Rwanda-UN : The UN has failed again Rwandans by the appointment of war crimes suspect Maj. Gen. Karenzi Karake to lead the Darfur Force (18.09.07)

The Rwandan government blackmail standoff against the UN Security Council has borne fruits with the appointment and subsequent deployment of Major General Karenzi Karake. Despite critical concerns over the General’s notorious responsibility in war crimes, crimes against humanity, extrajudicial executions and assassinations, the UN has soldiered ahead with his nomination as Deputy Commander of UN-AU hybrid Darfur force. It’s a mockery of justice and lives of millions of Rwandans and Congolese that poured under the fire of this warmonger and the like.

After the UN failures to prevent or stop the 1994 genocide, the 1995 massacre of thousands of  KIBEHO IDPs by RPF soldiers, the 1996-98 massacres of hundreds thousands of Rwandan refugees in the DR Congo, the UN has last week rewarded one of the infamous military commanders responsible of the butchery, namely Karenzi Karake. This is clearly another very negative signal sent to Rwandans by the UN, seen as a new blessing to the RPF government’s license to kill and impunity.

Following UDF-Inkingi warning that Karenzi Karake’s appointment is a shame for the whole Humanity, an insult to Africa, to Sudan and to his victims, the RPF government threatened the UN to withdraw all Rwanda Defense Forces deployed in the ill-torn Darfur should Karenzi Karake’s nomination be dropped. The UN machinery under intensive pressure of some lobbies gave up. This surrender proves that the use of force prevails on justice and that international humanitarian law can be massively violated with the consent of those in charge of the task of ensuring that it’s not. Leave alone the RDF contingent and Maj. Gen. Karenzi Karake as its Deputy Commander; the Darfur force will have no moral authority to achieve its mandate. Therefore, what occurred to Rwandans both in Rwanda and in the DRC is likely to happen to the Sudanese people.

This timing of the UN decision on Karenzi Karake coincides with grave and serious accusations from Florence Hartmann, former assistant to International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, that the UN has consistently been under a US administration pressure to ensure that no RPF leader involved in crimes under its mandate is brought to book till the tribunal closes its doors next year.

In conclusion, the UDF-Inkingi shall take all appropriate measures to endorse the Rwandan people’s right to self defense. The UN, the AU are accountable of the consequences of their shameful failures, omissions and decisions.

Brussels, 17 September 2007
Dr Jean-Baptiste MBERABAHIZI
Secretary General

print(pdf)