International Development Committee - UK Aid to RwandaWritten evidence submitted by Rutembesa Didier, Pretoria, South Africa
1. UK took the decision of withholding Rwanda’s budget support on the basis of a leaked report, not the final report which is expected to be published in November 2012. The recent leaked report didn’t even have annexes mentioned in the report. The report was leaked two days before Rwanda’s election at the United Nations Security Council, hiding an intended conspiracy from some NGOs.
2. Allegations raised by UN experts were not raised with Government of Rwanda in order to get their views on allegations, flouting a basic principle of research. UN experts only raised issues that were not part of the allegations against Rwanda. Instead, UN experts have been meeting dissidents/opposition members of the Government of Rwanda. One case is a meeting held in the afternoon of 29 June 2012, in Brussels, in which Steve Hege and Marie Plamadiala, two UN experts, met with Jean Marie Micombero, a Belgium-based activist and a leader of Rwandan opposition group.
3. A lot of elements presented by UN experts were faulty. This concerns for example an ID purportedly of a Rwandan soldier (it was found that the ID was a fake one and the mentioned soldier is currently serving in RDC), the bullets purportedly of Rwandan forces (it was noted that FARDC also use same weapons) and many other allegations.
4. UN report of experts didn’t consider the dynamics of ethnic groups in eastern DRC. Rwandophones from eastern DRC do have relatives in Rwanda. In Eastern DRC, one finds the same ethnic group like in Rwanda. Hutu, Tutsi and Twa of Rwanda are also present in eastern DRC. A trip of a Tutsi from DRC in Rwanda or any meeting of Tutsi from DRC in Rwanda have been interpreted by UN experts as a meeting meant to support rebel groups in Eastern DRC. The UN group of experts didn’t provide audio recordings of these meetings but have only relied on biased sources that have been after money.
5. In DRC, there are multiple armed groups that have been killing the location of population and causing displacement for a decade (eg LRA, ADF-NALU, FDLR, More than 10 Mai Mai groups). Forces Democratiques pour la Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR) has links with genocidal forces which perpetrated genocide of Tutsi in Rwanda.
6. Steven Hege, coordinator of UN report of experts, has intentionally neglected killings and displacements caused by FDLR, a group that is at the helm of the genocide of Tutsi in Rwanda and this is explained by his sympathy to them in a document published in February 2009 in which Steve Hege expressed his sympathy to the cause of FDLR. This document was called “Understanding FDLR”. With his sympathy to FDLR, Steven Hege cannot have a balanced view on Rwanda.
7. UK aid to Rwanda serves the Rwandan population and not any military support yet to be proved on Rwanda. Suspending aid to Rwanda will be another sign that the international community doesn’t care about Rwanda’s population like in 1994.
November 2012