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After Gunfire, UN Council Proceeds By Bus to
Kigali, With B-Movie and Truck Stop Detour
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press in Africa: News Analysis
LONELY RWANDAN
TRUCK STOP, June 8 -- Following the
gunfire in the UN special plane on the lava-shortened runway in Goma,
the
Security Council Ambassadors and accompanying press corps wiled away
two hours
in the airport's VIP lounge. How to
proceed to Cote d'Ivoire, to meet President Gbagbo? As the sun went
down, there
was talk that to proceed might not be worth it. Then the solution was
arrived
at, to travel by UN bus to Kigali, Rwanda, and meet up the UN plane
there.
Calls were placed to Rwanda's Ambassador to the UN, visa cards were
signed, and
the delegation was once again on the move.
A touring
bus with two TV screens
moved gingerly over and around the deep potholes of Goma. A movie was screened, a decided B picture
called Return to Bazrakistan (click here
for the film, under another
title). At the border, the MONUC security escort
fell
away, and for a time the bus continued without escort, other than a
back-up bus
in the rear, in case the one in front broke down as its lavatory had. This led to an unscheduled stop, at a lonely
Rwandan truck stop. Inquiries were made
for Internet and beer, without full satisfaction. Soon the light of
Kigali
appeared on the horizon, along with billboards in English and gas
stations of
Total.
In further still-interim
reflection, that a loaded gun was
taken onto a plane from of Security Council ambassadors may be of
significance.
It can also be reported that at the Kigali airport, entry was not as
smooth as
elsewhere, everyone was searched. "This is Rwanda," a security
official explained. Those with diplomatic passports and privileges were
not
amused. But on balance the incident was not without its surreal side.
The
plane arrived -- but due to lack of fuel, a request was relayed for
$20,000, or to spend the night in the Kigali airport. While some were
quick to connect the UN's inaction in 1994 to this seemin Rwandan
intransigence, it quickly emerged that it was an American company
CalTex that demanded the money. Via South African Ambasador Dumisani
Kumalo, Rwanda's Ambassador to the UN relayed that CalTex has lost its
contract at the Kigali airport, and will close here at the end of the
month. Thus their focus on cash on the barrel. Still, the image of
Security Council ambassadors pooling their cash to buy their way out of
Kigali will not soon be forgotten.
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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[at] innercitypress.com
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Other,
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