Monday, February 07, 2011

Mubarak Rwandan sanctions busting: UN should act to remove him?

[updated 9 Feb]

The United Nations might be able bring a case against Egyptian President Mubarak for breaking a 1994 UN arms embargo on Rwanda.

In January 1994 the Egyptian military lined up a deal with Gratien Kabiligi, Chief of Military Operations within the High Command of the Rwandan Army. He was tried for genocide, and found not guilty.

UN Resolution 198(21994) came into force in May 17th 1994 and the relevant paragraphs read:

13. ...all States shall prevent the sale or supply to Rwanda by
their nationals or from their territories or using their flag vessels or
aircraft of arms and related matériel of all types, including weapons and
ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary police equipment and
spare parts;


15. Calls upon all States, including States not Members of the United
Nations, and international organizations to act strictly in accordance with the
provisions of the present resolution, notwithstanding the existence of any
rights or obligations conferred or imposed by any international agreement or any
contract entered into or any licence or permit granted prior to the date of the
adoption of this resolution;




[Update 9 Feb)
It is possible that Mubarak's regime broke the law in sending arms to Rwanda, since although the initial deals may have been set up in January 1994, the shipments would have been going in after May17th, given the time required to negotiate the details, assemble the shipments, and transport them to Rwanda.

I have been searching for hard evidence that Egyptian arms broke the embargo.

Nothing direct has yet come up, but one piece of information suggests that Mubarak may have beaten the deadline. The Egyptians prided themselves on speedy delivery. OrwellToday quoted Linda Melvern's book, showing that in 1990 a $5.9 million arms order was dispatched on the same day that the contract was signed. If the deal went through with the same speed in 1994, Mubarak would be clear.

The possibility still remains that a tail end of the order 1994 deal was delivered later. The UN committee charged with monitoring the embargo might have information. See below for action that you could take.


Source
The original source for this information comes from Ennahar, an Algerian newspaper which was tweeted by Frank Habineza, Leader of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and President of the Africa Greens Federation.

Action

It is to be hoped that this information may be used by the UN to persuade President Mubarak to leave office immediately, in exchange for a case against him for sanctions breaking being dropped.

Mubarak’s obstinacy in remaining in office is endangering the legitimate democratic wishes of the people of Egypt. We reject the suggestion that it is necessary for stability that he remain in office until elections, and that the reverse is true, since defeat of the non-violent uprising of young Egyptian may be reasonably be expected to increase rather than decrease the risk of violent Islamic extremism in Egypt.



Go to the UN contacts page and enter your details and then paste in this message:


A Security Council Committee was established pursuant to resolution 918 (1994). 
Do the minutes establish whether any shipments of arms to Rwanda from Egypt were delivered after May 17 1994?

Thank you

2 comments:

Wendy Wyatt said...

I APPRECIATE YOUR PAGE! THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING EGYPTIAN PEOPLE!

I HAVE BEEN YELLING AT THE UNITED NATIONS EVER SINCE THE PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATION TURNED INTO AN ATTACK. I'm on facebook.

DocRichard said...

Thanks Wendy.
Use the link to get through to the UN.