- Madam President, first I should like to convey my very sincere thanks to Lord Plumb and his delegation colleagues for their very enlightening report on their recent visit to Rwanda. I commend them for their courage and determination in meeting this challenge and giving us here a very vivid picture of the situation as they found it. I was particularly pleased that the delegation went. I supported it at the time and I think all Members owe them a deep debt of gratitude for their findings.

It brings home to us the situation which has now to be dealt with. All of us who are aware of this Rwandan tragedy are looking for a way forward. The elements which will make up a lasting solution are quite easy to define. They are simply justice and reconciliation, guarantees for human rights, rehabilitation of the country's infrastructure and social services and development. Of course, these elements are easy to define but how to achieve them is the challenge.

The essential ingredient will be the political will to do so and if political leaders will take the required political decisions then the circumstances will be created which will enable Rwanda to be saved. People recently leaving Rwanda believe this game - if one can use a footballing term - is only half over. The war is finished. The two sides have settled in their respective resting places, the former government in Goma and Bukavu and the RPF in Kigali. It is in no way certain that there is not to be a second half to be played, the results of which could be far more devastating than what we have seen so far. We can only hope that 1995 will not see worse in Rwanda than what we have seen in 1994.

Overall, the situation still remains precarious. The 2 million people crowded into the camps in Zaire are now suffering the strains of their impossible living conditions. The people are agitated. They have suffered extraordinary hardships and death and the tensions are rising. The aid agencies who, from the beginning, have found it so difficult to cope with the scale of this problem are now finding another impossible scenario developing. Already many have pulled back their workers from the camps. Some have withdrawn most of their people from the camp at Bukavu and it is clear that the former government is continuing to organize itself in the camps and there is an increasing presence of armed militia. The shortages of food and other supplies are turning the refugees against the aid organizations. In Bukavu NGOs have been accused of poisoning the food supply so as to make the people feel they must return to Rwanda.

A report recently submitted to the Development Committee by the Director of Trocaire an Irish aid agency which is very actively involved in Rwanda, drew attention to the fact that there is a tremendous frustration amongst those working in Rwanda, both within the multilnational and the non-governmental agencies, at the lack of urgency in dealing with the problem. This lack of urgency must be highlighted because the problems must be tackled as and from now. There is a need now for political courage and the time for caution has passed. Inaction will lead to the permanizing of the refugee camps, the continued intimidation of the refugees by the former government and their militia and, ultimately, to a renewal of civil war and further disaster. One way or another the western countries will have to pay for the reconstruction of Rwanda through another massive aid effort in the future.

The following steps must be taken immediately to prevent another exodus: the militia must be disarmed and recognition and support of the de facto government in Kigali is necessary. We must provide every support to ensure the planting of a new crop to avoid famine and disaster early in 1995. Human rights must be guaranteed. We must urge the establishment of a police force and the provision of a judicial system. We must support all efforts towards reconciliation within Rwanda and ensure, as has been said by a number of previous speakers, that those responsible for the massacres are brought to justice.

I conclude by thanking the Commission Vice-President, Mr Marin, for the statement he has made today and hope that the proposals which he has listed for us on behalf of the Commission will be implemented as quickly and as speedily as possible.