TITLE: UN Gave Job to War Crimes Suspect

AUTHOR: Jon Swain

PUB: Sunday Times

DATE: February 4, 2001

A United Nations official who allegedly presided over the killing of his staff during the Rwandan genocide continued to be employed by the world body for years afterwards while officials ignored mounting evidence that they could be harbouring a war criminal. A warrant has now been issued in Rwanda for the arrest of Callixte Mbarushimana, who worked for the UN Development Programme in the tiny central African state during 1994, when as many as 800,000 people perished in a bloodbath initiated by the Hutu ethnic elite. Mbarushimana was a Hutu extremist who allegedly collaborated with death squads, organising the killing of a number of fellow UN staff members. Their only crime was that they belonged to Rwanda's Tutsi ethnic minority. Gregory "Gromo" Alex, an American UN official, said at the height of the slaughter he saw Mbarushimana slam his right fist into his left palm, saying: "We will eliminate them all." Alex said: "The image of the eyes, the hatred that they spoke, is one that I shall never erase from my memory." He and others are convinced that a piece of paper Mbarushimana was holding at that moment listed the names and addresses of UN staff members who were earmarked to be killed. Mbarushimana was seen by UN officers on a number of occasions carrying an AK-47 assault rifle and a pistol. He circulated freely and fully armed throughout Kigali, the Rwandan capital, and forced one UN Tutsi staff member to sign over her house "free" to a Hutu army officer. After the genocide the incriminating list was found in a drawer in his abandoned office. But by then Mbarushimana had fled to Kenya, where he continued to work for the UN, making no attempt to hide his Hutu extremism. Several local and international staff whose colleagues had been killed raised their concerns with the UN's resident representatives in Kenya and Rwanda. The complaints were noted but no action was taken. In 1996 Mbarushimana took up a senior appointment with the UN in Angola. He was one of three candidates for the $24,000-a-year position of computer manager. The resident representative in Luanda, the capital, was Bernard Ntegeye, also a Rwandan Hutu who, by coincidence, had been in Kigali when the genocide started and knew Mbarushimana well. No questions were raised when Mbarushimana was selected for the job, however. He remained in Angola for three years during which time allegations about his complicity in the genocide grew, reaching the upper echelons of the UN in New York, including the office of Mark Malloch Brown, UNDP's administrator. The Rwandan authorities started their own investigation after being contacted by Stephen Browne, resident UN co-ordinator in Kigali, one of a small number of UN officials who pushed for action. A 30-page dossier on Mbarushimana will soon be passed by the public prosecutor's office in Kigali to the UN criminal tribunal for Rwanda. The tribunal, based at Arusha in Tanzania, was set up by the UN in 1996 to bring the main perpetrators of the genocide to justice. But while prosecuting war criminals, the UN was at the same time keeping a suspected killer on its staff. Many UN workers familiar with the genocide say the organisation has violated its own laws and betrayed its own principles. The Sunday Times has seen the contents of Mbarushimana's dossier. They reveal a man driven by ethnic hatred to betray his own colleagues. In 1994 the UN office in Kigali sought to steer clear of Rwanda's poisonous, ethnic politics. But the rising tension between Hutu and Tutsi tribes made this impossible. Mbarushimana's relationship with Tutsi staff at the UN, and in particular with Florence Ngirumpatse, the head of personnel, became increasingly strained. On April 6, President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was killed when his plane was shot down. Hutu extremists blamed the Tutsis and incited the population to rise against them. The genocide started. As bands of Hutu thugs took over the streets, killing any Tutsi they encountered, UN officials advised all their Tutsi staff to stay at home or in hiding. Ngirumpatse was one of the most popular Rwandans working for the UN. Her three children were abroad, but she was sheltering 12 Tutsi girls at her home, believing they would be safe with her because of her UN status. The UN mission in Rwanda was virtually toothless, however, its numbers having been reduced from 5,000 to 300 after 10 Belgian soldiers were massacred. There were no formal instructions to save local UN staff. Alex, the American leading the UN's humanitarian assistance team, and Captain M'bai Dieng, a Senegalese UN officer who was later killed, tried to locate and help trapped Rwandan staff members. One Tutsi member of staff warned Alex: "Don't talk about anybody. Don't talk about any Tutsis. If you can help us, help us, but just don't say anything and certainly not to Callixte." "We soon learnt our instincts were justified," Alex said. "A number of UN staff who managed to reach safety advised us that Mbarushimana held a list of residences of UN Tutsi personnel and that he was leading interahamwe [Hutu militias], soldiers and gendarmerie to their homes for elimination." Each day Ngirumpatse's situation grew more desperate, her pleas to be rescued more anguished. She refused to leave her home without the children. "I spoke to her one night, letting her know that efforts were being made to extract her," Alex said. "The next day I came back to our office and the room was deadly quiet. Someone came over to me and said, 'Gromo, Florence and the kids are dead. Killed this morning'." They had been hacked to death just minutes before the arrival of an armoured rescue vehicle. "Callixte knew of her home. I am convinced that Callixte ensured Florence would be killed," Alex said. UN staff in Kigali who are prepared to testify against Mbarushimana also attribute the murder of other Tutsis to him. Efforts to trace him have failed, however. Staff at the UN headquarters in New York emphasised last week that he was no longer employed by the organisation. His Angolan contract has expired. One UN official familiar with Rwanda tried to explain the UN's employment of Mbarushimana. "There was clearly an absence of standards in the UN system that allowed it to happen," he said. "There were officials who were embittered, who believe there has been a double genocide in Rwanda - of Hutus as well as Tutsis - and who said the UN must give Callixte a job." Most staff who lived through the genocide are appalled, however. "It is shameful that he remained in the UN system for so long and nothing was done to remedy it," said Chantal Mutawamariya, a former UN employee in Kigali. "I have difficulty accepting that the UN, which is supposed to stand for righteousness and justice, could allow this man to get away," Alex said. Today, the names of their dead collegues are carved on a memorial at the UN's Kigali offices - a poignant reminder of the list in Mbarushimana's hand. END top