Citation
UNITED NATIONS, April 13 (Reuter) - The Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF)
and the country's recently installed interim government have agreed to
meet Thursday under U.N. auspices to discuss a ceasefire in the civil
war-torn nation, the Security Council president said late Wednesday.
Council President Colin Keating of New Zealand said the meeting would
take place at the headquarters in the capital Kigali of the 2,500-man
U.N. force sent to Rwanda last year to help implement an accord which
temporarily ended the three-year civil war.
That is the first optimistic sign we have seen perhaps since the
beginning of this crisis, and the Security Council wants to welcome it
very much and encourage that process,
Keating told reporters.
He said the council attached great importance to the RPF living up to
its statements of peaceful intent and that it wished to establish a
broad-based government and stop the killing.
The council's response to that is we will judge you by your actions,
not your words, and we want you to act right now to stop the killing.
And that means a ceasefire, and we want it soon.
The latest carnage, in which thousands have been slaughtered, erupted a
week ago after Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, together with
President Cyprien Ntaryamira of neighbouring Burundi, were killed when
their plane was shot down as it was landing at Kigali after a flight
from Tanzania.
An interim government was announced Friday, with a former head of
Parliament, Theodore Sindikubwabo, named interim president.
The government was reported to have fled Kigali earlier this week as
RPF forces advanced on the capital.
But Keating said there was communication between the government and the
headquarters of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR).
We are advised that representatives will be available for discussion.
I imagine those would be representatives of the military forces who are
engaged in the actual fighting,
he added.
The Security Council, meanwhile, was trying to find a new role for the
U.N. force, whose original mandate has become outdated.
The principal concern of the majority of countries providing troops for
UNAMIR was that the United Nations not abandon Rwanda,
he said.
The largest contingents are from Bangladesh, which has about 940 troops
in the U.N. force; Ghana with some 840; and Belgium, Rwanda's former
colonial ruler, which has approximately 440 soldiers serving with
UNAMIR.
Ten Belgian U.N. soldiers were killed during the recent bloodletting,
and Brussels has announced its intention to withdraw its contingent.
Keating said that at a very minumum, we will be looking at a
resolution which changes the mandate of the U.N. operation.
Council members believed that U.N. withdrawal from Rwanda was not an
option, but neither was a peace-enforcement mission involving the use
of force, like the one in Somalia.
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said in a letter to the council
that in view of the impending pullout of the well-equipped Belgian
contingent, which plays a pivotal role, he had called for plans to be
drawn up for the possible withdrawal of UNAMIR.
Keating said all council members were sympathetic to Belgium's
concerns, since its U.N. troops were under particular threat
and were
hampered by the need to ensure to their own protection.
While UNAMIR as such might not continue, the council would have to work
out a new mission with a new mandate,
capable of operating without
the Belgian contingent.
Non-aligned council members have drafted a proposed resolution calling
for UNAMIR to be strengthened and for a revision of its mandate to
enable it to contribute to the restoration of law and order.
The North American representative of the RPF, Claude Dusaidi, sent a
letter to the council president calling for the establishment of a war
crimes tribunal to try those guilty of crimes against humanity in
Rwanda.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
