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[ back to Africa Recovery home ] From Africa Recovery, Vol.12 #1 (August 1998), page 4 OAU sets inquiry into Rwanda genocide A determination to search for Africa's own truth By Ernest Harsch The Organization of African Unity, in an unprecedented move for the regional organization, has set up a high-level investigative panel to examine the Rwanda genocide of 1994, in which between half a million and a million people were massacred. The panel is headed by Botswana's former President, Sir Ketumile Masire, and will comprise six other members, including a senior UN official, Mr. Stephen Lewis of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), (see below). Its mandate is to inquire into the underlying causes of the mass killings, look at their consequences throughout the Great Lakes region, assess the roles and responsibilities of the various local, regional and international actors -- including the UN and its agencies -- and make recommendations about how to avert similar tragedies in the future. The panel's report, Organization of African Unity (OAU) Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim affirmed at the early June summit meeting of African heads of state in Ouagadougou, will help Africans draw essential lessons, "so that never again will our continent experience such a human disaster." The OAU decision to launch the inquiry, despite the political sensitivities and passions it may touch, is a further reflection of the pan-African organization's determination to take up leadership in resolving conflicts and preventing atrocities, at a time when outside powers have become more reluctant to commit their own personnel and resources to African peacekeeping ventures. The panel's establishment "demonstrates a growing self-confidence in the OAU's capacity to give leadership to matters others don't seen to be able to give leadership to," observes panel member Stephen Lewis, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF. The International Panel of Eminent Personalities to investigate the genocide in Rwanda and its surrounding events, as the group is known, is expected to hold its inaugural meeting in early September in Addis Ababa, headquarters of the OAU. Its members also will make a symbolic visit to Rwanda soon after, Mr. Salim said on 3 June, when the composition of the panel was announced, to "participate in a solemn ceremony in memory of the victims of the genocide." Unlike the Rwandese courts or the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, based in Arusha, Tanzania, which are trying some of the people accused of perpetrating the genocide, the OAU panel will have no judicial role. Its purpose is strictly to investigate, and make appropriate recommendations. At the same time, the panel's investigative mandate is much broader than other recent commissions of inquiry in Belgium and France, which have examined the Rwanda events primarily from the perspectives of those countries' particular roles and national interests. Remembering the genocide: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan being shown burial site of 1994 massacre victims in Rwanda. Photo: UN / Milton Grant Knowledge is critical According to the panel's terms of reference, its mandate is to establish the facts of what happened -- and why -- looking at the events preceding and surrounding the genocide, as well as the roles of the various actors. This, it is hoped, will help advance the search for justice and dispel the belief that perpetrators of such atrocities can escape with impunity. "The knowledge of what went wrong and what was not done to prevent the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 is critical for us," declared the OAU Secretary-General, "particularly as part of our efforts to prevent future occurrence of a tragedy of such magnitude." The urgency is even greater given the ongoing conflicts throughout much of the area, said Mr. Salim: "For the Great Lakes region, this is absolutely essential, as we continue to receive very disturbing news of the killings and massacres of innocent people by some of those who are believed to have been involved in the planning and execution of the genocide in Rwanda." From his discussions with African leaders at the Ouagadougou summit, Mr. Lewis told Africa Recovery, it is evident that in looking at Rwanda, "Africans want to know how it had happened. For themselves, they want to know. They don't want others telling them how it had happened." This concern has been reflected in the panel's composition: it will have a majority of African members, and is headed by a widely respected former African president. Above all, Mr. Lewis said, the panel's work will involve a "search for truth, with all of the difficulties that truth may bring." The OAU's decision to establish such an investigative body is an extension of the organization's growing emphasis on promoting African leadership in the prevention and resolution of the continent's numerous conflicts. As part of that focus, the OAU also has given increased attention in recent years to issues of human rights and to bringing to justice perpetrators of atrocities and gross rights violations. The organization has, for example, thrown its support behind the efforts to establish an International Criminal Court, with the authority to try those accused of crimes against humanity. Focus of investigation No other recent conflict in Africa has taken as high a toll, in such a short period of time, as the Rwanda genocide. From April to July 1994, extremist political groups organized the massacre, directed primarily at the minority Tutsi ethnic group, but also against those from the Hutu majority who opposed the killings or had been active in the pro-democracy movement. The slaughter ended when rebel forces of the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) overthrew the genocidal government. However, ongoing political tensions, guerrilla warfare and massive refugee movements have continued to sow political instability and humanitarian crises throughout the Great Lakes region, including in neighbouring Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). The panel's mandate is to "establish the facts about how such a grievous crime was conceived, planned and executed" and to "determine culpability for the failure to enforce the [1948 UN] Genocide Convention in Rwanda and in the Great Lakes region." This will include looking at the "deep root causes" of the Rwanda genocide, the circumstances in which it took place and its consequences throughout the region. In examining the specific events leading up to and following the massacres, the panel's main focus will be on the period from the 1993 Arusha Peace Accord between the then Rwandese government and the insurgent RPF, and the May 1997 "fall of Kinshasa." The latter reference is to the overthrow of the dictatorship of Mr. Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire by rebel forces believed to have been supported by the RPF government and other neighbouring states. The suspected alliance of some of the organizers of the Rwanda genocide with the Mobutu government and the presence in Mobutu's Zaire of hundreds of thousands of Rwandese Hutu refugees, were important factors exacerbating that conflict. "The knowledge of what went wrong and what was not done to prevent the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 is critical for us ... to prevent future occurrence of a tragedy of such magnitude." -- Salim Ahmed Salim, OAU Secretary-General In addition, the panel is specifically mandated to assess the role of various actors before, during and after the 1994 genocide, including the UN and its agencies, the OAU, "internal and external forces," and non-state actors, as well as "the role individually and collectively, of the leaders and governments of African and non-African states." Most of the panel's investigations will be conducted in Rwanda and in neighbouring countries, through hearing testimony, examining documentation, and carrying out other research. The seven panelists will be assisted by a group of expert advisers, as well as by a secretariat established by the OAU in Addis Ababa. A parallel group of representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with interest and expertise in Rwanda also will investigate the genocide, and their work will be made directly available to the panel. To help finance the panel's activities, the OAU is establishing a special trust fund to receive voluntary contributions from within and outside Africa. In his speech to the Ouagadougou summit, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, as outgoing Chairman of the OAU, affirmed that the summit participants "particularly welcome the expected international support to provide resources to enable the panel to do its work." Beyond investigating the Rwanda genocide and its surrounding events, the panel is mandated to "recommend measures aimed at redressing the consequences of the genocide and at preventing any possible recurrence of such a crime." Its findings and recommendations will be submitted to the OAU Secretary-General, hopefully within about a year, and he will in turn present the panel's report either to the OAU Council of Ministers or to the Central Organ of the OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, meeting at ministerial level. The proposal to specifically investigate the Rwanda genocide was initially made by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, during a November 1997 meeting in Addis Ababa of the Central Organ of the OAU Mechanism. That body approved the idea and asked the OAU Secretary-General to follow up as a matter of urgency.
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