afrol News, 11 July - The United Nations Security Council has repealed an arms embargo imposed on Rwanda following the 1994 genocide while at the same time is dissolving the committee tasked with monitoring compliance with the sanctions on civilians.

Security Council embargo which prohibited sale and supply of arms and ammunition for use in the country was terminated yesterday following an adoption of a resolution 1823 of 2008 which is intended to lift an embargo imposed in 1995.

The resolution also lifted reselling, transferring or making available arms or related materiel for use by any neighbouring state or person not in the service of the government of Rwanda.

The resolution stressed the need for states in the region to ensure that arms and related materiel delivered to them were not diverted or used by illegal armed groups in the African state.

The 15-member body also recalled a 2007 communique between governments of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as well as the outcome of a conference on peace and security in North and South Kivu in the DRC, which "together represent a major step towards the restoration of lasting peace and stability in the Great Lakes region.

The 100 days of slaughter an estimated 800,000 Tutsi’s and moderate Hutus in country’s capital, Kigali in 1994.

Ethnic tension in Rwanda has long been in existence, there have always been disagreements between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, but the animosity between them has grown substantially since the colonial period.

The genocide was sparked by the death of the Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on 6 April 1994.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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