* U.N. peacekeepers need more powers, training-Rusesabagina
* Urges cutting direct development aid to Africa
By Olesya Dmitracova
LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - Seventeen years after the United Nations failed to stop a genocide in Rwanda, its peacekeepers in Africa still lack muscle and need reform, says the man who saved 1,200 people from the 1994 carnage.
Persistent violence against civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan&${esc.hash}39;s Darfur region, which host the world body&${esc.hash}39;s two largest forces, shows that U.N. peacekeepers should be given more powers, said Paul Rusesabagina whose work inspired the Oscar-nominated film "Hotel Rwanda".
"They are just neutral observers who stand there and see how criminals are butchering those who are victims," Rusesabagina, who heads a U.S.-based anti-genocide charity, told Reuters on a visit to London.
"The mission of observing should change and become something else. It can become a mission of protecting, making peace -- they have to come there and make peace."
Such international observers in Rwanda could not prevent machete-wielding Hutu militiamen from killing some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 100 days in 1994.
Most of the around 2,500 U.N. peacekeepers in the country at the time were withdrawn after the massacre began and Rusesabagina said that those few that remained were not even allowed to shoot.
Partly in response to its perceived failure in Rwanda, the United Nations agreed in 2005 that it had a "responsibility to protect" people at risk of mass atrocities and foresaw a sliding scale of international action, including intervention by force. For that to work, U.N. forces also must be much better trained, Rusesabagina said. "These people when they come, they speak at least 50 different languages, they&${esc.hash}39;ve never trained together -- how are you going to command such a force?"
Moreover, rich nations should stop supporting brutal African governments by injecting development aid into their budgets as the money does not filter through to the poorest but ends up in the pockets of the elites, said the softly spoken 56-year-old.
"Stopping direct aid is one of the things that should be done," Rusesabagina said, echoing comments by former World Bank economist Dambisa Moyo.
Zambian Moyo says Africa not only has little to show for more than ${esc.dollar}1 trillion in development aid over the past 50 years, but is worse off because the aid distorts economies and encourages bureaucracy and corruption.
The 2004 movie "Hotel Rwanda" tells Rusesabagina&${esc.hash}39;s story. He was a hotel manager who used his connections with the Hutu elite to protect Tutsis and moderate Hutus fleeing militiamen. (Editing by Alison Williams)
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