Kigali — The umbrella organization of Rwandan Genocide survivors IBUKA has written to the UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-Moon seeking to have the "wrongs committed against the victims corrected", RNA has established.

"It is high time that the United Nations stands up to correct all the wrongs committed against victims of the 1994 Genocide", reads the letter to Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, made public Monday by IBUKA president Théodore Simburudali. He is currently on a trip to the Arusha based tribunal.

The letter adds: "13 years after the Genocide, it is deplorable that the United Nations has closed its eyes and looked away from this problem. The United Nations has only been hunting for the criminal".

"Victims of the Genocide have lived in inhuman conditions ever since with the hope that justice will someday be rendered in form of compensation", the letter notes.

IBUKA demands for compensation for the tens of thousands of victims have come up on various fora but have largely been ignored. The government of Rwanda for its part has preferred to set up general support funds for the victims other than compensation.

According to IBUKA, the victims of the carnage suffered gravely from the "inaction of the international community" to the extent that the Genocide happened as the whole world just looked on, "worst of all with the presence of UN forces".

Thousands of ill-equipped UN mission forces were deployed in Rwanda during the Genocide but were told by then UN head of peace keeping Mr. Koffi Annan "to keep out of trouble". Days after the Genocide had started, Belgium even ordered its soldiers out of Rwanda.

According to media reports from Arusha, Mr. Théodore Simburudali came in from New York from where he handed the letter to the office of the UN Secretary General.

The IBUKA letter to the UN boss coincidentally follows that of Hotel Rwanda "hero" Mr. Paul Rusesabagina who has asked Mr. Ban Ki-Moon to use his "high authority to grant a term extension" for the ICTR beyond its 2008 deadline.

Making reference to UN Security Council Resolution 955 creating the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Mr. Rusesabagina says the court has "only prosecuted members of one side to the (Rwandan) conflict".

ACP block favours fund

Despite calls from various campaign groups for some form of international mechanism to help the victims out of the pain as part of reconstruction support to Rwanda, the UN system has instead preferred to channel its contribution through engagement with government directly.

Early April, the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations called on the international community to "demonstrate greater solidarity" with the survivors of the Rwandan tragedy by establishing an international assistance fund.

The group said in Brussels (Belgium) April 7 that considering the "extreme poverty and miserable conditions in which the orphans, widows and survivors of the Genocide live", they need to be "supported to avert a possible backlash".

The 71-nations grouping said states need to strengthen cooperation to eliminate societal ills hatred, intolerance, racism, and tyranny - considered to be the root causes of the violence and Genocide.

The ACP also wants the mandate of the costly International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) "continued within an acceptable framework". The UN Security Council has however ordered it close down "completely" by 2010.

The $1.5 billion court has only managed to convict a dozen suspects and was recent set aback by the decision of trial chambers to award $2000 to an acquitted suspect.