Rwandan envoy accuses GOAL director over allegations

THE Rwandan ambassador to Ireland has accused the director of GOAL, Mr John O'Shea, of making "wrong and baseless" allegations about his country's involvement with rebels in eastern Zaire.

In a letter published in The Irish Times today, Dr Zac Nsenga also accuses Mr O'Shea of lacking humanitarianism in his approach to the problems of Rwanda. "Mr O'Shea's allegations are absolutely wrong and baseless and yet [he] would like the people of Rwanda punished," he writes.

Last Thursday Mr O'Shea called on the Government to stop all Irish aid to Rwanda because of "the latest revelations concerning genocide being practised by the rebel forces in eastern Zaire on starving Hutu refugees".

It is an open secret that the rebels are supported by the Rwandan government. It is an obscenity that the Irish people's money may be contributing to the deaths of thousands of innocent women and children," he added.

GOAL worked in Rwanda and in the refugee camps along the border in eastern Zaire from 1994, but pulled out last autumn. Since then Mr O'Shea has regularly attacked the Rwandan government and the Irish Government's policy of support for it.

Dr Nsenga says the, Rwandan government has nothing to do" with the war in Zaire, "where rebels are sorting out their domestic problems with the Zaire government". He asks whether Mr O'Shea is aware that 1.3 million Rwandan refugees, many of them women, children and the aged, have returned in the past six months, and that many more continue to return.

"Is he aware that there are more than 300,000 widows and the same number of orphans left behind by the 1994 genocide who would be affected by a stoppage of Irish aid?"

Since the genocide the justice system has been restored from scratch, he adds. The restoration of social services has begun.

Dr Nsenga says the main source of danger to the refugees still in eastern Zaire are "those holding them as hostages," who should be arrested and tried for genocide.

He says Mr O'Shea should contact Irish agencies still operating in Rwanda or visit the country in order to appreciate that Irish aid is used in Rwanda and not in support of Zairean rebels.

The Minister of State responsible for overseas aid, Ms Joan Burton, has also disputed a claim by Mr O'Shea that the Government has given more than £10 million to the Rwandan government in recent months. Ms Burton said Irish Aid had given almost £12.5 million in emergency and rehabilitation aid to the Great Lakes region since 1994. However, the vast bulk of this had gone to UN agencies and Irish agencies such as Concern, Trocaire and GOAL.