UN General Assembly
1995

aspect has worn thin. The refugees destroyed a priceless national heritage: the national park of Virunga, a site listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a national treasure. The local flora and fauna — mountain gorillas, elephants and other protected species — were not spared. The environment, the ecology, and basic sanitary and educational infrastructures were destroyed. General Assembly resolution 49/24 of 2 December 1994, on special assistance to countries — including Zaire — receiving refugees to help restore the areas destroyed by the massive presence of refugees, has so far had no impact or follow-up whatsoever. Zaire, a victim of the tragedy in Rwanda by virtue of their common border, has been accused, with increasing frequency, of attempting to destabilize Rwanda. The accusers are none other than those who wish to use the refugee question to destabilize the Great Lakes area in order to live out their dream of creating a new Ima empire that would challenge the principle, inherited from colonized times, of the inviolability of borders; they would attempt to