UNITED NATIONS -- Five years after the worst massacre in recent African history, Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed yesterday an independent inquiry into the United Nations role in the killing frenzy in Rwanda in 1994.

In a letter to the Security Council last week, the secretary-general asked the council to support an inquiry, a spokesman for Annan said yesterday. The probe, which is to have "full access" to U.N. records, including sensitive diplomatic cables, would establish facts and reach conclusions about the response to the tragedy, the letter said.

Annan wrote that he sought the inquiry because of the scale of the killings and to resolve the questions that "continue to surround the actions of the United Nations immediately before and during the period of the crisis."

The letter follows widespread criticism of Security Council actions before and during the massacre, as well as criticism of Annan, who was heading the organization's peacekeeping operations.

An estimated 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed in 1994.

Critics have contended that Annan played down a warning from Gen. Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian U.N. commander in Rwanda, that Hutu extremists were planning a massacre, and that Annan denied him permission to seize hidden arms intended for use in the killing.

The announcement about the inquiry drew a mixed response from human rights figures.

The Amnesty International representative at the United Nations, Florence Martin, praised the initiative, saying, "Apart from the issue of what the body did or did not do to prevent the genocide -- and it has a fairly miserable record in this regard -- any lessons learned from Rwanda would be most welcome."

Pub Date: 3/24/99