February 3, 1998

Dear MEP:

Soon the European Parliament and Human Rights Watch may celebrate a victory: as requested by the European Parliament in its December 18, 1997 resolution on Burundi, and by Human Rights Watch in two years of vigorous advocacy and, most recently, in its report Stoking the Fires: Military Assistance and Arms Trafficking in Burundi, UNICOI, the United Nation Commission of Inquiry (Rwanda) may soon be re-activated.

The U.N. Security Council is currently planning a discussion to that effect. As you know UNICOI's mandate was to investigate arms flows to forces of the former Rwandan government and allied militias responsible for the 1994 genocide.

Our victory, however, will only be PARTIAL if the Security Council does not extend UNICOI's mandate to include Burundi, as called for by the European Parliament and Human Rights Watch.

As weapons continue to flow into the Great Lakes Region, excluding Burundi from UNICOI's mandate would be a perilous omission.

Please write to your government and to your country's representatives at the U.N. TODAY and ask them to respect the wishes of the European Parliament by extending the mandate of UNICOI to include Burundi (a sample letter is included in the attachments).

Working together we can make this happen!

Thank you very much,

/s/

Loretta Bondi'

Advocacy Coordinator

Human Rights Watch

Arms Division