NAIROBI, Kenya — The United Nations on Friday officially released a much-disputed report on massacres in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has drawn the ire of several countries, especially Rwanda, whose forces were accused of possibly committing genocide.But after a special visit by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and extensive negotiations, Rwanda rescinded its threat and the final report is not fundamentally different than previous versions.
The hefty, 566-page document was issued by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, based in Geneva, which said that it interviewed more than 1,280 witnesses and analyzed more than 1,500 documents over two years. Rwanda’s foreign ministry still rejected the report as “an insult to history,” and said it could “undermine the peace and stability” of the Great Lakes region in Africa.
“The report contains flawed methodology and applies the lowest imaginable evidentiary standard that barely meets journalistic requirements,” the Rwandan government said in an official response.
Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Uganda, too, had issued a veiled threat on Thursday, saying the allegations “undermine Uganda’s resolve” to its peacekeeping operations. The several thousand Ugandan peacekeepers in Somalia are about the only thing keeping Somalia’s weak transitional government from being overrun by Islamist insurgents.
No country is depicted favorably in the Congo report. Ugandan forces are accused of torturing civilians. Rwandan troops are blamed for systematically hunting down refugees. Angolan forces are said to have raped women and looted hospitals. Zimbabwean planes carried out indiscriminate air raids, the report asserts, and Chadian troops torched homes.
Many analysts said it was precisely the use of the word “genocide” that so angered Rwanda’s leaders. Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s president, and his inner circle have built a powerful and morally righteous image by ending Rwanda’s genocide in 1994, when they say the world abandoned them, and rebuilding the country afterward.
Hutu children in Death camp
Up to a million people were killed in the genocide when Hutu death squads methodically slaughtered Tutsi civilians. As Mr. Kagame and his party rebuilt the country, they enacted strict speech and national security laws, arresting critics who have claimed that Rwandan forces also killed Hutus. Yet, according to the Congo report, Mr. Kagame’s Tutsi-dominated forces massacred thousands of Hutus in Congo.
Rwanda has faced such allegations before. In 2008, a Spanish court indicted several high-ranking Rwandan officers on charges of mass murder and crimes against humanity. That case has gained little traction, and until recently donor nations like the United States have chosen to focus instead on the strides Rwanda has made fighting poverty and re-establishing order after the genocide.
But the image of Rwanda is shifting. Human rights groups and others have increasingly criticized the Rwandan government of squashing political dissent and donors, including the United States, have begun to air their own concerns.
