Comments of the Government of Rwanda on the Draft DRC Mapping Report

1. The Draft UN Mapping Report on the DRC (The Draft Mapping Report) is cloaked in legal terminology, but provides nothing resembling due process to the member States mentioned in the report. The authors repeatedly acknowledge the cursory and superficial nature of their investigations as they simultaneously claim to have amassed a critical mass of �evidence� to satisfy some undefined standard of proof. This purported evidence was collected through politicized NGOs at the hands of unnamed investigators, relies on blatant hearsay from unnamed witnesses, about unidentified victims, and leveled against unnamed perpetrators. Despite this lack of transparency, the authors claim that their mandate required them to make legal qualifications of crimes, yet no such requirement is found in the Terms of Reference of The Draft Mapping Report. To make assertions of the most serious international crimes based on such unreliable evidence in a non-judicial proceeding is an abuse of the mandate and, moreover, it is simply unfair.

2. Among the list of key facts omitted or summarily dismissed by The Draft Mapping Report is that from 1994 through 2003, Rwanda repatriated and reintegrated 1.5 million Hutu refugees from the former Zaire, and over 1.7 million refugees from Burundi, Tanzania, and Uganda alone. The return of millions of refugees to Rwanda is entirely inconsistent with the supposed finding of The Draft Mapping Report, yet this central fact is glossed over by the authors. Even more telling, the authors of the report conceal the real context of the events in Congo: the ex-FAR and Interahamwe were continually engaging in acts of terrorism, murdering innocent civilians, and attacking Rwanda. During this period, the ex-FAR and Interahamwe were actively preparing a major assault on Rwanda aimed at unraveling the reconstruction and reconciliation process in the country – with the final goal of completing the genocide. The authors ignore the failure of the international community to respond to repeated demands by the Rwandan government to stop the rearmament of genocidal forces in Zaire, and liberate genuine Rwandan refugees taken hostage by those forces.

3. These comments contain only a brief review of the most egregious misrepresentations and omissions of fact, law, process, and mandate that The Draft Mapping Report employs to validate its double genocide theory.¹ These comments first address the failure of the authors of The Draft Mapping Report to address the historical and military context surrounding Rwanda’s intervention in the former Zaire. Second, the comments discuss the international law based justification for Rwanda’s use of force to defend itself and its citizens in the former Zaire. Third, these comments analyze the flawed methodology behind The Draft Mapping Report, including the standard of proof, the excessive scope of the report, and the authors complete failure to follow the Terms of Reference established for the mapping exercise. Fourth, these comments address The Draft Mapping Reports improper analysis of the facts in order to improperly manipulate them into a genocide charge.