U.N. Losing Patience With Rwanda -- Secretary-General Threatens To Cut Aid After Expulsion Of Human-Rights Worker

KAMPALA, Uganda - The feud between Rwanda and the United Nations worsened yesterday as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan - his patience worn thin by a hostile reception in Rwanda and the expulsion of a U.N. human-rights worker there - said from now on U.N. organizations may only work in welcoming countries.

Just hours after Annan left for neighboring Uganda, immigration officials ordered the U.N. human-rights spokesman here, Jose Luis Herrero, to leave the country on the next flight. Herrero had been the only U.N. official in Rwanda who criticized the executions on April 24 of 22 people convicted of genocide.

Annan parried the expulsion with a veiled threat.

"If governments do not want to work with the U.N. and the international organizations, there is a limit as to what you can do, and there is also a limit to patience," he said in Uganda. "So there may come a time when we may have to just cut our losses and focus where we can do useful work."

His comments came after Rwandan leaders boycotted a reception Thursday in Annan's honor because he did not ask their forgiveness for the world's failure to stop the 1994 Hutu government-orchestrated genocide. More than 500,000 people, mostly minority Tutsis, were massacred.

At that time, Annan was director of U.N. peacekeeping operations.

"Within the limits of the resources we had, we did the best we could," he said in a speech to the National Assembly. "My only regret is that we couldn't do more."

A spokesman for the Tutsi-led government later called Annan's remarks "extremely arrogant, insensitive and insulting to the Rwandan people."

Annan expressed dismay that neither government nor U.N. officials mentioned the expulsion order for human-rights spokesman Herrero, issued Thursday, while Annan was still in Rwanda.

The government confirmed it had decided to expel Herrero, the Rwandan News Agency reported.

"He should have gone about two weeks ago," presidential spokesman Joseph Bideri was quoted as saying.

His offense was to have publicly voiced his agency's objections to Rwanda's public execution last month of 22 prisoners convicted in the 1994 genocide.

Herrero complained of receiving no support from the senior U.N. official in Kigali, Omar Bakhet, during the two weeks since his statement to news organizations.

Bakhet said Friday that he intended to take up Herrero's case with the authorities on Monday.

Mary Robinson, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said yesterday that she was recalling Gerard Fischer, who is to take up a post as head of the U.N. Human Rights Field Operations in Rwanda, to consult with him about the Rwandan government's order to cease all U.N. day-to-day operations there.

U.N. human-rights monitors have been unable to work effectively in Rwanda since February 1997, when five staff members were shot and killed in the southwest. The attackers have never been identified.

In a private meeting in Kigali on Friday, Annan told top government officials he wanted to forge a new relationship between the United Nations and Rwanda.

When asked whether the United Nations should "stand up for itself" against such harsh treatment, Annan replied:

"I think it is going to get to the stage where we will have to make some choices, the international community and the U.N., and work with those governments that are prepared to cooperate and to work with us."

Annan departed last night for Eritrea, the last stop on the trip that has taken him to Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, as well as Uganda.

Information from The New York Times is included in this report.