ANDRE BUMAYA, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation
of Rwanda, hoped that peace could come to the Middle East, thereby
guaranteeing the establishment of a Palestinian State coexisting peacefully with the State of Israel.
Despite hotbeds of violence, he had reason to be optimistic at initiatives designed to resolve ongoing conflicts, such as the recent
talks between the two Koreas.
Rwanda had been living under constant threat of terrorist attacks
from elements in the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known
as ALIR (Armee de Liberation du Rwanda), he said.
ALIR was made up of ex-FAR (former Rwandan Armed Forces) and Interahamwe forces.
Since 1994, such elements had attacked Rwanda on many occasions, destroyed socio-economic infrastructure and savagely attacked foreign tourists in Rwanda.
Today, to escape justice, the members of that group had attempted to organize themselves under the guise of various political groups.
He asked the United Nations and all Member States to formally condemn those countries that financed, harboured and supported ALIR.
Regarding the prosecution of those associated with the Rwandan
genocide, he said it was important to render the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda effective for it to meet its mandate.
Special attention must be given to the information submitted to the Security Council by his Government in that connection.
Also, support should be given to the Lusaka and Pretoria Accords,
designed to promote the peace process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he said.
His Government had decided, on 17 September, to withdraw its troops from
the Democratic Republic of the Congo in accordance with the provisions of
the Pretoria Accords.
In addition, Rwanda had just submitted its first report to the Counter- Terrorism Committee.
He called on the United Nations and the entire United Nations system
to implement all the international commitments to help poor countries,
especially those in the Millennium Declaration, the Monterrey Consensus and those from the Johannesburg Summit.
Copyright 2002 M2 Communications Ltd. M2 PRESSWIRE
September 20, 2002
