by Nicholas Kotch
Reuters
May 8, 1998
Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Uganda on Friday after a two-day visit to Rwanda that became one of the most humbling of his long diplomatic career. Annan was given a public dressing down by Rwanda's foreign minister, roasted by national assembly politicians, boycotted by the country's rulers and snubbed by survivors of a 1994 genocide he has said he tried in vain to prevent. But the visit ended on a happier note with Annan and Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu insisting at a news conference that they were friends. A senior U.N. diplomat later told reporters that a private meeting between Annan and government leaders had cleared the air. ``By the end the mood had brightened and was cordial,'' the diplomat said, adding the Rwandans had explained their problem ``was with the organisation, not the man.''
Annan was due later on Friday to attend a state banquet hosted by President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala. The two were due on Saturday to discuss the refugee situation in East and Central Africa as well as other regional issues. Annan's visit to Rwanda, the fifth country on his eight-nation African tour, started badly on Thursday and continued in similar vein on Friday. The reason for the frosty reception centres around a perception by the Rwandan government, and others, that as head of the U.N. department charged with international peacekeeping in 1994 Annan did little to prevent the massacre of over 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu extremists. All but 250 members of a U.N. peacekeeping force were withdrawn after the slaughter began on April 6.
The Rwandans were further irked by the apparent reluctance of the U.N. chief to personally apologise for his alleged inaction, saying a speech by Annan to the national assembly on Thursday had been ``arrogant.'' Annan has consistently defended himself and the world body by saying there was not enough international will to prevent or end the genocide and arguing that the U.N. was only as effective as the combined determination of its members.
Relations between Rwanda and the U.N. were not improved on Friday with news that Kigali had ordered the expulsion of a U.N. human rights official on the grounds he was a security threat. Jose-Luis Herrero, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda, told Reuters his expulsion and lack of protest by the U.N.... ``somehow reflects the malfunctionings of the U.N. system in Rwanda.'' Last month Herrero angered Kigali by voicing his agency's objections to Rwanda publicly executing 22 genocide culprits. Over 130,000 people -- including 36 U.N. staffers -- are currently languishing in Rwanda's jails awaiting trial on genocide charges.
Annan had felt the full force of Rwanda's anger on Thursday when he had to sit through a blistering indictment delivered in parliament by Foreign Minister Anastase Gasana. Then he was stood up by the country's president, vice- president and prime minister at the dinner they were due to host in his honour. Presidency spokesman Joseph Bideri told Reuters the boycott was a protest against the ``arrogance'' of Annan's speech after Gasana's broadside. As Annan sat beside him in parliament, Gasana attacked the U.N. and its predecessor, the League of Nations, for its treatment of Rwanda since 1922 when it became Belgian-run.
Annan, whose wife Nane was in the audience of parliamentarians and diplomats, remained calm and prefaced his prepared speech with a dignified response. ``...I did not come here to get into polemics and I am sure you know the old proverb that the guest is always the prisoner of the host,'' he said. Annan agreed that ...''in their greatest hour of need, the world failed the people of Rwanda,'' but he said the ``horror came from within'' and Rwandans had to change to restore trust.
On Friday, Annan was expected to talk to a group of survivors of the genocide at a technical college on the outskirts of Kigali, but when the U.N. chief's entourage arrived at the school there was no one to meet him. No reason was given for the latest snub, but Annan adopted the dignified grin-and-bear-it approach he has maintained throughout the visit and continued his journey to a genocide memorial site at Nyanza, around 50 km (30 miles) from Kigali. He visited a shrine where he saw hundreds of skulls of victims and a jumble of human bones piled up in a long corrugated iron shed. He looked tense as he was berated by a survivor who related how Tutsis in the area had attempted to fight back against the killers, but were eventually overwhelmed. ``The battle lasted eight days and we waited for the help of the United Nations and Kofi Annan,'' he said. Annan replied: ``Your pain is something that we can only imagine. I and the whole international community share your pain, share your tragedy.'' ``I knew given the history between the U.N. and Rwanda this was not going to be an easy mission,'' Annan told a news conference later, ``(but) I have been able to do all the essential things I came here to do.''
