Exclusive:
Government officials drew up a communications plan demanded civilians were protected and aid allowed to get in despite Tories pushing through the Safety of Rwanda Act
Government officials secretly drew up contingency plans for the outbreak of war in Rwanda – even as Tories voted it was a safe country, The Mirror can reveal.
Former Foreign Secretary David Cameron was briefed on a communications strategy demanding civilians were protected and aid allowed in. The revelation comes days after Robert Jenrick became the first Tory leadership candidate to pledge to resurrect the controversial Rwanda project, which was scrapped by Labour.
Memos obtained by this newspaper show preparations were underway in the Foreign Office in case tensions between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) escalated. One email, sent on January 17, shows Lord Cameron and his deputy, Andrew Mitchell, were warned of “heightened regional tensions” after troops crossed the border into Rwanda. But on the very same day, Rishi Sunak’s Safety of Rwanda Bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons with no mention of growing war fears.
Human rights groups said it was “shocking” that Conservative ministers pushed the legislation – drawn up after the Supreme Court ruled Rwanda wasn’t safe – despite knowing it could be dragged into a serious regional conflict.
After The Mirror obtained the internal Foreign Office memos under the Freedom of Information Act. Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said the Tories had “run roughshod” over Parliament. He said: “This shows the absurdity of the Conservative Party’s whole approach to Rwanda. They chose to hide the facts and run roughshod over parliamentary scrutiny, just so they could pass a pointless law insisting that rain isn’t wet.
“This nonsensical law should be repealed. It has no place on our statute books. And the fact that senior Conservative MPs still want to waste even more taxpayers’ money on their failed Rwanda scheme shows how out of touch they are with the real concerns of the British people.”
While the Bill was going through Parliament, the Government repeatedly refused to share its assessments of the conflict risks. This was despite the US State Department saying in February that Rwanda and the DRC “must walk back from the brink of war”. And Rwanda told the UN Security Council its neighbour is trying to “cause regime change” using force.
In December last year DRC President Félix Tshisekedi accused Rwandan leader Paul Kagame of acting “like Hitler”. Rwanda is accused of supporting the M23 militia, which has been accused of war crimes and forced recruitment of child soldiers, in DRC. It denies doing so.
MPs were ordered to declare it was a safe country in order to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. Former Army colonel Steve Smith, who now heads charity Care4Calais, said: “We know Conservative politicians repeatedly ignored any and all concerns that were raised about their Rwanda plan, including the ruling of the UK’s Supreme Court that it wasn’t a safe country for refugees.
“However, it is still shocking to discover that whilst Tory MPs were voting to self-declare Rwanda a safe country, Tory Ministers were being made aware of the potential for Rwanda to be involved in a serious regional conflict. These concerns were enough for officials to start drawing up communications strategies, yet MPs who were voting on the policy, and the public, were kept in the dark.”
He said Tories maintained on the media that Rwanda was safe “with no evidence to back that assertion up”. And Kolbassia Haoussou, a director at Freedom from Torture – which campaigned against the Rwanda project – said: “Whilst shocking, this news is sadly not surprising. The previous Government had little to no regard for the safety of survivors of torture like me.
“Since the very beginning the ‘cash for humans’ deal with Rwanda was performative politics that has only caused untold harm to refugees.”
The Tories spent £700million on the doomed project – and the overall cost was set to rise to £10billion if four years, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told MPs last month. Despite the massive sums, Mr Jenrick said last week: “I want a stronger version of the Rwanda plan.”
A heavily-redacted document reveals civil servants drew up a communication plan in case tensions between Rwanda and the DRC escalated. It stressed the UK would support a “regional solution to the conflict” if war broke out.
The January 17 email, sent by an unnamed Foreign Office official, updated the Foreign Secretary on an incident on the border between the two nations. It said: “this [Redacted] comes at a time of heightened regional tensions. There is a lot of nervousness in [Redacted] but this would seem to be an isolated incident. The soldiers either inadvertently found themselves on Rwandan territory or decided amongst themselves to cross over. [Redacted]”
There was no mention of the tensions in the Commons that evening, when the Safety of Rwanda Bill passed by a majority of 320 to 276.
On March 26, an official in the Foreign Office’s Central Africa Team sent an email on talks involving DRC and Rwanda in Angolan capital Luanda. They suggested either Mr Mitchell or Lord Benyon posted a “message of support” if there was a positive outcome.
The post would have read: “The UK government strongly encourages continued dialogue as the best way to deliver lasting peace and security in Eastern DRC and the Region.” In the end no such message was posted by either.
Talks in Angola between the two nations remain ongoing. In February Paul Rusesabagina, who saved hundreds of lives during the 1994 Rwanda genocide, told The Mirror his homeland was a “boiling volcano”.
He said: “Rwanda could be a war zone soon, and is definitely not safe.” The Mirror has contacted Lord Cameron, Mr Mitchell and Tory HQ for comment.
