Gen. Rwarakabije slams UN report

KIGALI - MAJ. Gen. Paul Rwarakabije has slammed the UN for what he called a ‘malicious’ report leaked to the media, saying that it is a false document and the work of people who are determined to obstruct the country’s unity and reconciliation drive. Rwarakabije, a commissioner in the Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission (RDRC), was a senior ex-FAR/FDLR commander who returned to Rwanda in 2003. He told The New Times, in an exclusive interview, that he was well conversant with what was going on in DRC during the mid 90s and it’s totally different from what is in the report. “When the refugees and the ex-FAR soldiers fled into Congo, I was with them. I even followed closely what happened in the camps. What they say in the report is not what I saw,” Rwarakabije said. Rwarakabije was a Lieutenant Colonel in 1994. After fleeing, with the rest, he commanded several regrouped ex-FAR elements. Apart from the UN’s failure to stop the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Rwarakabije also accused it of failing in its other responsibilities. “The UN was supposed to make sure that Rwandan refugees were nowhere near the border but that never happened, and secondly, the UN was not supposed to have allowed combatants into the refugee camps,” he addedThe General went on to dismiss the UN’s claim that they could differentiate the fighters from other refugees who were in the camps. “Instead of seeking to resolve issues, the UN is creating confusion,” he said adding that the international body released the report to draw attention away from the Walikale incident; where close to 200 women were raped with UN troops just a few kilometres away. The draft UN report was leaked to the media last week and the government of Rwanda has since denounced it as a malicious and promised to pull out its troops from UN peace keeping missions if it is published. Ends

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Gen. Rwarakabije slams UN report