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Rwanda: Official Denies Apologizing to UN Delegation Over Fuel Episode
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Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
10 June 2008
Posted to the web 10 June 2008
Kigali
Government of Rwanda did not in anyway apologise to the UN Security Council delegation that was stranded in Kigali on Monday morning - but instead "expressed sympathy", the official who intervened to their rescue has clarified.
"I did not apologise on behalf of the government simply our government had done what it had to do to facilitate the passage of the delegation ranging from flight clearance and crossing the border without passports for some, etc. etc", Ambassador Joseph Mutaboba told RNA on Tuesday.
RNA ran a story yesterday quoting Al Jazeera TV suggesting that after the delegation found itself at the Kigali airport with no jet fuel, American company CALTEX declined to refuel their aircraft unless they paid $20.000 (about Rwf 10million) cash.
It was also reported that Ambassador Joseph Mutaboba intervened and actually apologized on behalf of government to the senior UN diplomats about their fate.
"What I made clear to the delegation was that CALTEX is a private company that has its own ways of running business and the government could not impose (on) them anything" said Amb. Mutaboba, the Secretary General in the Ministry of the Interior and a long time UN diplomat.
"I could not therefore apologise on behalf of the private company. I expressed sympathy for the delays they were in but caused by their own making."
The Rwanda senior official came to let the Envoys continue their journey to Ivory Coast - the next leg of their Africa tour. They had been from DR Congo after coming from Sudan and Chad.
Fearing to get engrained into the long and bureaucratic maneuvers that people demanding payment from the UN have to always endure, CALTEX refused to refuel the Envoys' aircraft unless they paid cash.
The fuel company did not want to accept credit cards on cheques from the UN - notoriously slow at paying - but cash for the fuel.
The diplomats had to search among themselves from their own wallets to pay $20.000 for the fuel.
Interestingly, new information available to RNA now suggests that the episode was the making of the diplomats themselves and the crew aboard the aircraft.
According to Ambassador Mutaboba, the diplomats confirmed to their MONUC (UN Mission to Congo) office in Kigali that they had cash with them.
However, as Ambassador Mutaboba put it: "When they reached here, the crew that had lied to the delegation said they only had 7000 USD!!!"
The Security Council ambassadors are on a trip to promote peacekeeping operations and other efforts to end some of the most intractable conflicts in Africa.
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Clarification: France's Envoy to the UN Security Council and who was also on the delegation is Ambassador Jean Maurice Ripert NOT Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere. The later is the former French Envoy to world body.
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| Copyright © 2008 Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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