World can prevent genocide
2005-09-15 10:03
United Nations - Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Wednesday made a powerful plea for international collective action to prevent genocides similar to the one his country experienced 11 years ago.
"Our own experiences in Rwanda have shown us that insecurity caused by reckless and irresponsible governance can cause immense suffering," he told a summit of world leaders which kicked off here Wednesday.
"Let me stress the importance of our collective responsibility to deal with terrorism, and to protect populations under threat of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity," said Kagame, who was one several African leaders who took the podium on the first day of the summit.
In a powerful endorsement of the concept of responsibility to protect peoples threatened with genocide, which was approved as part of a UN reform package by the General Assembly on Tuesday, Kagame said: "Let us resolve to take collective action in a timely and decisive manner."
"Let us also commit to put in place early warning mechanisms and ensure that preventive interventions are the rule rather than the exception," he added
An estimated 800 000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in the 1994 genocide carried out by extremists among Rwanda's Hutu majority.
But Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe expressed strong misgivings about the concept of responsibility to protect peoples threatened with genocide.
"Concepts such as humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect need careful scrutiny in order to test the motives of their proponents," he told the gathering of world leaders.
Mugabe, whose country has been dubbed an "outpost of tyranny" by Washington, cited instances in which "the sovereignty and territorial integrity of small and weak countries have been violated by the mighty and powerful in defiance of provisions of the UN charter even on the basis of contrived lies."
Those powerful countries were telling lies "to create a basis for aggression," he told the summit, denouncing what he called "a coalition of evil."
Meanwhile Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade urged the summit to grant Africa a veto-wielding permanent seat on the UN Security Council with immediate effect.
He said this should happen independently from the current debate on expanding the council, citing what he called the "historic injustice" that has made Africa the only continent not represented on the powerful 15-member body.
"How can we discuss African problems, take measures and implement them without at least an African representative being present to express the African viewpoint both on the concept of measures and on their application," he noted.
"This is why I propose, here and now, to allocate a veto-wielding permanent seat to Africa, independently from the major reform (of the council) which will have to be discussed later," he said.