Emma Bonino, European Union Commissioner for humanitarian affairs, and Brian Atwood, head of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), represent two of Rwanda's biggest ai donors and arrived from neighbouring Burundi on a joint mission. The Rwandan government's relations with the West turned frosty with the expulsion of more than40 aid agencies in December and the recent introduction of taxes on imports of aid equipment. The expulsions and taxes were an international public relations disaster for the government, whose Tutsi-led army took power in July 1994 following the genocide of up to a million Tutsis and Hutu moderates by Hutu troops, militiamen and mobs. Bonino -- also EU commissioner for fisheries and consumer policy -- and Atwood were due to meet Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu, military strongman Paul Kagame and government inisters later on Tuesday. Their arrival followed a trip last week to Brussels by Prime Minister Pierre-Celestin Rwigema. Diplomats said he had very problematic and uneasy talks with European officials. "This visit could be very important in terms of relaxing purse strings to Rwanda. But the Rwandans are arrogant. To find a common language is difficult," said a Western diplomat in Kigali. EU officials said the government's ability to come up with a way out of mounting problems in Rwanda and improve its human rights record would come under close scrutiny during the visit. "The situation is very complex. We want to verify with this visit whether emergency humanitarian aid is still needed," said Filippo di Robilant, the Brussels-based spokesman of the EU. The international aid operation dealing with the results of the 1994 genocide, in particular 1.7 million Rwandan Hutu refugees, is one of the most costly in the world and rivals the operation in former Yugoslavia. Rwanda's donors are looking for ways out of what seems to be a Central Africa crisis that could continue indefinitely. USAID has started phasing out its emergency funding mechanisms f
or Rwanda, meaning reduced assistance. In Bujumbura on Monday, Atwood said USAID would give some $300,000 for human rights monitors in Burundi and $1 million for a similar operation in Rwanda but warned donors could not give development aid to Burundi unless ethnic conflict was halted. High on the agenda for Bonino and Atwood were Rwanda's overcrowded jails stuffed with 69,000 Hutu genocide suspects. "Justice is the top of our list. We offered aid, personnel. But it wasn't used. We're disappointed," said EU's di Robilant. Bonino is also trying to juggle competing pressures from EU members including France, Belgium, Germany and Britain as well as the United States, which all have different views on Rwanda.
