RWANDA: JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED

RWANDA

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”

Benjamin Franklin

“Water, water, everywhere,Nor any drop to drink.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of Ancient Mariner

“Solve Your Problems Yourselves”

“RWANDA WAS SIMPLY TOO REMOTE, TOO FAR, TOO POOR, TOO LITTLE, AND PROBABLY TOO BLACK TO BE WORTHWHILE,”Alison Des Forges (Human Rights Investigator )

• INTIAL INHABITANTS : TWA WHO WERE PUSHED IN TO THE FORESTS BY HUTU MIGRATION.

• HUTU MIGRATED DURING THE PERIOD FROM 5 TO 11 CENTURY .

• TUTSI MIGRATED IN 14 CENTURY.

RWANDA : BRIEF HISTORY

interahamwe

RWANDA : ETHNICITY• POPULATION :12,661,73

3• Hutu (Bantu) 84%• Tutsi (Hamitic) 15%• Twa (Pygmy) 1%

Summary of Genocide - Timeline

April 6, 1994: Rwandan president’s plane shot down. Official start of genocide.

April 7, 1994: Rwandan Forces (FAR) set up roadblocks, killing moderate Hutu and ethnic Tutsi.

10 Belgian peacekeepers murdered, sparking the withdrawal of foreigners living in Rwanda.

July 15, 1994: RPF captures the capital, 2 million Hutu civilians and government reps flee.

April1994

July 1994

June 22, 1994: United Nations Security Counsel sends French forces to create safe zones.

April 21, 1994: United Nations Security Counsel reduces UNAMIR peacekeeping forces to 270 military personnel.

April 19, 1994: Human Rights Watch claims more than 100,000 people killed in Rwanda.

April 28, 1994: Oxfam counts 500,000 people dead.

Victims• Dead: 800,000 dead in 100 days (8,000 per day)

– Causes: Machete, and to a lesser extent, firearms

• Targets: Tutsi Minority Ethnic People, Moderate Hutus

• Refugees: 550,000 refugees and 350,000 internally displaced people

GENOCIDE

SPECIFIC INTENT CRIME• Accused must intend

to destroy, in whole or part, a listed group

or…• Accused must have

clear knowledge he was participating in genocide

GENOCIDE

ANY OF THE FOLLOWING ACTS COMMITTED WITH INTENT TO DESTROY, IN WHOLE OR PART, A NATIONAL,ETHNICAL, RACIAL, OR RELIGIOUS GROUP, SUCH AS:

• Killing members of the group• Causing serious bodily or

mental harm to members of the group

• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Common Article 3 of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949

In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions: (1) Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed ' hors de combat ' by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria. To this end, the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons: (a) violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; (b) taking of hostages; (c) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment; (d) the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples. (2) The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.

Command Responsibility

• Criminal responsibility for conduct of subordinates

• Knowledge– Ordered or knowingly permitted conduct– Knew or should have known of conduct

• Act or omission– Had capability to prevent– Failed to prevent

Perpetrators• When: April 6, 1994 – July 15, 1994• Who: Hutu-led government and Hutu extremists

Theoneste Bagosora(1941-present)

Chief of Staff, Ministry of Defense

Established Interahamwe Militia

Interahamwe Militia(1990-present)

Hutu Militia Extremists

Radio Television Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM)

(1993-1994)Popular Hutu-led Radio Station

Jean-Paul Akayesu• Mayor of Taba township in Rwanda during 1994 genocide• Convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, first-ever conviction for genocide, life sentence• International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, 1998

Perpetrators

What’s Happened Since?• November 8, 1994: United Nations Security Counsil

resolution creates the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

• December 1995: ICTR announces first indictments against eight suspects, charging them with genocide and crimes against humanity.

• December 1, 1996: Start of national genocide trials in the Gacaca Courts.

• May 4, 2012: Gacaca Courts officially close after trying more than 2 million cases.

GLARING FAILURES OF UN AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUMITY

PRIOR TO GENOCIDE• Numerous warnings of impending genocide were transmitted, and an

armed United Nations “assistance mission” (UNAMIR), had been in place in the capital, Kigali, since October 1993.

• On starting of hostilities only WHITES were evacuated. No efforts to control riots.

• With the expatriates safely removed, the UN Security Council turned its attention to withdrawing UNAMIR forces.

• On April 21, the Council voted to withdraw all but 270 of the 2,500-strong UNAMIR contingent.

• In March 2004, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan offered a qualified apology for member states’ unwillingness to confront the Rwandan catastrophe

• Director: Terry George• Song : Million Voices“Rwanda, Rwanda, Rwanda, RwandaYeah, yeahThese are the cries of the children, yeahCan anybody out there hear our cries?Yeah, heavens cry, Jesus cry

Lord, did you hear us calling you?Yeah, Rwanda, RwandaLord, did you hear us calling?Can you do something in Rwanda?Rwanda, Rwanda, Rwanda, Rwanda”