Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Rwanda: Arming the perpetrators of the genocide

The Vehmgericht observe: It is important to bear in mind that these genocidal war criminals were the see that spawned the genocide in Congo(Zaire). We see elsewhere the hand of Israeli Zionism funding the Congolese military. "Kabila was the commander of thousands of troops, and Gertler was trading $2 billion of diamonds annually, he said. One day, Kabila suggested that Gertler meet the president. Laurent needed money to fight his war and offered Gertler a monopoly on Congo’s diamond sales, he said. Kabila asked for $20 million in cash. Gertler agreed."

Document - Rwanda: Arming the perpetrators of the genocide

Amnesty International June 1995 - AI Index: AFR 02/14/95

RWANDA

Arming the perpetrators of the genocide



The events which occurred in Rwanda between April and July 1994 were crimes against humanity. The arms that were supplied to the government at the time were used to carry out acts of genocide, deliberate and arbitrary killings and other grave human rights violations. There is now mounting evidence that similar types of arms continue to reach the perpetrators of these crimes who are now outside Rwanda in other countries.


Amnesty International is extremely concerned by persistent reports of large supplies of weapons and ammunition reaching the perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Rwanda, namely the Forces armées rwandaises (FAR - the former Rwandese Armed Forces) and the Interahamwe militia,1who continue to commit human rights abuses. The supplies arrive via Goma airport in eastern Zaire. In May 1995, these reports were continuing. Some of the weapons and ammunition have been used by these forces for cross-border incursions from Zaire into Rwanda where political killings have taken place and have also been used to intimidate Rwandese refugees to prevent them from returning. Amnesty International is concerned that such abuses could escalate.


This report describes the recent secret transfer of weapons and ammunition from several countries, including Albania and Bulgaria to the exiled Rwandese armed forces in eastern Zaire by traders in the United Kingdom using aircraft registered in Ghana, Nigeria, Ukraine and Russia.2In Zaire and other countries, commanders of these exiled forces who were responsible for crimes against humanity and acts of genocide last year have purchased or negotiated transit facilities for these military supplies. They have been able to evade the February 1995 United Nations (UN) Security Council call for suspected perpetrators of genocide to be arrested and tried in cooperation with the International Tribunal on Rwanda. The exiled army and militia have been given bases to regroup and receive military training. This training involves not only Hutu exiles from Rwanda but Hutu exiles from Burundi as well. The exiled Rwandese armed forces have used imported weapons and ammunition to commit further human rights abuses, particularly political killings.


Amnesty International takes no position in principle on whether or in what circumstances it would be legitimate to resort to violence as a means to political ends. In the context of the situation of the Rwandese armed groups now in Zaire, Amnesty International is opposed to military transfers to forces which continue to be under the command of those who were responsible for the genocide in Rwanda. Amnesty International believes that these transfers are likely to result in further human rights abuses.


Furthermore, Amnesty International does not take a position in principle on punitive measures such as sanctions, embargoes or boycotts. However, the organization does oppose military, security or police transfers to governments and armed opposition groups which can reasonably be assumed to contribute to human rights abuses such as deliberate and arbitrary killings, "disappearances", torture or ill-treatment. Such transfers may include equipment, personnel, or training, as well as proven financial or logistical support for such transfers. Governments should prohibit such transfers from taking place unless it can be reasonably demonstrated that such transfers will not contribute to such human rights abuses.


Although the majority of the mass murders which began in Rwanda on 6 April 1994 were carried out using local farming implements such as machetes and hoes, the killings were largely initiated or supervised by members of the security forces who had more sophisticated light weaponry. In most cases when the killers met resistance, they first used grenades and then firearms, including automatic rifles. After the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) took power on 19 July 1994, most of the former FAR and the mainly Hutu militia fled into Zaire taking with them weapons made in Belgium, China, France, South Korea and South Africa. At first the Zairian army in the Goma area confiscated many of these weapons, but later the Rwandese forces who fled to eastern Zaire were allowed to retain most of their weapons. Since then, some of the weapons confiscated by the Zairian army are reported to have been sold back to the exiled FAR commanders.


Since December 1994 many of the 25,000 to 30,000 soldiers of the former FAR and the Interahamwe militia who were responsible for crimes against humanity in 1994 have been regrouping in Zaire where they are re-arming and undergoing military training under the leadership of their former senior commanders. They are commanded by, amongst others, the former head of the FAR and the Presidential Guard who was in charge during the mass killings in 1994 and the colonel responsible for arming the Interahamwe since their creation in 1992.


The information in this report comes from various sources including first hand accounts as well as unpublished and published information which has been made available to and confirmed by Amnesty International. The aim of this report is to urge governments, particularly those named in this report, to investigate the transfer emanating from, or in transit through, their countries to Central Africa of weapons and ammunition which are being used to carry out human rights abuses and which could easily fuel further acts of mass killing.



Arms supplies via Goma airport


Despite denials by Zairian government officials, there are numerous reports that the commanders of the exiled Rwandese armed forces have been involved in the procurement of large supplies of weapons and ammunition from abroad via Goma airport. The Zairian authorities and the international community have failed to take effective action against this supply of arms, despite a UN arms embargo which remains in force.


Allegations that between ten and twelve plane-loads of arms were delivered from Bulgaria to Goma in Russian Ilyushin cargo aircraft "over the past three months" were first made on 10 April 1995 by Robin Cook, the United Kingdom (UK) Shadow Minister on Foreign Affairs, who visited Goma on 24 March 1995. He claimed that a "UN source" had confirmed this and he called for the arms deliveries to be stopped in accordance with the UN arms embargo on Rwanda which was established on 17 May 1994.3


Following this allegation, the Zairian Minister of Defence, Admiral Mavua Mudina, and several top military leaders visited Goma as a "commission of inquiry". On 15 April 1995, Admiral Mudina released a statement denying reports of arms supplies to Goma and also denying that groups of Hutu militia from Rwanda and Burundi were training on Zairian soil.


However, Amnesty International has confirmed that night flights into Goma by large cargo aircraft continued into mid-May 1995, usually on Tuesdays at around 11.00pm despite the fact that the airport does not officially have night landing facilities and that normal cargo flights occur only during the day. These secret night landings are alleged to be large cargo planes carrying arms and ammunition deliveries. Goma airport is the only airport in eastern Zaire capable of receiving large cargo aircraft and is strictly guarded by the Zairian security police, the Service national d'intelligence et de protection (SNIP), National Intelligence and Protection Service.


Witnesses at Goma airport saw three cargo planes with English-speaking pilot crews who had flown in weapons on 4 April 1995, reportedly via Gabon. Zairian soldiers at the airport claimed that the large quantity of weapons were delivered for use by the 1,500 troops of the Contingent zaïrois pour la sécurité dans les camps (CZSC), the Zairian Contingent for Security in the Camps, who are responsible for policing the refugee camps run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). However, this claim is disputed by witnesses who state that the CZSC were given their personal weapons from the local Zairian garrison stocks and did not need three large cargo plane-loads of weapons. The CZSC is monitored by 27 international staff of the Civilian Security Liaison Group. Apparently, the latter's mandate does not cover the airport. Another sighting was reportedly made in Goma during April 1995 of a Liberian-registered cargo aircraft.


A UK television program due to be broadcast on 13 June 1995 describes a series of arms flights to Goma for the exiled Hutu armed forces4. During 1994, these flights were made by Boeing 707 aircraft registered in Ghana and Nigeria but between November 1994 and May 1995 the aircraft used were a Ukranian-registered Antonov 124 as well as Ilyushin 76 cargo aircraft registered in both the Ukraine and Russia. They have delivered arms from Plovdiv and Burgas in Bulgaria to Goma for the exiled Hutu armed forces, usually landing on Tuesday nights around 11.00pm. Fuel stops have been made in Cairo, Egypt, and in one instance in Jedda, Saudi Arabia. One such delivery was reportedly received in the presence of the former Prime Minister of Rwanda, Jean Kambanda, and a former leader of the Interahamwe, Jean-Baptiste Gatete, who are now in exile.


Arms caches are said to have been established along the Zaire/Rwanda border between 5 and 7 km inside Zaire. One such cache in the Parc National des Volcans near the border with north west Rwanda was seen to contain, among other things, French M60 medium machine guns, AK47 assault rifles, fragmentation grenades in boxes with US markings and South African 7.62 ammunition. The US grenades are said to have been obtained by exchanging or buying weapons from the Angolan armed opposition group, the Uniâo Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA), the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, which has operated from Zaire and which is also subject to a UN arms embargo.


Reports of secret arms flights to the exiled former FAR and Interahamwe via Goma airport date back to July 1994. In November 1994, four pilots employed by a UK company admitted publicly to having flown four large charter plane-loads of small arms, mainly hand grenades, rifles and ammunition of Chinese and Russian origin, from Israel and Albania to Goma during April 19945. The supplies are said to have included Israeli-made weaponry such as Uzi sub-machine guns, as well as weapons such as grenades captured by the Israeli army from the Egyptian army in 1973 and Chinese ammunition obtained through Tirana. One pilot told Amnesty International that he was "tricked" into flying 36.5 tonnes of arms and ammunition into Goma airport at night, thinking it was a delivery to the Zairian government, but said it was in fact for the exiled Rwandese army. A UK company organised the flights, one from Tel Aviv and other flights from Tirana, the Albanian capital, where Israeli and Albanian officials are alleged to have supplied the arms and ammunition. A Nigerian-registered-and-owned aircraft was reported to have been used, as well as a Ghanaian-registered Boeing 707 based in the United Kingdom.


Since the imposition of the UN arms embargo in May 1994, governments of the major arms suppliers to the previous government of Rwanda, notably the governments of France and South Africa, have stated that they no longer authorize arms sales to Rwanda..The French authorities were reported in February 1995 to be investigating a French-registered company which allegedly sold Kalashnikov rifles illegally to Rwanda using a Kenya-based cargo company. However, allegations of French and South African military collaboration with the exiled Hutu armed forces have continued.6


Amnesty International has received reports that local Zairian soldiers have sold arms to the former FAR commanders which they had confiscated in July 1994 from retreating FAR soldiers. In April 1995, Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, the former Rwandese Ministry of Defence official widely alleged to have organized the supply of weapons and coordinated activities of the Interahamwe leading up to and during the genocide, was reported to be second-in-command of the exiled forces and based in the Chimanga camp near the Zaire border with south west Rwanda. In March 1995, Colonel Bagosora and a Zairian commander at Katindo were questioned by the Zairian gendarmerie about arms trafficking. The Zairian commander was accused of selling arms confiscated from the FAR last July. A local businessman said that the deals were becoming increasingly open and that sales had included 1,500 grenades and at least 30 rifles. Another witness claims that at least six multiple-barrel light artillery batteries were confiscated from the FAR last July by the Zairian garrison in Goma, but there were only two remaining by May 1995, the rest having been sold back to the former FAR.



Political killings and death threats against refugees


Since February 1995, former Interahamwe militiamen and FAR soldiers have been using their accumulated stocks of weapons and ammunition to mount cross-border raids which have included deliberate and arbitrary killings of civilians. They have also used their military strength to create a climate of intimidation including death threats in many of the refugee camps to persuade Rwandese refugees not to return to their homes in Rwanda and to force young men to join the militia and the regrouped FAR.


During April 1995, up to 30 armed groups of Hutu were situated along eastern Zaire's border with Rwanda. Militia crossed the border into Rwanda at night on an almost daily basis, as has been observed at the Kamanyola and Kibumba camps. Cross-border raids have also increased in the south west of Rwanda and the north west of Burundi. One aim of these incursions has been to target political opponents, although the raids are also linked to cattle rustling and attacks on infrastructure and military targets. The Head of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights office in Rwanda stated publicly on 14 April 1995 that:


"Dozens of people have been killed in these attacks from across the border since the end of January...It was reported yesterday that there was another incursion that resulted in casualties...The motivations for the attacks vary...[and include] killing as a punishment of people who have returned to Rwanda without permission of the refugee camp authorities...[and] killing of people who appear to be cooperating with the Rwandese government, for example, those who have handed over their weapons or have given information about who took part in the genocide..."


Dr Anatole Bucyendore, a Hutu regional medical officer and head of the AIDS prevention program in Rwanda, was shot dead and his two-year-old child was repeatedly stabbed to death in Gisenyi, Rwanda on 25 February 1995. His wife and other child were severely wounded in the attack. Dr Bucyendore had fled to Goma from Rwanda in 1994. While in Goma he was threatened on various occasions that if he returned to Rwanda he and his family would be killed by the Interahamwe. Nevertheless, Dr Bucyendore decided to return to Gisenyi to work at the hospital there. Before his assassination, he had again received death threats, reportedly also from unnamed persons in Goma.


The UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) reported on 6 March 1995 that four insurgents captured in Kigali believed to be members of the Interahamwe and former army had sackloads of landmines and grenades which the insurgents said were to be used to attack civilian targets in Kigali, including the central market place, as part of a concerted destabilisation campaign. They said they came from Mugunga camp near Goma. Agents of the former government used landmines and other explosives extensively to terrorise the civilian population during 1993 and early 1994, particularly in Kigali. On 1 April 1995 the mayor (Bourgmestere) of Gishoma was assassinated by insurgents surrounding his house with a landmine trap using an Italian-designed TS-50 anti-personnel mine (which are manufactured in Italy as well as Egypt and Singapore). UNAMIR soldiers said that the trap could only have been placed by persons with specialist knowledge.


Deliberate and arbitrary killings of civilians during cross border raids have been coupled with increased intimidation in the refugee camps in eastern Zaire. On 31 March 1995, a refugee who returned to Rwanda from Kibumba camp in eastern Zaire told UNHCR officials in Gisenyi that Interahamwe militia were issuing death threats as part of a pattern of intimidation to young men who were reluctant to join the militia or who wanted to return to Rwanda. The CZSC contingent of Zairian troops is said to enjoy some cooperation from camp leaders but is frustrated in its attempts to obtain the cooperation of refugees when investigating such incidents.


There are various reasons given by UNHCR officials for why few Rwandese refugees have been willing to return to their homes in Rwanda. One of them is intimidation by militia and supporters of the former government. Another is the persistent rumours of reprisal attacks by the RPA. Furthermore, there are genuine reports of arbitrary detentions and killings by the RPA in Rwanda. According to an international commission of inquiry, both RPA soldiers and armed Hutu militia were responsible on 22 April 1995 for the deliberate and arbitrary killing of internally displaced persons at the Kibeho camp in south west Rwanda.


It is not only Rwandese exiles who have received arms and military training in eastern Zaire. Hutu refugees from Burundi are reported to have undergone military training with their exiled Rwandese counterparts in camps near Uvira in eastern Zaire where about 50,000 Hutu refugees fled from Burundi. They have also received weapons which match the supplies reported to have arrived at Goma - Chinese AKM assault rifles and landmines, Russian RPG rockets - as well as weapons previously supplied to Burundi or Rwanda - German G3 rifles and Belgian FAL guns. Russian rockets said to have been captured from insurgents from eastern Zaire had Arabic characters written on them and were called "a present from Cairo" by a Burundi military officer.



Danger of the present situation


The proliferation of arms in the region, and particularly the supplies to those who organized mass killings in Rwanda during 1994, is recognized by governments and inter-governmental organizations, as well as non-governmental organizations working in the region, as contributing significantly to human rights abuses and a general destabilisation of the region. The UN Security Council, the Organization of African Unity and the European Parliament have all expressed grave concern about continued arms flows to the region and proposed ways of halting the flow.


In addition to the 17 May 1994 UN arms embargo on Rwanda, on 29 March 1995 the UN Security Council called on all states "in particular neighbouring states, to refrain from supplying or allowing the transit of arms and to deny sanctuary and any other assistance to those extremist elements which seek to destabilise the situation in Burundi." An arms embargo was also placed on Zaire by the European Union in 1993. In a report on 20 April 1995, the Organization of African Unity urged all countries to stem the illegal flow of arms to the region. On 18 May 1995 the governments of Zaire and Burundi expressed their joint concern about "the deterioration in security on their common border stemming from the proliferation of weapons in the sub-region." Amnesty International takes no position on arms embargoes as such; it is concerned that some governments have continued to allow arms to reach known human rights violators who are likely to use them to commit further abuses.


In February 1994, before the start of the genocide in Rwanda, Amnesty International had already expressed concern that arms had been transferred from the former Rwandese government authorities and the FAR to Hutu militia who deliberately killed over 2,000 unarmed civilians, most of them Tutsi. By May 1994, Amnesty International reported that the FAR was helping to coordinate the killings, and that commanders of the FAR had supplied military weapons to both the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi militia for this purpose, while the government and military authorities were involved at the highest level in orchestrating and directing the murder campaign. The Presidential Guard was reported to have been in charge of military training of the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi.


Now, one year after the mass killings which claimed over half a million lives in Rwanda, the supply of arms and ammunition through Goma in eastern Zaire to those who have been responsible for crimes against humanity requires urgent action by the international community.



Bringing the perpetrators to justice


Leaders of the former FAR, the Presidential Guard and the Interahamwe militia include many of those who planned and organized the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. If arms supplies continue to reach the forces under their command, there is a danger that they may continue to commit large scale human rights abuses. Many of those now in exile in Zaire and other countries are not only allowed by governments to evade justice, but are also reported to be helping the re-arming and re-training of the same forces in exile7. One way of ensuring that this does not continue is for the perpetrators of the genocide to be brought to justice.


Amnesty International has repeatedly called on governments to provide legal, financial and human resources to help the International Tribunal for Rwanda, set up by the UN Security Council on 8 November 1994 to try people responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of humanitarian law committed in Rwanda between 1 January and 31 December 1994. According to UN Security Council Resolution 978 of 27 February 1995, all states should arrest and bring to justice in accordance with international standards "persons found within their territory against whom there is sufficient evidence that they were responsible" for crimes against humanity in Rwanda and, in doing so, states should cooperate with the International Tribunal.


Despite this international obligation, many of the former Rwandese government leaders live in Zaire and Kenya and move freely to the refugee and military camps and to other African countries such as Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon, as well as to countries in Europe. One report claimed that "While Zaire and Tanzania are the centres of military activity, ... many on the UN's list of 400 people accused of genocide are able to meet, raise funds and travel between Kenya and the camps [in Zaire and Tanzania] without hindrance."8These officials are reported to include some of the Hutu extremist leaders whose group is known as Akazu and who are said to finance the exiled militia, as well as founders of Radio-television des Mille Collines, a radio station which regularly broadcast messages to incite Hutu militia to commit acts of genocide. A former Rwandese diplomat who is suspected of playing a key role in securing South African arms for the FAR and Interahamwe militia, is reported to reside in South Africa.


While some of the top exiled commanders of the FAR have returned to Rwanda, most are reported to have left their hotel accommodation and gone to live at military bases in Zaire. Many are said to reside at the Lac Vert "chiefs of staff" camp south west of Mugungu in eastern Zaire under the leadership of Major General Augustin Bizimungu, head of the former FAR and the Presidential Guard during the 1994 genocide. These commanders have been free to travel and to obtain and distribute military supplies at bases without interference from host governments. They have organized military training of the former members of the FAR at military bases near Mugunga south of Goma and Panzi near Bukavu where the bulk of the defeated army was housed until late November and December 1994, as well as a base near Chimanga, another base between the volcanic hills near the Parc National des Volcans on the border with north-west Rwanda, and in camps on the Island of Idjwi in Lake Kivu. The border areas with Rwanda near these camps are sites of cross-border insurgency during which human rights abuses have been carried out. According to ex-FAR soldiers who have deserted, in late 1994 several hundred ex-FAR troops and commanders were also moved to another secret camp in the Central African Republic for special training.9


Commanders have also been allowed to organize the supply of weapons to members of the former Interahamwe, many of whom reside in the refugee camps in eastern Zaire. These refugee camps run from Katale, Kahinda and Kibumba in the north Kivu region to Kamanyola, Kanganiro, Luvungi, Lubarika and Luberizi near Uvira in the south Kivu region closer to the border with Burundi. Hutu militia living in these camps are reported to have declined in number as they are recruited into the ex-FAR, but those who remain try to create a climate of fear in the refugee camps. Up to one third of the Hutu refugees in camps near Bukavu and Uvira are originally from Burundi and fled to Rwanda after the massacres in Burundi during November 1993.


On 31 May 1995, an international warrant for the arrest of a former leader of the Interahamwe, Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, was issued from Belgium. Colonel Bagosora was reported in November 1994 to have said that he wished to "wage a war that will be long and full of dead people until the minority Tutsi are finished".10In March 1995 he said that a destabilisation insurgency campaign and a small scale incursion into Rwanda was being planned for mid-July (19 July 1995 will be the first anniversary of the RPF victory) after which recognition of the need for negotiations around the August 1993 Arusha Peace Accords between the former and present government of Rwanda will be advanced by a "major European power".


Many of the former FAR commanders recognize that the Rwandese government will not countenance their free return to Rwanda and so have curtailed public threats of human rights violations and expressed support for international negotiations which they hope would include a blanket amnesty for previous crimes against humanity. Major General Bizimungu nevertheless stated publicly in March 1995 that "The [former] Rwandese army has not lost the war" and one of his senior commanders stated on 4 March that the ex-FAR would "kill all Tutsi who prevent us from returning". Militia commanders in eastern Zaire from Rwanda and Burundi stated that "our struggle is one and the same".11On 4 April 1995, Major General Bizimungu, and 13 other senior ex-FAR commanders released a signed Declaration of Support for the Rassemblement pour le retour et la démocratie au Rwanda (RDR), Rally for Return and Democracy in Rwanda. The RDR claims to be a new political entity excluding the old "government in exile". It is seeking a negotiated return of all exiled Rwandese and is said to favour a blanket amnesty for all crimes committed in the ethnic conflict.



Recommendations


Amnesty International takes no position on punitive measures such as sanctions, embargoes or boycotts, but is opposed as a matter of principle to military, security or police transfers to governments and armed opposition groups that can reasonably be assumed to contribute to human rights abuses such as deliberate and arbitrary killings, "disappearances", torture or ill-treatment. Such transfers may include equipment, personnel, or training, as well as proven financial or logistical support for such transfers. Governments should prohibit such transfers from taking place unless it can be reasonably demonstrated that such transfers will not contribute to such human rights abuses.


Amnesty International does not take a position in principle on whether or in what circumstances it would be legitimate to resort to violence as a means to political ends. In the context of the situation of the exiled Rwandese now in Zaire, Amnesty International is opposed to military transfers to forces which continue to be under the command of those who were responsible for the genocide in Rwanda. Amnesty International believes that such transfers are likely to result in further human rights abuses.



1. Amnesty International calls on all states named in this report to:


a.carry out thorough investigations into reports that the former armed forces and militia of Rwanda now in Zaire, many of whom led or participated in crimes against humanity during 1994, have obtained - and may still be obtaining - weapons or ammunition emanating from or in transit through their countries;


b. act immediately to prevent the transfer of any weapons, ammunition or military training to the former armed forces and militia of Rwanda which are likely to contribute to further human rights abuses such as deliberate and arbitrary killings.



2. Amnesty International calls on the government of Zaire to:


a. allow the independent international monitoring of all cargo landing in Goma or any other airport in Zaire which may contain weapons or ammunition that are likely to be used by the former FAR or the Rwandese militia to carry out human rights abuses.



3. Amnesty International calls on all individual governments and inter-governmental organizations, including the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity, to take immediate practical steps to:


a. ensure that suspected perpetrators of crimes against humanity are brought to justice in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 978 of 27 February 1995; adopt legislation to enable authorities to cooperate with the International Tribunal on Rwanda; provide resources, as well as any relevant information on human rights violations, to the International Tribunal, and practical support to help rebuild the judiciary in Rwanda to ensure fair trials which exclude the death penalty;


b. ensure that any military transfers to the armed forces of Rwanda and Burundi are not used to commit human rights violations such as deliberate and arbitrary killings and are not distributed to militia likely to commit such violations;


c.provide better support for adequate civil policing in both Rwanda and Burundi which conforms to international standards, including standards of impartiality to help protect the human rights of all sectors of the population, whether Hutu or Tutsi.



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1In 1992, the ruling party of the former president of Rwanda, the Mouvement républicain national pour la démocratie et le développement (MRND), National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development, created a private Hutu militia known as the Interahamwe ("Those who attack together") which initiated a pattern of deliberate and arbitrary killings of Tutsi civilians and moderate Hutu spokepersons. Another allied private militia known as the Impazumagambi ("Those who have the same goal") was created by the MRND's coalition partner, the Coalition pour la défense de la république (CDR), Coalition for the Defence of the Republic. These militia and their commanders, backed by their counterparts in the FAR and Presidential Guard, planned and perpetrated the mass killings in Rwanda which began on 6 April 1994 in which over half a million people were killed in the space of three months.

2This report does not address the many critical human rights issues facing Rwanda at present which are detailed in other reports by Amnesty International in 1994 and 1995.

3UN Security Council Resolution 918 of 17 May 1994 established a Committee to gather information to help enforce the arms embargo. UN officials have said that in effect the embargo applies to all Rwandese nationals.

4The Cook Report, Carlton Television, United Kingdom.

5The Big Story, Twenty-Twenty Television, United Kingdom, 17 November 1994

6 Human Rights Watch Arms Project, "Rwanda/Zaire: rearming with Impunity", Washington, May 1995.

7For example, in April 1995, a meeting was filmed by a CNN television team in a Nairobi motel between an alleged arms trafficker from overseas and persons claiming to be the exiled Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda, the exiled Minister of Finance of Rwanda, and a Lieutenant Colonel of the ex-FAR. The Rwandese threatened the camera crew and refused to answer questions about the meeting.

8The Guardian (UK), 19 April 1995

9Interviewed for the Cook Report, op cit

10Human Rights Watch, op cit

11BBC Newsnight, 15 March 1995

Amnesty International June 1995AI Index: AFR 02/14/95

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