KIGALI, Rwanda (Reuter) - Rwanda's
military strongman said Friday the government had the right to divert foreign
aid to its war against Hutu extremists because providing security in the
country was the top priority.
Defense Minister Paul Kagame, whose
mainly Tutsi forces seized power in 1994 to end a three-month genocide,
gave few details when asked about rumors the government was using funds
from international donors for the war.
''There cannot be much that can have been diverted, but we shall do whatever possible to achieve security with or without contributions,'' the former rebel chief told a news conference at the defense ministry.
''We have the right to do this given our priorities,'' he added. That money cannot be put to good use if there is no security in the country.''
International donors pledged some $400 million to Rwanda in December to help the country rebuild from the 1994 genocide and cope with the return of more than a million Hutu refugees.
There have been eight attacks on expatriates in Rwanda in the last three weeks. Some aid agencies suspended work after the latest killings and pulled staff back to the capital.
Attackers said by the government to be former Hutu troops and Interahamwe militiamen killed four U.N. human rights monitors and their driver in southwest Rwanda Tuesday.
Three Spanish aid workers were killed in the northwest town of Ruhengeri on Jan. 18 and a 61-year-old Canadian missionary was shot dead by a gunman Sunday in Ruhengeri prefecture.
Kagame put part of the blame for the attacks on foreign aid workers on the international community and said authorities had arrested a number of people connected to the killings.
''The international community is...acting like somebody who lights the fire and then wonders why it is lit. The international community has been feeding criminals for years in eastern Zaire and is about to repeat that mistake,'' he said.
The Rwandan government says aid agencies wasted money on Rwandan refugees, including Hutu former troops and militiamen involved in the genocide, who fled to Tanzania and Zaire.
More than a million returned between November and December last year and the government says Hutu extremists among them are responsible for the attacks in the west bordering on Zaire.
U.N. aid workers were withdrawn from west Rwanda after Tuesday's killings and the United Nations said Thursday plans were being worked out for Rwandan troops to protect U.N. staff, their vehicles and bases.
Kagame announced a three-point security plan involving a sensibilization'' campaign by government ministers touring the country to reconcile the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority.
Security forces would also gather information on those behind the attacks and neutralize armed groups, he said.
''Our aim is to deal with those people (who killed foreign aid workers) but sometimes there will be collateral damage,'' said Kagame. Troops killed 80 people in a sweep in the northwest after the three Spanish aid workers were killed in cold blood.
He said the government would never let Rwanda return to the chaos of 1994 when an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates were slaughtered by Hutu troops, militiamen and mobs.
He ruled out U.N. intervention in Rwanda to protect foreign aid workers. The government blames a U.N. force which was in Rwanda in 1994 for failing to prevent the genocide.
Reut16:35 02-07-97
(07 Feb 1997 16:31 EST)
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