Global Policy Forum

By Victoria Brittain

The Organisation of African Unity is demanding payment of "significant reparations" to Rwanda by the countries that failed to prevent the genocide of 1994, when 800,000 people are believed to have died.

A special report released today for the July 10-12 opening of this year's annual OAU summit parallels the requested reparations with the $13bn Marshall Plan, which rebuilt Europe after the second world war; at today's value that would be more than £60bn.

The uncompromising report names the United States and France in particular, along with the UN security council as a whole, as guilty parties who allowed "this terrible conspiracy to go ahead". It is written by a team headed by two former African heads of state, three former UN officials and a high court judge, and makes searing criticism of "the international betrayal of Rwanda".

"The United States had the influence within the security council to ensure the authorisation of a military mission that could have prevented the genocide...but the US made sure that no such force would ever reach Rwanda, even after it was known beyond question that one of the 20th century's greatest tragedies was unfolding," the report says.

"The French had unrivalled influence at the very highest levels of the Rwandan government and Rwandan military...[but] they chose never to exert that influence," it said.

This is the first time that the OAU has committed itself to such a high-profile political intervention on behalf of one of its members. "This is a real landmark for the OAU, of unprecedented boldness," said one African official. After two years of research, the report's authors go much further than was expected in their demand for reparations.

The document will carry considerable weight well beyond Africa because of the influence of its signatories; Sir Quett Masire was president of Botswana from 1980 to 1997, General Ahmadou Touré was the president of Mali for 15 months from March 1991, Justice P N Bhagwati is a former chief justice of the Indian supreme court, while Stephen Lewis of Canada, Lisbet Palme of Sweden, senator Hocine Djoudi of Algeria, and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia have all had distinguished careers in UN circles.

"Apologies alone are not adequate. In the name of both justice and accountability, reparations are owed to Rwanda by actors in the international community for their roles before, during, and since the genocide," the report finds. Besides the 800,000 people murdered, the report says that, "hundreds of thousands more suffered unimaginable suffering and suffer still".

To bring survivors a measure of peace, the report says that all leaders of the genocide should be brought to justice, extradited from the countries - 11 of which are OAU members, plus France and Belgium - which are thought to be harbouring them.

The report also calls for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, to be transferred to Rwanda - a long-standing demand of the Rwandan government.

The OAU urges the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, to establish a commission to work out a formula for reparations, and says the money should go to urgently needed infrastructure and social services. In addition, the government's survivors' fund, which takes 5% of the annual budget, should receive generous contributions from the international community, the report says. And the special needs of women should take priority.

It also urges the immediate cancellation of all Rwanda's debt, saying much of it was accumulated by the governments that planned and executed the genocide.

The Rwanda report is sure to be the highlight of next week's summit in the Togolese capital, Lome. The summit's main focus will be on the dramatic situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo which has split the continent; the continued fighting in the country involves a dozen countries, but has at its heart the aftermath of Rwanda's genocide.