Rwanda's
Mushikiwabo
Calls
UN Mission a
Failure, HRW a
Fraud
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 25 --
Rwandan
Foreign
Minister
Louise
Mushikiwabo
told
the Press on
Monday that
she and Major
Patrick
Karuretwa,
Security
Adviser to
President
Paul Kagame
are in New
York and
Washington "on
UN business."
When Inner
City Press
asked Minister
Mushikiwabo
for
her view on
the
MONUSCO
mission and
its chief
Roger Meece,
her answer
made it clear
that radical
change at
MONUSCO, the
Department of
Peaekeeping
Operations and
even the
Security
Council which
sent the
mission 13
years ago are
on Rwanda's
agenda.
Minister Mushikiwabo
said
that MONUSCO,
spending $1.3
billion a
year, has
failed to
protect
civilians and
may have
"become
local."
Inner
City Press
asked Minister
Mushikiwabo to
respond to
charges that
the
M23 mutineers
in the Congo
are assisted
by Rwandan
Defense
Minister
James
Kaberebe,
chief of
defense staff
Charles
Kayonga, and
General
Jacques Nziza,
a military
adviser to
Kagame.
Minister
Mushikiwabo
said that she
is a reader of
Inner City
Press, and
likes
independent
investigation.
She told Inner
City Press,
"I've seen
some of your
writings on
this conflict,
I used to be
minister in
charge of
media, I
always like to
see reporters
doing their
own
investigations
instead of
repeating
reports." Video
here, from
Minute 12:54.
She
denied
categorically
that these
officials have
assisted the
mutiny, saying
that in fact
they had
urged the
mutineers not
to break away,
but rather to
press the
government in
Kinshasa to
live up to its
commitments of
March 23,
2009.
Inner
City Press
asked Minister
Mushikiwabo
what changes
Rwanda would
like
to see to the
mandate of the
MONUSCO
mission.
She said it
should be
rethought
after 13
years, then
gave the floor
to Major
Patrick
Karuretwa, who
proceeded to
say that Human
Rights Watch
is a
problem.
Minister
Mushikiwabo
said that
Human Rights
Watch has "no
credibility,"
that they
think "because
it's Africa,
anything
goes... a few
exotic names
and acronyms
[then]
fundraising
dinners."
She
blamed the
media which,
essentially,
ask Human
Rights Watch
about HRW's
own flawed
reports and
then use the
quotes.
At
the UN we can
say: the HRW
representative
is a former
journalist
from
Le Monde who
is routinely
quoted by
those he used
to know as
fellow
correspondents.
Yet when he
and HRW
boss Ken Roth
were
confronted
with a rare
case of a
journalists in
Headquarters
facing death
threats from
extremists
triggered from
within the UN
itself,
HRW has
done nothing.
Inner
City Press
asked Minister
Mushikiwabo
about the
status of
Rwanda's
run for a
Security
Council seat
next year,
with the
election in
October 2012.
She said the
campaign is on
track in East
Africa and
the African
Union, and
that outreach
has been made
to Beijing and
Moscow,
Washington,
London and
Paris and
other
countries too.
She
said Rwanda is
a major
peacekeeping
contributor,
with 4000
soldiers
in Darfur and
others in
South Sudan,
Liberia and
Haiti. Twenty
years
after the
genocide, she
said, Rwanda
should be on
the Security
Council.
Afterward
Inner
City Press
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
for his or
DPKO chief
Ladsous'
response.
First
Nesirky
referred the
question to
the Security
Council.
When it was
made clear
Rwanda is
questioning
MONUSCO's
implementation
of the
mandate given
to it by the
Council,
particularly
on protection
of
civilians,
Nesirky said
maybe there
will be an
answer later.
He cut
off the
briefing
without
allowing a
question for
which Inner
City
Press long had
hand raised. Video
here.
Then
Inner City
Press asked US
Ambassador
Susan Rice,
back at the
Security
Council, about
Minister
Mushikiwabo's
critique of
MONUSCO. She
said,
"It's not on
their
territory."
But it seems
clear that
Rwanda will be
joining the
Security
Council that
sets such
missions'
mandates, and
considers
Group of
Experts'
sanctions
reports and
annexes or
addenda. So
what will
happen with
the current
annex in
limbo? Watch
this site.
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