War Crimes

Officials in the Rwandan capital of Kigali decided to hold a civilian trial examining the role of former Sen. Anastase Nzirasanaho in the 1994 genocide there. Nzirasanaho is classified in the “first category” of alleged planners of the genocide in Rwanda. He is also accused in the April 1994 murder of Theoneste Gafaranga, a leader of the rival Social Democratic Party.

Rwanda established its Gacaca (ga-cha-cha) courts as a system of community and grassroots legislative bodies that typically deal with village and familial disputes. The courts are presided over by community leaders and elders using traditional tribal customs and other forms of judicial authority. The Rwandan Gacaca has four categories for alleged perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide; planners, organizers and leaders; accomplices of voluntary homicide, perpetrators of bodily harm and perpetrators of crimes resulting in property damage. The Rwandan Gacaca heard its first case in March 2005.

This is very interesting. There was some commentary during Sen. John Kerry’s presidential bid on how to deal with al Qaida suspects and others accused of plotting against the national interests of the United States. Kerry brought up the point that prior to Sept. 11, the civilian courts displayed the ability to prosecute suspected terrorists and the federal government was perfectly willing to use them. I think it was Ex parte Merryman, which dealt with the suspension of habeas during the Civil War, that referenced early uses of extra-judicial authority. In the early Supreme Court examinations of the Guantanamo detainee cases, the Justices emphasized that the history of U.S. constitutional law repeatedly forbade the use of extra-judicial processes to examine crimes so long as the civilian courts were open and functioning. The planners of the first WTC bombing, for example, were tried and sentenced by a civilian court and are biding their time in prison now, so why not use that system for the GITMO cases? I would speculate that the Bush administration will do that as his mea culpa evolves throughout the rest of 2008. How ironic it would be to base the judicial examination of suspected terrorists on a grassroots system in Rwanda.

Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian general who led a U.N. peacekeeping mission during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, testified in Canadian court Tuesday for the war crimes trial of Desire Munyaneza.  Munyaneza is charged with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in relation to attacks at the National University of Rwanda against the Tutsi ethnic minority.  Witnesses have testified that Munyaneza, 40, was a role player in the Interhamwe militia that raped and murdered scores of civilians.  He is the first person, and only person thus far, to be charged under Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act permitting the prosecution of suspects for crimes committed in other countries.  The law went into force in 2000.

Dallaire, now a Canadian senator, did not testify specifically to Munyaneza’s actions, but did highlight actions committed by the Interhamwe and other militias.  Dallaire testified how the genocide began after a April 6, 1994, plane crash killed the Rwandan president, Juvenal Habrarimana.  Dallaire said he had tried to mediate the ensuing ethnic conflict targeting Tutsi and moderate Hutus.  In the days following the April 6 crash, militiamen circulated with lists of who to target.  “There were no prisoners. They were killed on the spot,” Canada’s National Post said.

Dallaire also described how peacekeeping forces were ill equipped as the conflict spiraled out of control.  Belgian troops were overrun in the initial phases of the conflict, and others arrived without equipment.  As the conflict gained momentum, U.N. peacekeeping forces ran out of ammunition.  Belgian troops were later withdrawn after several of its members were killed by roving militias.

In 100 days, it is estimated that 800,000 people had been slaughtered by the Hutu government in Rwanda.

AP

An appeals court in France has ordered the release of two Rwandan men suspected of complicity in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a Roman Catholic priest, and Laurent Bucyibaruta, a former Rwandan civil servant, were detained in France on July 20 after the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) issued arrest warrants for the two men. The French court ruled that the arrests were improperly processed and ordered their immediate release. They remain under judicial control in France, however, Rwandan officials have stated that “to release such suspects accused of the biggest crimes like genocide is absurd.”

Father Munyeshyaka, 49, is charged with acts of genocide and rape. He stands accused of the murder of three Tutsis in his parish in Kigali as well as the rape of four woman. The priest was sentenced in absentia last year by a military tribunal for complicity in genocide and rape. Mr. Munyeshyaka is accused of “direct and public incitement to commit genocide.”

Rwandan officials see the action as politically motivated. France and Rwanda have halted diplomatic negotiations after French officials accused Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, of the death of his predecessor. The Kagame government, in return, accuses France of training the militia leaders responsible for the massacres in Rwanda and for supporting the political leaders who incited the atrocities.

Kagame’s predecessor, Juvenal Habyarimana, was killed when his plane was shot down over Kigali on April 6, 1994 - an event seen as sparking the genocide in Rwanda. Over the next 100 days, over 500,000 ethnic Tutsis were massacred by radical Hutus. The genocide halted after Tutsi rebels associated with Paul Kagame defeated the Hutu extremists in July 1994.

BBC/AP/Reuters

The Rwandan government has asked France for the extradition of two men arrested last week for their alleged involvement in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a Catholic priest, and Laurent Bucyibaruta, an ex-civil servant, were detained in France after the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) issued warrants for their arrest. The two had been living in France for years. The arrest warrants allege the two men played in role in orchestrating the slaughter of 800,000 ethnic Tutsi’s and moderate Hutus in the central African republic.

Munyeshyaka has been charged with complicity in rape and genocide, while Bucyibaruta has been charged with genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, extermination, murder and rape.

Rwandan officials have implied that France has provided refuge to alleged war criminals involved in the genocide. It also accuses French troops of training the troops who carried out the massacres, though France denies the charges, pointing to its role in the U.N. peacekeeping mission sanctioned in Rwanda. Rwanda severed relations with France after a French judge implied Rwandan President Paul Kagame played a role in the death of the former ruler - an event which sparked the 100 day genocide.

Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) - Police said they had arrested two Rwandans living in exile in France who are wanted by an international court trying suspects in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

Cleric Wenceslas Munyeshyaka was detained in Gisors, some 60 km (38 miles) northwest of Paris, where he has been living since 2001.

Munyeshyaka, formerly head of the Sainte-Famille parish in Kigali, was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment last November by a military tribunal that found him guilty of complicity in genocide and rape.

The second Rwandan, Laurent Bucyibaruta, was detained in a village in the Champagne area near Troyes, 140 km (87 miles) southeast of Paris, where he has lived several years with his wife and children.

Bernard Ntuyahaga, a former Rwandan army officer, was handed a 20 year sentence in a Belgium court for his involvement in the murder of 10 Belgian peacekeepers in 1994.  He is also alleged to have been involved in the massacre of an unknown number of of Rwandan citizens.  The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda had dropped the murder and genocide charges against Ntuyhaga in 1999.  He voluntarily surrendered to Belgian authorities in 2004, after officials there had embarked on a lengthy extradition proceeding.  The murder of the Belgian peacekeepers led to U.N. withdraw from Rwanda, which opened the way for the beginnings of the genocide there, in which over 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered.

Reuters

Isaac Kamali, a former senior member of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND) in Rwanda, was arrested trying to enter the United States. Kamali, who was detained in Philadelphia, is suspected of participating in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda where roughly a half-million Tutsi minorities were slaughtered. Interpol had issued a Red Notice for Kamali and appears on Rwanda’s most wanted list it had supplied to the international police organization.

Kamali was working in southern France was traveling on a French passport. Rwandan officials have accused France of harboring masterminds of the 100 day genocide in Rwanda. He is alleged to have moved to France in 1997. Rwandan officials have stated their desire to see Kamali extradited to Rwanda or to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The United States and Rwanda do not have an extradition treaty, however, the nature of Kamali’s alleged crimes fall under international obligations.

Kamali is indicted on several counts of murder, extermination, and inciting genocide. He is accused of actively participating and orchestrating the initial onslaught against the Tutsi minority following the assassination of the Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana. The assassination was seen as a catalyst for Hutu militias to begin a systematic cleansing campaign lasting roughly 100 days and resulting in nearly a half-million dead.

Reuters/The New Times of Rwanda

A majority of the Rwandan parliament voted to abolish the death penalty there last Friday. The move will eliminate obstacles regarding the extradition of war crimes suspects back to Rwanda to face prosecution. Many countries will not execute extradition treaties with countries that practice capital punishment. The new legislation is somewhat controversial, however. Some of the survivors of the genocide there have expressed strong opposition to the abolishment. The survivors have noted that the death penalty existed in Rwanda before the genocide there in 1994, but it did not “deter people from picking up machetes to slaughter their fellows.” Officials, however, have noted the death penalty is an obstacle to justice. The new legislation will allow fugitives to be transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Rwandan officials have expressed frustration over the ICTR process and want suspects transferred to face to face trial at home. The law has yet to be approved by the senate.

The African Union (AU) contingent in Darfur is calling for cooperation between peacekeepers and rebel groups associated with the Sudanese government. Darfur’s rebel groups are blamed for the rape of one French humanitarian aid worker and other hindrances, including an ambush that killed five AU peacekeepers in April. AU chief of mission, Monique Mukaruliza, said the rebel groups activities had “paralyzed AU activities.” The Sudan Liberation Movement, or SLM, has been implicated in the murder of an Egyptian peacekeeper; the first such incident since international amendments to AU forces began. UN officials, as well as the SLM chief of staff, have not confirmed the allegations, however.

In related news, Chad’s president, Idriss Deby, has tone downed his opposition to the deployment of international military personnel on its border with Sudan. Chad has previously demanded that only police, not soldiers, be deployed in its territory. The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner – who co-founded Medecins Sans Frontieres – has called for a humanitarian aid corridor through Chad, though the proposal has been rejected by Chadian officials.

BBC/AP/Reuters

A Rwandan witness, known as C17, and a frustrated defense lawyer had a fiery exchange during a war crimes tribunal in Canada.  Richard Perras, representing Desire Munyaneza, was warned by Quebec’s Superior Court Justice Andre Denis to be civil in his examination of the witness, after she became exasperated.  C17 has testified for two days about events in 1994, when most of her family was massacred and she was beaten and raped several times during the Rwandan genocides.  She made statements through a translator that she eventually became a sex slave to a Hutu militia, where she alleges she was repeatedly raped by Munyaneza. 

Munyaneza, a Hutu, sought refugee status in Canada in 1997.  Following the passage of laws preventing asylum there for individuals complicit in war crimes, he was arrested in 2005.  According to witnesses, including C17, Munyaneza took part in the massacres in Rwanda, murdering several people with a machete.

UN estimates put the death toll from the genocide in Rwanda at about 800,000.  Munyaneza faces a life sentence from seven charges, including genocide and crimes against humanity.  Canadian law, passed in 2000, states that it “will not become a safe haven for persons who have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity or other reprehensible acts regardless of when or where they were committed.”  Formally, Canada was seen as a haven for war crimes, including Nazi war criminals.  This is Canada’s first war crimes trial.

The Canadian Press affiliates is covering this today here.

Memorials regarding the 13^th anniversary of the massacres in Rwanda have commenced this week. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement earlier this week reflecting on “one of humankind’s darkest chapters.” The Secretary General made comments that it is important to “never forget” and “never stop working to prevent another genocide.” He highlighted measures taken by the United Nations, such as the appointment of a Special Advisor for the Prevention of Genocide and the establishment of an Advisory Committee on Genocide Prevention. He also highlighted actions taken by African nations, including the Pact on Security, Stability and Development for the Great Lakes Region, which contains a protocol on the prevention of genocide. Additionally, the Acting Deputy Registrar Chief of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Everand Donnel, indicated that 72 people have been arrested for war crimes in Rwanda as of February 2007. And the US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes, Clint Williamson, made statements calling for all fugitives to face trial before the mandate for the ICTR expires at the end of 2008, with appeals extending to 2010.

On April 6^th, 1994, the President of Rwanda was assinated when missile fire downed his plane. The following day, Hutu gunmen begin executing moderate Hutu politicians and Tutsis. US officials in the area made statements highlighting the “genocide” that is occurring. The estimated death toll from the first day is 8,000. The US subsequently decides to evacuate all American’s, and Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, head of the peacekeeping mission there, is told not to intervene. Over the next few days, American, French, Italians and Belgian forces are evacuated from the region. By April 22^nd, the UN Security Council voted to withdraw 90% of its peacekeeping force, leaving General Dallaire with a force of less than 2,000 troops, largely cut-off from communications. By April 25^th, UN forces are down to 450, with death tolls nearing 150,000. On May 1^st, a US State Department briefing cautions against the use of the word “genocide” as it may force US hands to “actually do something.” On May 25^th, US President Bill Clinton made the following statement;

“”The end of the superpower standoff lifted the lid from a cauldron of long-simmering hatreds. Now the entire global terrain is bloody with such conflicts, from Rwanda to Georgia. Whether we get involved in any of the world’s ethnic conflicts in the end must depend on the cumulative weight of the American interests at stake.””

By the end of June, French troops under a UN mandate have established a safe zone in the region, though the massacres continued. Finally, by July 17^th, many in the Hutu government have fled to neighboring Zaire, the French are replaced by an Ethiopian force, and the genocide is largely over as the Tutsi dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front, led by Paul Kagame, overthrew the Hutu regime.

In 100 days, it is estimated that 800,000 people had been slaughtered by the Hutu government in Rwanda.

As testaments from the Belgian forces testify, the slaughter was significantly animalistic. Ten Belgian troops of the UN mission were “castrated and died choking on their genitalia.” Many Tutsi civilians were hacked to death with machetes, butchered by their fellow Hutu villagers. As President Clinton’s comments testify, the issue is not a matter of forgetting the atrocities; it’s a matter of summoning the political will. With American memories still lingering over the events in Somalia – where 19 US servicemen were killed – the eagerness to expend defensive measures on non-defensive actions is low. UN efforts have been mounting for a quick reaction force which may circumvent the reluctance to intervene. In his seminal Report of the Panel on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, Lakhdar Brahimi highlights many of the handicaps of UN missions and calls for a UN force with combat mandates to intervene in ongoing atrocities, like Rwanda. However, the UN is only as willing as its member states. In his statement on the Rwanda genocides, the Secretary General noted that we must never forget. He also noted that we should “never stop working to prevent another genocide”, but we may still be waiting for that work to begin.

Ghosts of Rwanda, a PBS web series, was used to derive the historical narrative.

The quote regarding Belgian troops comes form Scott Peterson. Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda: A Journalist Reports from the Battlefields of Africa. New York and London: Routledge, 2000. 292 (here)

Ban Ki-moon’s statement is here.

Everand Donnel’s comments are here.