Statement by Mrs. Mary Robinson United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Geneva, 19 September 1997


"I have said that I would be a moral voice for victims of human rights violations, and so I feel compelled to refer to the current political crisis regarding the investigation of alleged massacres in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This investigation has at its core the fundamental human rights imperative to combat impunity - to dispel the idea that atrocities can be committed without fear of the consequences.

We are attempting to inject accountability into a region which has been wracked for decades by cycles of inter-ethnic violence, massacres and forced displacement. This pattern was behind the sheer horror of the 1994 Rwanda genocide and the displacement of more than a million Rwandese into neighbouring countries.

I was dismayed at the rejection by the authorities in Kinshasa of the Joint Investigative Mission and now the obstacles which are preventing the deployment of the Secretary-General's investigative team.

It is essential that there be a thorough investigation which goes at least some way to ascertaining the facts and responsibility for the deaths of a large number of refugees and others over the past year. If there is no day of reckoning then we will send the wrong message and invite further suffering in the Great Lakes region and elsewhere.

In the past the United Nations has turned away when its investigations have been blocked. Here, Secretary-General Kofi Annan took the hard option in keeping the issue in front of the Security Council and maintaining strong international support for an investigation under his own authority. This is a powerful precedent -- aimed directly at those who would abuse human rights believing they can deflect international outrage."