RWANDA: REPEAL OF ARMS NOTIFICATION, CHILD

C O N F I D E N T I A L KIGALI 000217

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

PRM FOR DAS FITZGERALD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/13/2016
TAGS: PREL PREF RW
SUBJECT: RWANDA: REPEAL OF ARMS NOTIFICATION, CHILD
SOLDIERS

REF: USUN NEW YORK 0159

Classified By: Ambassador Michael R. Arietti, reason 1.4 (B/D)


1. (C) Foreign Minister Charles Murigande requested
Ambassador Arietti meet with him on March 2. In his office,
Murigande sought U.S. support for repeal of the notification
provision of UNSC resolution 1011 of 1995, which lifted the
arms embargo on Rwanda, but left in place a notification
provision for arms or material shipments to the country. A
reference to this notification requirement occurred in March
2006, in regard to a potential violation by Bulgaria. A
Security Council Sanctions Committee press release in 1996
stated that notifications were no longer required, but this
apparently has no legal effect, and the notification
provision remains technically in force.


2. (C) This request comes as a follow-up to the approach
made by the Rwandan delegation in New York (reftel).
Murigande made many of the same points, emphasizing Rwanda's
present status as a "normal, responsible member" of the
international community, one which directly contributes to
African and international peace and stability through its
participation in peace-keeping exercises in Sudan, Haiti,
Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire and the Comoros. Murigande also
suggested repeatedly that attempts to "revive" the
notification provision were the work of the French
government. The French had no particular interest in
furthering peace in the Great Lakes by use of this
notification process, he suggested; following the rupture in
relations between the two states last November, France simply
hoped to make life difficult for Rwanda in any way it could.


3. (C) Ambassador took the opportunity to mention reports of
the recruiting of Congolese in Rwanda to serve with General
Nkunda in North Kivu. (Note: This mission has spoken with
both UNHCR and MONUC here in Kigali, and both are concerned
by and are investigating these reports, particularly one
recent alleged incident involving two teenage "recruits" who
supposedly managed to escape from Nkunda's recruiters and
reach safety with MONUC in the DRC). Murigande forcefully
denied any GOR involvement in such alleged incidents, noting
that it was against Rwanda's interests to seek to destabilize
the nascent attempts to incorporate Nkunda's troops in
regular FARDC units. He further noted that the Congolese
refugee camps were open, freely entered and exited, and
filled with people who regularly crossed the border to and
from the DRC for all sorts of mundane family and business
reasons. Analyzing why they came and went was "very
difficult," he said. They had many motivations for
traveling, and they traveled easily. Further, he said, "they
don't need to be recruited -- many of them are already
Nkunda's people." He then repeated several times that the
GOR did not condone any recruitment, particularly of child
soldiers, did not facilitate it, and put a stop to it when it
found it. "This is not something that does us any good, and
we don't like it," he said.


4. (C) (C) Murigande also mentioned that the GOR has long
favored efforts to close the camps housing approximately
40,000 mainly Tutsi Congolese. The GOR is willling to
consider resettling the Congolese in Rwanda or to facilitate
their return to the Congo should they wish to do so, given
recent developments in the DRC. He lamented that UNHCR and
others have not supported these options.


5. (C) Comment. This mission endorses the GOR request to
repeal the notification request for arms shipments to Rwanda.
This is a sovereign government, meeting its responsibilities
regionally, while greatly assisting both USG national
interests and the interests of the African Union, the United
Nations and the international community as a whole in its
peacekeeping missions. The notification requirement has not
been used, noticed or missed for over ten years -- time now
to give it a decent burial. On reports of the recuiting of
fighters by Nkunda from Rwanda, Foreign Minister Murigande
rightly says that Rwanda has no interest in upsetting a
peace-making process (Nkunda's reintegration) that it helped
arrange in the first place. End comment.



ARIETTI