UN lifts arms embargo on Rwanda
2008-07-12 10:59
Nairobi - The UN Security Council has lifted an arms embargo on Rwanda, about 13 years after it was imposed following the 1994 genocide that killed 800 000 people, a statement said on Friday.
The council lifted the embargo on Thursday and dissolved a committee tasked with monitoring compliance with the sanctions, it added.
"The council voted unanimously to end the prohibition on the supply of arms and weapons for use in Rwanda, contained in resolution 1011 (1995)," the statement said.
It stressed the need for states in the region to ensure that arms and related material delivered to them were not diverted to or used by illegal armed groups.
The 15-member council also recalled a 2007 communique between the governments in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the outcome of a conference on peace and security in eastern DRC, which it said "together represent a major step towards the restoration of lasting peace and stability in the Great Lakes region."
A Pact on Security, Stability and Development in Africa's Great Lakes Region, which entered into force in June, is to help restore lasting stability in the area that has been blighted by conflicts for decades.
In March last year, the Security Council terminated the requirement that states notify its monitoring committee of the delivery of arms and related materiel to Rwanda, after it noted progress in efforts to restore law and order and prevent arms from falling into the wrong hands in the tiny African nation.
An estimated 800 000 people, mainly Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were massacred in Rwanda after the shooting down of a plane carrying former Rwandan leader Juvenal Habyarimana Habyarimana on April 6, 1994.
In spite of the genocide, Kigali has often shown discomfort at the presence of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels who are hiding in the DRC.
The FDLR comprises some 6 000 Rwandan Hutus who fled into the DRC following the massacre of Rwandan Tutsis by Hutus in 1994. They are seen as one of the main threats to peace in the country's restive eastern region.