Sir, - Vincent Browne casually mentions (Opinion, March 10th) that "it was revealed" that Secretary-General Kofi Annan was informed of the Rwandan genocide three months before it happened and did nothing about it.
In fact, the UN on more than one occasion has confirmed that it had received a cable in January 1994, when Kofi Annan headed the Peacekeeping Department, with information from an informant of plans for mass killings. Though the information was unsubstantiated, Mr Annan, that same day, ordered the UN representative in Rwanda to convey this information to the three governments that were directly supporting the peace process and had the most influence with Rwanda's president. Further, over the following weeks, the Force Commander was authorised to re-deploy troops in order to support the government in recovering illegal arms.
No clear signs of planned massacres were perceived. It was the assassination of the president which unleashed the killings in April. The Security Council did not decide to intervene, even after the Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros Ghali, termed these killings as genocide. This fact hardly supports the theory that the January cable would have led the Security Council to decide on the use of military force. It must not be forgotten that, a few months before, peacekeepers had been killed in Somalia in similar operations, and this trauma had a strong impact in subsequent decisions.
The cable theory is simpleminded. Until we come to grips with the evil social forces that unleashed mass killings in Rwanda - "the horror came from within", as Kofi Annan has said - and with the political will of the international community to intervene in such situations, we will not be able to begin to prepare for next time. - Yours, etc., Fred Eckhard,
Spokesman for the Secretary General, United Nations, New York.