§ Mrs. Iris RobinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when the United Kingdom Government first received reports of acts of genocide being carried out in Rwanda; what action the Government took in immediate response; and when. [177663]
§ Mr. MullinRwandan President Habyarimana, and his Burundian counterpart President Cyprien Ntaryamira, were killed on 6 April 1994 when their aircraft was shot down over Kigali. Very soon afterwards, the British Government became aware of media and NGO reports of large-scale violence and mass killings in Rwanda. The then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mark Lennox-Boyd) set out the Government's position and reaction to these events in a debate on Rwanda on 24 May 1994,Official Report, columns 312–15.