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NEW YORK, Oct 12: Survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the massacre of Muslim men and boys in Bosnia a year later refused to join the worldwide chorus of approval for the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
Both groups blame the United Nations and its Secretary-General Kofi Annan, joint winners of this year’s centenary prize, for failing to prevent the deaths of their relatives and neighbours.
Annan was head of the U.N.’s peacekeeping operations when some 800,000 people, mostly minority Tutsis, were massacred by extremists from the ethnic Hutu majority in Rwanda and up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Serbs in Bosnia.
“He has a heavy responsibility in the Rwandan genocide. It is a pity, it is unfortunate — he should not have been awarded that Nobel Prize,” said Antoine Mugesera, Chairman of the Ibuka association of genocide survivors.
“After all the mess he made in Rwanda, how can such a highly respected institution award him the prize?” he said.
U.N. peacekeepers were withdrawn from Rwanda when the massacres began and in Bosnia they were too lightly-armed, isolated and vulnerable to be able to prevent the killings in the eastern U.N. “safe area” of Srebrenica.
The Srebrenica survivors last year tried to sue the U.N. and several of its officials, including Annan, over their alleged guilt for the massacre carried out by Bosnian Serb forces who led their victims away from helpless Dutch U.N. peacekeepers.
The suit, filed with the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague, was dismissed almost immediately.
BOSNIA SURVIVIORS “APPALLED”
They said they were “appalled” by the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
“The United Nations and Kofi Annan are winners of the Nobel prize for genocide against the Bosniaks (Muslims) of the Drina valley and the whole of Bosnia,” the Mothers of Srebrenica and Drina Valley association of survivors said in a statement.
In 1999, Annan issued a hard-hitting report in which he blamed the U.N. and key governments for failing to use force to prevent the atrocity in the valley in eastern Bosnia.
The world body has always insisted it can only do what its members are prepared to allow.
Rwanda’s government, which was fiercely critical of Annan after the genocide but has since patched up relations, extended its congratulations to the winners, who received tributes from around the world, including trouble spots like the Middle East.
“As a member of the United Nations, we have to congratulate the organisation and its Secretary General for receiving the award,” said Joseph Mutaboba, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“We hope that the failures of the past will be a lesson for both the organisation and the Secretary General to make sure that peace and security is assured for all,” he said.
