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CONFIDENTIAL
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FROM: NEW YORK C04362/NYK 25-Apr-1994
TO: WELLINGTON WGTN UNSC Immediate
cc: BEIJING CANBERRA Priority
LONDON WASHINGTON Priority
MOSCOW OTTAWA Priority
PARIS HARARE Priority
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MFAT (MEA, EUR, UNC, LGL, DP1,DSP1, EAB)
Subject
SECURITY COUNCIL: RWANDA
Summary
- Genocide reported by Medecines Sans Frontieres
- Council considers what, if any, options it may have to
take action in this appalling situation
Action
For information and thoughts on appropriate Council action.
Report
2 Sec Gen of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) called this
afternoon to brief the President on events over the weekend
at Butare hospital administered by MSF. Butare is the second
largest city in Rwanda and is in the southern part, under the
control of the "government forces". MSF noted about 40% of
its population was of Tutsi ethnic background.
3 On Friday the government army forces rounded up all the
local staff of the hospital and killed them, saying they
would return to kill all the patients the next day. On
Saturday they came back and killed all 170 patients being
treated by MSF. The patients had been injured in earlier
conflicts with militia and with the army forces and were
being treated for machete wounds. In answer to President's
question, MSF confirmed that those doing the killings were
wearing regular Rwanda army uniforms and emphasised that this
Was the most brutal act they had experience of in their 20
year history as an organisation.
4 MSF also reported that 140 people under the protection of
the ICRC travelling to Zaire had been killed. According to
MSF when the killing started the Presidential Guard began to
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systematically kill people on a "list" of about 1500 of those
in opposition to the President. This included Hutu members
of the opposition. In more recent times the "government
forces" had moved to targeting all Tutsis. If the situation
did not improve in the south then, according to MSF, there
would be no more Tutsis in the south "within a few weeks".
5 Because the MSF now had no staff and no patients in
Butare they had withdrawn from their operation. Since then
they had visited the Dutch and Belgian Foreign Ministers as
well the King of Belgium to draw attention to what they
described as a clear policy of genocide on the part of the
Rwandan government forces,
6 MSF appealed to the Council to implement “safe areas"
around hospitals. They said that there were many people in
need of medical assistance who were afraid to get attention
especially when they knew it was not safe even in the
presence of ex-pat medical staff. (In their experience in
the past, this had usually provided some measure of
security). If the UN could implement a security perimetre
around the hospitals, people would be able to travel from
places of hiding in the bush or in their homes. This is "the
minimum" MSF was seeking from the international community for
immediate assistance, In their opinion this could work.
Butare is only 2 1/2 hours drive from the Burundi border and
their staff did the journey regularly.
7 In the short term, there would be 2 million people in the
south (coming mostly from Kigali) who were in dire need of
food, water and other basic necessities. This will require a
major aid effort MSF noted.
8 President briefed Council on this call and Secretariat
(Gharekhan) provided briefing on weekend events. The
situation in Kigali remains very tense, There were no
Significant changes. The RPF continues to have control of
various positions in the hills around Kigali and the north
and north-east remain in their control, while the south and
south-west are in the control of the "government forces",
Elsewhere, the RPF forces were advancing but had slowed under
opposition from the "government forces".
9 Over the weekend some 1000 UNAMIR troops had been
evacuated from Kigali. Now there are 444 remaining
(including 72 military observers). Although the evacuated
personnel spent time in Nairobi over the weekend (to see if
there was any prospect of progress at the cease-fire talks
which had been scheduled for Saturday in Arusha), most had
now been repatriated to their own countries. (The
secretariat commented privately to us that the repatriation
of the Bangladeshi forces had not been entirely unwelcome by
the Force Commander).
10 As to the Arusha cease-fire talks, coordinated by
Tanzania as the Arusha peace "facilitator", these had not
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taken place as scheduled for Saturday. Although the
Tanzanian government had asked UNAMIR to airlift the "interim
government" party from a border location in Zaire, a short
distance from Butare, the "interim government" had not showed
up at the appointed time. This meant that they were not even
in Arusha for the talks.
ll The RPF had showed up but was not, in any event, prepared
to talk with the "interim government". It would however have
been acceptable to them to talk with the Rwandan army (not
represented at Arusha). The RPF position was that it wanted
to present Tanzania and the OAU (represented at Arusha by its
Sec Gen) and the UN with a unilateral ceasefire, but subject
to certain conditions (previously reported). If the
conditions are met, the unilateral cease-fire was due to come
into effect at midnight tonight (Mon), local time.
12 The Under Sec Gen for Humanitarian Affairs, Peter Hanson,
visited Kigali with a small team of UN agency reps over the
weekend. The visit was to assess the urgent needs of the
people of Kigali. UNAMIR continues to provide protection for
people in the stadium and the Force Commander is trying to
arrange "swaps" to get people to safer areas.
13 After a pause, and initiated by Argentina, there followed
a long discussion in the Council as to what the appropriate
response, if any, there might be. Argentina (supported by
Czech, Spain and Pakistan) noted that each time the Council
met it received a briefing on the atrocities in Rwanda and
that it needed to show that it was not "indifferent" to the
situation. Argentina proposed that the President make this
clear to the media.
14 The UK disagreed and said that instead there was a need
for the Council to support the efforts of the OAU and
neighbouring countries in their efforts to get the parties
together to talk about a cease-fire. It was readily agreed
that the President could call in the ambassadors concerned to
convey the Council's view (calls have been set up for
tomorrow for this purpose). The UK also noted that the
Council was in the "unenviable position" of not wanting to
make statements on the one hand which it could not follow up
on, or of hand wringing concern without action on the other.
Filling time with empty resolutions was also a "sterile"
activity Argentina added.
15 Spain then suggested that some thought be given to what
if any responses the Council could make. In FRY a tribunal
was created together with a special investigating commission,
in Liberia an ad hoc commission of enquiry had been
established to look into the Hrbel massacre. Could not
something similar be done here, at the very least to open a
file in which the evidence of the MSF could be deposited so
that over the longer term action is taken to have the
perpetrators of this genocide held responsible?
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16 At this point, the US (Albright) made what she described
as a "very difficult proposal", she noted that in any similar
situation, the Council would ask the President to call in the
Ambassador of the state concerned to ask, on behalf of the
Council, for an explanation. In this connection she had in
mind asking why did the "interim government" not show in
Arusha. After a long pause, Rwanda volunteered the
information that a "Minister for the Interior" of the
"interim government" had travelled to Arusha from Dar es
Salaam to the talks on instructions from the “interim
government" and that it was the RPF who refused to enter
negotiations with this Minister.
17 In summing up this very difficult and depressing
discussion, President noted that it would be very important
for the Sec Gen to continue his efforts and that he would
call in the ambassadors of the neighbouring countries as
requested to convey support for regional efforts, and that it
would be important for delegations to reflect on the
discussion, recognising there might be a range of options
(identified by Spain), while not overestimating the Council's
ability to do something about the situation. He agreed to
make a statement to the media which would convey this
together with the discussion of the MSF information.
End Message
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