carried out with edged weapons. In one alleged incident, soldiers rounded up 310 villagers whom they accused of sheltering Hutu militias and killed them with hoes or axes to the head. Thousands more were shot, raped, burnt or beaten.

As well as qualifying as ‘war crimes’, the report states that “the systematic and widespread attacks” could be considered crimes of genocide, “if proven before a competent court” (genocide is the deliberate targeting of a specific ethnic group).

The Rwandan government has dismissed the report as “insane” and described it as an “amateurish NGO job” that “can only achieve instability in the Great Lakes region.”

The current Rwandan government has always claimed the moral high ground in ending the 1994 genocide, and has repeatedly denied allegations that they committed their own genocide in neighbouring Congo.

The consequences

Given these findings, those in charge, including President Paul Kagame (who earlier this month was re-elected with a dubious but overwhelming 93% of the vote) could find themselves on trial if the UN chose to establish a court to prosecute these claims (the Rwanda tribunal only covers crimes committed during 1994).

Furthermore, the current Rwandan government receives 50% of its revenue from foreign aid (60% of which comes from the UK, followed by the US). If it gets accused of genocide in a UN report, this support could be compromised.

Because of this, the Rwandan government has demanded that the report’s genocide claim be removed.

And if it isn’t, they have threatened to end their peacekeeping commitments in Darfur and Haiti, and perhaps even their membership of the United Nations altogether.

Faced with such consequences, and possible instability in a country that has seen genuine progress under Kagame, top UN officials (including possibly the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon himself) reportedly asked for the genocide claim to be removed.

Afraid that this would happen, it’s rumoured the authors leaked the report to the media on Friday in order to keep its findings intact.

The revelation is also embarrassing for Britain and the US who have strongly supported the Rwandan government since the genocide.

The leaked report is only a draft and the UN has already said the final version will have some changes.

If these changes include the removal of the genocide claim, the UN will be accused of unfairly protecting Rwandan officials for political reasons.

The report states it is meant “to help [the Congolese people] build a better future where impunity has no place.” The report’s leaking may have just rescued that promise.

By The Casual Truth

Photo – Rwandan President Paul Kagame