S-1062 contains the records of the Office of the Force Commander, which was in charge of UNAMIR’s military operations. Components of this office represented in S-1062 include: the G2 Unit and the G3 Operations Branch, which were responsible for military intelligence and the planning of military operations (respectively); the Humanitarian Assistance Cell (HAC), which was responsible for providing humanitarian assistance in Rwanda, including the evacuation of foreign nationals; the mission’s Military Observer Group (MILOBS), which was responsible for monitoring the military situation in Rwanda, and facilitating the resolution of conflicts and the provision of humanitarian assistance; and the Medical Branch, which provided medical support to the mission and medical humanitarian assistance to Rwandans. Also included in this series are the records of the United Nations Observer Mission Uganda-Rwanda (UNOMUR). UNOMUR was established in June 1993 to monitor the border between Uganda and Rwanda and verify that no military assistance was being provided across it. It was based in Kabale, Uganda, but ended in September 1993, when its monitoring functions were assumed by UNAMIR.
Records from the Office of the Force Commander include: subject files; correspondence; summaries of meeting between the Government of Rwanda and UNAMIR; summaries of press conferences; operation orders and directives; and lists of Rwandese government members. Documents of the G2 Unit include situation reports, correspondence and subject files.
Records of the G3 Operations Branch consist of situation reports (SITREP); summaries and minutes of the meetings of UNAMIR’s military officers, including those of the Force Commander; the final reports of sectors; revisions and amendments to UNAMIR’s Rules of Engagement (ROE) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP); summaries of meetings, after-action reports, and coordination and security instructions pertaining to Operations Retour, Overture, Hope, Homeward and Passage; and records of the Tactical Headquarters in Butare. The SITREP collected by the G3 Operations Branch include those from: sectors to UNAMIR headquarters; military battalions and companies to G3 Operations headquarters; the Civilian Police Commissioner to the Chief of Staff, describing security and investigations in sectors; and the UNAMIR Military Police to the Duty Officer at UNAMIR Headquarters Operations Centre. The records of the Tactical Headquarters include: reports from the Integrated Operations Centre (IOC); incident reports (INCREP); situation reports (SITREP) from sectors, battalions and companies; and SITREP sent from Tactical Headquarters to UNAMIR headquarters.
Records of the HAC include humanitarian requests from governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for food, water, medical supplies, building materials, office equipment, transportation and the evacuation of personnel. The evacuation request files include lists of persons requesting evacuation and documents pertaining to missing persons and efforts to locate them. HAC records also include lists of internally displaced persons (IDPs) evacuated from Rwanda.
Military Observer Group (MILOBS)
The MILOBs forces were deployed to geographic sectors created by UNAMIR. Much of the documentation of MILOBS activities was created at the sector level. At the sector level, MILOBS records include: briefings for Sector Commanders and summaries their conferences; SITREP; humanitarian assistance records; and records pertaining to IDPs and refugees. These SITREP describe the political, military and humanitarian situation in a given sector. They document significant changes or incidents affecting an area’s judicial system, medical and transportation services, population, prisons or detention centers. Records of humanitarian assistance at the sector level inventory food, water, medical and housing supplies, and provide statistics about returnee settlement in communes and information about the status of an area’s orphans. Documentation of Rwanda’s IDPs and other refugees includes: lists of people present in communes, camps and other locales; maps of camps and communes; correspondence; and reports on the return of IDPs and refugees to their homes. Other subjects covered by records from MILOBS sectors include: the conditions in and staffing of prisons; the activities of NGOs and UN agencies; the location and condition of mass graves; and the activities of the Integrated Operations Centre (IOC), which was created to coordinate the return of IDPs to their homes.
Other MILOBS documentation includes: reports prepared for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG); operation orders; SITREP sent from the MILOB Group headquarters to UNAMIR’s Force headquarters in Kigali; records detailing contingency plans and the extension of the UNAMIR mandate; records pertaining to visits of the sectors by the Force Commander; reconnaissance reports; and minutes, briefings and notes pertaining to meetings and conferences attended by the Force Commander and other officers, including meetings between the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) representatives and UNAMIR officers.
Medical Branch
Records of UNAMIR’s Medical Branch include monthly treatment reports, memoranda (called FLOATS), health hazard outbreak reports, medical diagnosis and treatment reports, standard operating procedures and policy documents. Subjects covered include: the medical evacuation and repatriation of UNAMIR staff; humanitarian medical assistance; and medical operations planning. Also present are records documenting medical support provided to UNAMIR by NORMED, an NGO operated by the Norwegian Refugee Council.
UNOMUR
UNOMUR’s records include: SITREP sent from the SRSG to United Nations headquarters in New York; reports, memoranda and statistics exchanged with the Department of Peace-keeping Operations (DPKO); and reports and memoranda from the Royal Netherlands Army. Also included are records concerning the UNOMUR mandate, UNOMUR’s closing and relations between UNOMUR and the Ugandan government.