Michel Bagaragaza officially plead guilty to Genocide today at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.  He had reportedly entered a plea deal last year with the prosecution ahead of his trial this month.  Bagaragaza was head of OCIR-Tea which controlled the tea industry of Rwanda and used this position to facilitate Genocide against ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda:

He was initially charged by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) with ordering his subordinates and instigating others to kill hundreds of Tutsi civilians near a tea factory.

Mr. Bagaragaza helped establish, fund, train and arm the Hutu-dominated rebel Interahamwe militia to carry out attacks on Tutsi civilians and to have been the honorary president of a local Interahamwe unit. He also ordered tea factory employees to provide the Interahamwe with vehicle fuel, arms and ammunition from a stockpile at the factory and ordered them to help kill hundreds of Tutsis, the Tribunal said.

Bagaragaza fled to Kenya after the Genocide.  Bagaragaza turned himself in August of 2005 to the ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania as part of an undisclosed “amicable arrangment” with the prosecution.  He was later transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia at The Hague due to security concerns.  These concerns stem from Bagaragaza giving testimony in earlier cases against former colleagues including Habyarimana’s brother-in-law.  He requested and was denied referral to the national court system in Norway after it was determined that Norway had no provision to prosecute Genocide and in The Netherlands after doubts arose that their judicial system would be able to carry out the prosecution.  He was subsequently returned to the ICTR in Tanzania where he entered his plea today.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda suffered a major loss this past week with the untimely death of prosecutor Shyamlal Rajapaksa. His body was found in his Arusha home in Tanzania where the international tribunal is located. Mystery surrounds the forty-two year old’s death with explanations proffered from drug overdose to murder. What has been lost in the coverage of his death has been his accomplishment in life.

Shyamlal Rajapaksa was the son of the former Sri Lankan Minister for Health, George Rajapaksa, brother to current Sri Lankan MP, Nirupama Rajapaksa, and nephew to current Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa. He accepted appointment to the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda in spite of a promising political career in his home country of Sri Lanka. According to Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Kenya, Rajapaksa had recently been promoted to Chief Prosecuter of the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda, effective at the end of August.

Rajapaksa was educated in law in the United Kingdom where he attained an LL.B. and LL.M. After that he worked in the Sri Lankan Attorney General’s office before appointment to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. His surviving wife, Prashanthi Rajapaksa, is currently a prosecutor before the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia at The Hague.

Rajapaksa served as co-prosecutor in the “Government II” trial involving four former Rwandan Cabinet Ministers and accused war criminals. The case against them began in 2003 and closing arguments were entered in December of last year. Judgment is expected in mid-2010.

The four ex-Ministers include former Minister of Health, Casimir Bizimungu and former Liberal Party leader and ex-Minister of Trade, Justin Mugenzi. Bizimungu is alleged to have permitted the murder of Tutsi hospital patients, who were already casualties of the ethnically motivated attacks, and of Tutsi hospital staff during the 1994 Genocide. Mugenzi was an outspoken advocate of the Tutsi mass killings, often taking incitement of violence to the air waves.  He was also known for making special visits across Rwanda during the genocide congratulating murderous mobs.

The four accused have already been acquitted of some of the charges against them  on technical grounds. But the powerful testimony of hundreds of witnesses, and the touring of massacre sites in Rwanda (including hospitals under Bizimungu’s charge) should assure their conviction for very serious war crimes.

Thanks in no small part to Shyamlal Rajapaksa.

Rest in peace.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) must prosecute those officers of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) allegedly responsible for war crimes taking place during the 1994 genocide, says Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The advocacy organization argues in a series of letters that the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) has enough evidence to prosecute senior RPF members responsible for the Kabgayi killings, where 13 clergy members and 2 other civilians were killed by RPF soldiers.  HRW attests that instead the OTP referred the cases to local Rwandan officials, where only low-level soldiers were prosecuted when there was “evidence suggesting a planned military operation ordered by more senior level commanders.”

HRW asserts that if the Rwandan government will not pursue these leaders, the ICTR should.

Thus far all trials before the ICTR have been of Hutu government, militia and business leaders – with regard to acts performed in furtherance of the 1994 genocide that killed over 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The mass violence was sparked when, in April 1994, Hutu President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down.  No one has yet been held responsible for the assassination.

But Hutu leaders blamed the incident on the RPF, a militia composed of Tutsis exiled in Uganda, who had for years been fighting with Rwanda’s Hutu-led government.  The RPF and its leaders, including now-President Paul Kagame blamed the incident on Hutu Power extremists who needed a scapegoat in order to begin the genocide.

In any case, soon after the killings of Tutsis and moderate Hutus began, the Tutsi-led RPF rebels launched a full conventional war against Hutu government forces and eventually brought an end to the genocide by taking Kigali in July 1994.

It is during this military action, in which the UN estimates 25,000 to 45,000 civilians were killed, that Human Rights Watch alleges unresolved RPF war crimes occurred.  However, since many former RPF leaders are now in government, HRW argues that domestic Rwandan trials are not being fairly carried out.

And thus it states, whether or not to bring an indictment before the ICTR is not simply a choice between international justice and local justice, but is rather a choice between “international justice and impunity”.

On her ten day trip through Africa, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will make two stops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) - capital Kinshasa and Goma in the east.

Estimates state that conflict in the DRC (a country the size of the US east of the Mississippi) has resulted in 3.5 million to 7.8 million deaths since 1998, and hundreds of thousands of rapes.  Thus international human rights organizations have called on Clinton to urge the prosecution of those military personnel responsible for human rights abuses - in particular ongoing crimes of sexual violence.

In fact, the stated purpose of the Secretary’s visit to Goma is to put a ‘great deal of focus on the issue of sexual- and gender-based violence which is occurring in the eastern Congo’ and she ‘intends to encourage and push the Congolese Government as well as MONUC, the UN peacekeeping force there, to take a much more aggressive stance against gender-based violence.’

Following UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s report on the systematic use of sexual violence as a weapon as recognized in Security Council Resolution 1820, this trip needs to be a step towards general recognition of the issue’s importance in conflict situations - not just in the DRC, but across the globe.

Mourners gathered in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica to honor the victims and mark the anniversary of the bloodiest massacres during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.

War crimes fugitive Gen. Ratko Mladic led his troops in July 1995 into the U.N. safe-haven of Srebrenica and “stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, military and civilian, elderly and young, of their personal belongings and identification, and deliberately and methodically killed them solely on the basis of their identity,” according to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

A video that surfaced during ICTY proceedings depicts members of the Scorpions paramilitary force leading Bosnian Muslims to their execution in a field in Srebrenica. In one incident, six men are shown being taken from the back of a military vehicle and forced to march single file to meet machine gun fire - one man at a time - by the Scorpions. During the video, a soldier is shown emptying an entire magazine into the head of one of the prisoners, protesting “I have a few more shells left!”

In July 1995, Dutch troops operating under the U.N. Protection Force in Srebrenica attempted to turn back Serbian forces by firing warning shots in their direction. Supporting airstrikes were called in by NATO forces, but were abandoned due to poor visibility. Dutch forces surrendered and Serbian forces captured Srebrenica on July 11, 1995.

When the situation was complete, over 8,000 civilians were massacred in the worst episode of ethnic cleansing since the extermination of the Jews in World War II.

Serbian officials in July 2008 captured Bosnian Serb wartime president Radovan Karadzic following 13 years on the run for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He allegedly coordinated events at Srebrenica along with Mladic.

Bosnian Serbs to this day deny the events at Srebrenica amount to genocide, though world leaders continue to condemn the atrocities. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown described Srebrenica as the “darkest day” in Europe since the Holocaust, while U.S President Barack Obama calls the event a “stain on our collective consciousness.”

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 it 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