The UN should stop playing double standards

The UN Secretary General, yesterday, met and held talks with President Paul Kagame and senior Government officials, to discuss the malicious report linking Rwandan armed forces to killings in the DRC.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

The UN Secretary General, yesterday, met and held talks with President Paul Kagame and senior Government officials, to discuss the malicious report linking Rwandan armed forces to killings in the DRC.

Much as this is a wise move towards seeking a solution to the outrageous accusations that could easily see Rwanda withdraw her commitments with the UN, it might as well be a wakeup call for organisation to do away with the double standards that have characterised the world body for decades.

In Rwanda, they should learn the lesson that Africans cannot anymore be subjected to this kind of treatment, where on one hand, for example, Rwandan forces have been recognised for their exemplary performance, as they work hard to prevent genocide in Darfur while on the other they are accused of committing genocide in another country.

The role of the Rwandan troops, totalling to over 3,500 men and women, in restoring peace in the war-torn Darfur region of the Sudan, is undisputed, even by the UN itself.

It, therefore, becomes absurd when the same army is accused of committing Genocide in DRC, a country where the UN maintains the most expensive and biggest contingent, but insurgents have continued to kill and rape civilians under their watch.

It is our view therefore; that the UN leadership does not limit itself to persuading the Rwandan government not to reconsider its decision to withdraw its troops from peacekeeping missions, but to take a hard look at its own policies and double standards.

The allegations raised in the report are not only preposterous and cynical, but a blatant mockery to a country and a people who were victims of a Genocide that the UN was well placed to prevent but chose not to.

Ends