Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press in Africa
www.innercitypress.com/unsc1rwanda060808.html
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.
