, Rwanda appealed on March 7 for the U.N. Security Council to abolish a provision requiring notification of all arms exports to the African nation, saying it impeded its ability to equip peacekeepers.
A Security Council committee set up to oversee the Rwanda arms embargo said in 1996 that it no longer needed to be notified of arms exports but the requirement is still contained in a resolution.
The committee told the Security Council in December that had led to ambiguity and asked the council to decide the future of the requirement.
In a letter to the Security Council, Rwandan U.N. envoy Joseph Nsengimana said Kigali believed there were politically motivated attempts to revive the arms export notification requirement, but he did not elaborate.
“We urge the Security Council to address this issue urgently,” Nsengimana said. “We see no continuing justification for this provision.”
“I am sure there will be little doubt that these requirements would impede efforts to ensure that our personnel serving under United Nations and African Union mandates continue to be well equipped for peacekeeping duties,” he said.
Rwanda currently has police, troops or military observers in U.N. peacekeeping missions in Haiti, Liberia, Sudan and the Ivory Coast and African Union missions in Sudan
