Vienna, 10 February 2015

The President of the International Progress Organization today joined an appeal of international experts and activists, calling upon the United Nations to set up a mechanism to prosecute all persons responsible for horrendous crimes committed in the African Great Lakes region since 1990:

A CALL FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE IN THE AFRICAN GREAT LAKES REGION

On October 1, 2014, BBC2 broadcast a documentary “ Rwanda's untold story ” on the tragedies which have devastated the Great Lakes region since 1990: Burundi, Rwanda, and the DRC. It methodically deconstructs the narrative that has been made official by most of the Western media.

The signatories of this appeal who have been actors or observers in the African Great Lakes region through their functions or humanitarian commitments wish to congratulate and express their support to the BBC journalists and management who have significantly contributed to establishing the previously ignored historical truth.

International justice has been instrumentalised and has not fulfilled its role : — essential documents such as the Gersony report or the Hourigan inquiry have not been taken into consideration by the ICTR — Ms Carla Del Ponte was going to issue indictments following the special investigation into the RPF crimes but in 2003 she was removed from her position of ICTR Chief Prosecutor after the intervention of several member States of the UN Security Council — The 1998 UN report and the 2010 Mapping report which both implicated the Kigali regime for its action in DRC did not result in any legal action.

The attack on the plane carrying the Presidents of Burundi and Rwanda is considered by a great number of observers and commissions of inquiry as a key element in the escalation of violence and the outbreak of the 1994 genocide : therefore it is not acceptable that twenty years later the perpetrators and the actors should not be known, tried, and convicted.

At a time when the European Parliament has awarded Dr Mukwege the 2014 Sakharov Prize for his work in favor of the women victims of rape and sexual violence during the armed conflicts that have torn the Eastern DRC for almost twenty years, it is unacceptable that those responsible for these crimes against humanity or genocide which have caused several million deaths in the DRC should not be designated, prosecuted, and convicted.

Peace can only be achieved if justice is rendered fairly and equitably. Therefore the signatories call upon the UN to set up at the earliest the structures and procedures permitting to prosecute all those responsible for all the crimes perpetrated in this region since 1990, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

The signatories ask that the political pressures and media bias which aim at discrediting the French and Spanish judicial investigations that implicate the RPF be denounced. We cannot help being astonished by the silence in almost all French-language media after the broadcast of the documentary by the BBC whose professionalism and deontology are internationally recognized.

Only an impartial justice will help restore peace to the region and the truth is the shortest way. The signatories of this call reiterate their support to the BBC and call upon it to continue its work of information and truth in the dramatic events that took place in Rwanda and in the Great Lakes region. This will be the best way to answer the criticisms to the documentary broadcast last October.

Text in French