Sir, - As a member of the Goal logistical team who worked in the Rwandan refugee camps in Goma, Zaire, in 1994-1995, permit me to make the following points: 1. In a letter published in The Irish Times (April 30th) Dr Zac Nsenga, the Rwandan Ambassador to Ireland, claims: "Since the genocide [of 1994] the justice system has been restored from scratch." Amnesty International News (May 97) states that, although Amnesty International has welcomed the opening of trials for those suspected of having been involved in the genocide, the organisation continues to have serious concerns about the fairness of the trials in Rwanda, many of which have failed to conform to international standards for fair trial.
2. Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, was denounced by both Laurent Kabila, the then Zairean rebel leader and now President, and the Rwandan Government for referring to a "slow extermination" of Hutu refugees in eastern Zaire when news of the killings began to emerge after aid workers were suddenly denied access to the refugee camps along the road by Kabila's forces (The Sunday Times, May 4th). His description accurately conveys the cruelty inflicted on thousands of weak defenceless human beings.
I strongly support John O'Shea and Goal in appealing to the Irish Government to use its unique relationship with the Rwandan Government to try to stop the genocide of Rwandan women and children in eastern Zaire.
Clearly Rwanda needs and deserves international humanitarian aid. However, in the light of the overwhelming evidence that, the present Rwandan regime is as much interested in revenge as it is in reconciliation, it is incumbent on the Irish Government that any aid be given only in circumstances where the Rwandan Government undertakes to guarantee - the human rights of all its citizens equally. Yours, etc., Killiney, Co Dublin.