General Debate

54th Session of the United Nations

General Assembly

New York, October 2, 1999

AUGUSTIN IYAMUREMYE, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation of Rwanda, said that the atrocities of genocide were of particular concern to his country, which had lost nearly 1 million lives to this horrible practice in 1994. "This genocide was carried out in full view of the international community, which was unable to stop it." He urged the international community to cooperate to ensure that such a tragedy would never happen again. "And we have the right to expect it." He gave thanks to the OAU and the United Nations for conducting investigations to root out the parties responsible for this genocide and bring them to justice. He also reiterated the suggestion of United States President Clinton, who had proposed an International Coalition against Genocide.

He said that in the wake of the genocide, almost all the population of Rwanda had been displaced. Most of the displaced people had been widows, and the many children who had taken part in the genocide needed special assistance for their retraining and reintegration into society.

The Government had decided to rebuild its destroyed judicial system; its priority would be to punish those responsible for the genocide, he said. While he welcomed the efforts of the International Criminal Court, it moved slowly and lacked transparency. One of the problems with prosecuting genocide was that most of the responsible parties scattered quickly. In this case, some of the perpetrators had been stopped by other countries. He urged the international community to fulfil their humane obligations and assist Rwanda in this process.

The Lusaka Accords signed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo demonstrated the willingness by both parties to participate in and respect for the peace process. Yet, the Democratic Republic of Congo had violently attacked Rwanda on several occasions. This was not in the spirit of the Lusaka Accords. Rwanda supported the outcome of the African initiative and urged the entire African community to give its full support. He hoped that a United Nations peacekeeping force would begin work as soon as possible.