A draft United Nations report accusing Rwandan troops of having killed and raped Hutu refugees in DR Congo, in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, is "flawed and dangerous" and an "insult to history", according to the Rwandan government.
The UN was Friday set to officially publish the controversial report, a copy of which AFP obtained, which details a litany of crimes by armed forces from third party countries, against civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo over the period 1993 to 2003.
The draft version of the report said that some of the crimes perpetrated by Rwandan soldiers could count as possible acts of genocide.
"Rwanda categorically states that the document is flawed and dangerous from start to finish," Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said in a statement released overnight.
"Our comments to the UN ... center around seven specific areas of objection that clearly demonstrate how the Mapping Exercise has been a moral and intellectual failure as well as an insult to history," Mushikiwabo said.
Rwanda at centre of charges
Other countries in the region are also accused in the draft report, but the most serious accusations focus on Rwanda.
Mushikiwabo accused the UN of "rewriting history" and "improperly apportioning blame for the genocide that occured in Rwanda".
The accusation of possible acts of genocide hits Kigali particularly hard as its government has drawn much of its legitimacy from being the force that ended the genocide in Rwanda.
The Rwandan government statement also renewed its accusations that the UN had done little or nothing to move "armed and ideologically charged refugees" away from the Rwandan border.
It said the document failed to make clear that "genocidal forces, often posing as civilian refugees, were operating under the cover of UN refugee camps."
Kigali said the UN draft report applied "the lowest imaginable evidentiary standard" and accused it of over-reliance on the use of anonymous sources, hearsay assertions and "unnamed, un-vetted and unidentified investigators and witnesses".
Process 'fundamentally misguded'
The statement said "claims of genocide are directly contradicted by Rwanda's extensive and coordinated efforts to repatriate, resettle and reintegrate 3.2 million Hutu refugees".
"Given these objections, it seems clear that no amount of tinkering can resuscitate the credibility of this fundamentally misguided process," Mushikiwabo said.
Kigali had initially threatened to withdraw the some 3,500 troops it contributes to peacekeeping missions in Sudan but has since backed down on its pull-out plans.
Uganda, against whom the UN also levels serious charges, on Thursday rejected the draft report and Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa demanded "it not be published".
Uganda, the mainstay of the African Union force propping up Somalia's transitional government, said the UN report jeopardises its continuing participation in such missions.
Authorities in Burundi have also demanded the removal of the country's previous army and an ex-rebel group from the report that accused them of war crimes in the vast central African nation.
Angola, Chad and Zimbabwe were are the other main players who were militarily involved in the DR Congo violence.
Report's language changed
The report's language was, however, less assertive than in an earlier leaked draft compiled by a team of investigators since 2008.
Words like "allegedly" or "apparently" have been inserted into the final version of descriptions of violations, as well as references to the involvement of the Ugandan, Rwandan and Burundi armies during the 1996-1998 first Congo war.
On the massacre of Hutu refugees said to have been carried out by Rwandan troops, an earlier draft read: "The systematic and widespread attacks ..., reveal a number of damning elements that, if proven before a competent court, could be classified as crimes of genocide."
The report also included several more paragraphs explaining the difficulties of proving genocide in court.
As a result, it said, a full judicial inquiry is necessary to "shed light on" serious crimes committed during the 1996-1997 period.
"Only such an investigation and judicial determination would be in a position to resolve whether these incidents amount to the crime of genocide," it added.
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