A former defense investigator at the Rwanda Tribunal’s trial of Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda, Léonidas Nshogoza, was found guilty of contempt yesterday and sentenced to 10 months imprisonment for repeatedly meeting with and disclosing protected information about two witnesses.

Although this was a much different offense than that of another former defense investigator, Joseph Nzabirinda, who in 2007 pled guilty to murder charges for his involvement in the genocide, it is nonetheless important as brings up the difficult problem of witness protection measures before international tribunals.

The ICTR has the power to order that particular witness be classified as ‘protected’ for reasons of security, and has often done so.  At trial, the witness will generally testify live under an alias, screened off from the public viewing gallery; any identifying information will be given in closed session, or else redacted from the public record if mistakenly given in open session.

However, in the past some have argued that while such measures are taken at the court’s seat in Arusha, Tanzania, the Tribunal has failed to protect witnesses after their testimony, which has in turn had a chilling effect on the willingness to testify.

While the full Nshogoza judgment is not yet publicly available, it was alleged during trial that in the context of Kamuhanda’s appeal, Nshogoza met with protected witnesses in violation of a court order not to do so and in the presence of third parties (at times sympathetic to Kamuhanda) discussed their testimony, and bribed them to recant.  Ignoring the obviously glaring problem of investigators allegedly bribing witnesses to falsify testimony, in a society that is still struggling to overcome the ramifications of the 1994 genocide of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, disclosing a witness’ identity even by simply meeting with them in a public place can itself have serious implications.

Nshogoza’s conviction is a step in the right direction for the ICTR, but it is also an example that needs to be taken into serious consideration when creating or implementing witness protection procedures in other instances.  While the ICC in particular has recognized this in shoring up its protection unit, the lines between bringing an accused to justice, protecting their rights, but also protecting the safety of witnesses, will forever be precarious ones to walk.

An appeals court for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda upheld a life sentence handed down in 2007 for a provincial leader implicated in attacks against Tutsis.

The Appeals Chamber of the United Nations upheld the December 2007 ICTR ruling that convicted Francois Karera to a life sentence for three counts of genocide and crimes against humanity, the U.N. reported.

ICTR had found that Karera ordered Hutu militiamen to attack Tutsis in his Kigali-Rural prefecture.

Hutu militiamen in the wake of the death of Rwanda President Juvenal Habyarimana, and in the course of about 100 days, brutally massacred at least 500,000 Tutsis in 1994.

Agence-France Press reports the Rwandan government may issue indictments against former French President Francois Mitterand and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin for their alleged role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. A recent Rwandan government investigation held approximately 20 French officials, including Mitterand and Villepin, responsible.

At the same time, a Rwandan official has been arrested in Germany on charges she assisted in shooting down Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane in 1994, an incident which provided a pretext for the genocide to begin.

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