AJIIR

Action pour une Justice Internationale Impartiale pour le Rwanda

AVICA

BP 33 Grand Place

1348 LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE

Belgique

JUSTICE et RECONCILIATION

6 Allé Gustave Courbet

94230 CACHAN

France

PRO-JUSTITIA-RWANDA

Postbus 720

3000 AS Rotterdam

Hollande

Paris, 10 - 03 - 2002

To His Excellency George W. Bush

President of the United States of America

The White House

Washington, D.C. 20500

Reference: The International Tribunal for Rwanda

Members of associations and human rights organisations gathered in AJIIR, and which fighting against impunity and calling for all round and genuine justice to the victims of the Rwandan tragedy, would like to express to your administration their shock and deep concern over the statement made by your Ambassador for war crimes, Pierre-Richard Prosper regarding the ending of the mandate of the International Tribunal for Rwanda in the year 2007 or 2008 transferring to Rwanda the accused who would not have been tried and judged by that date. In a statement made at the Headquarters of the ICTR on the 10^th of February 2002, Ambassador Pierre Richard Prosper, said that the " US has a strategy of ending the mandate of two UN ad hoc Tribunals which would then have to wind up their business by the year 2007 or 2008".

We as members of those organisations are deeply frustrated and shattered by the prospect of a materialisation of the alleged US strategy. It is our very considered view that such an action would not only defeat the very purpose of the creation of the International Tribunal for Rwanda but would also undermine the principles that underpin the norms of the rule of law and justice that the US rightly champions all over the world.

In consideration of criticisms levelled against the ICTR of being manipulated politically to defend the military leadership in Rwanda, which the UN Commission of Experts (S/1994/1405) implicitly accuses of having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, such a move would surely justify these criticisms. The UN report points out among other things that the two belligerents in the conflict committed, between the 6^th April and 15^th July 1994, serious violations of international humanitarian law, particularly in its article 3 common to four Geneva conventions of 12 August 1949 and many stipulations of additional Protocols related to the protection of civilians in non international armed conflict, of 8 June 1977 (protocol II.). One crucial element of the stated mandate of the International Tribunal for Rwanda was to track down and try all people responsible for crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994. Article 1 of ICTR, gives the Tribunal the mandate to try people suspected of violating international humanitarian law on the Rwandan territory and Rwandans suspected of committing such violations in neighbouring states during the same period.

Besides the Report of the UN Commission of Experts the present military leadership in Rwanda is also accused of ordering or condoning the massacre more that 200,000 unarmed Hutu refugees in cold blood in Eastern Congo in 1996/7. Some UN investigators of the massacres qualify the latter as genocide of Hutu. The refusal of the Tribunal to take up the reports of Gersony and Hourigan on crimes committed by the present military regime in Rwanda cannot but reinforce frustrations and justify the criticisms.

We are happy to note that your government was indeed instrumental in the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda by the Security Council in its resolution 955 (1994) following the report of the commission of experts in order to investigate crimes against humanity committed in Rwanda between January and the 31^st of December 1994. This is why are appealing to you to make sure that sure that justice is really done to the Rwandan people.

It is very sad to observe that only people from one side of the conflict and belong to one tribe, the Hutu, have been arrested and tried. No investigations have been carried out to punish the people in the RPF government that the UN report identified. This has created a division within the Rwandan community that there is one group, the Hutu, congenitally prone to violence and another the Tutsi, eternal victim of violence only becoming violent in self-defence. Such a thinking is contrary not only to reality but has also been classified by some social scientists as psychological genocide (second category genocide) in which one group of people is led systematically to think wrongly of itself as inferior or guilty. At the very least this could be considered as incitement to racism or tribalism. One may recall that such attitudes of class and ethnic distinctions were reinforced by the successive colonial administrations and are partly responsible for the ethnic divisions that underlie the present Rwandan tragedy.

The choice of Arusha as the seat of ICTR was partly to give the Tribunal a sense of neutrality and independence of the judiciary away from any political interference. Indeed whatever its shortcomings the ICTR, offered at least in theory such aspect of international justice.

Transferring the work of the Tribunal to Rwanda and surrendering Hutu suspected into the hands of Tutsi dominated leadership accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity will add insult to injury and will deepen further ethnic tension, making national reconciliation more elusive.

As if that was not enough, all human rights observers have denounced the regime in Rwanda of gross violations of human rights and of the interference of the executive in the judiciary and in the working of the legislative arm of government. A few individuals in the military who should be now in Arusha on trial hold real power. Surrendering their former enemies would be condemning them to sure death, either in the death prone prisons or to summary judgements and firing squads.

Since 1994, more than 120,000 are languishing in prisons, an estimated 30% are without any charge. They include also minors. Many just disappear and regularly replaced through arbitrary arrests. The new system of Agacaca which has been introduced, financed by the unsuspecting international community is nothing more that a kangaroo court. It is nothing more than a good subterfuge designed to strengthen the iron hand of the political leadership and to demonise the Hutu. In addition it is meant to ensure the policy of dispossessing the families of the detainees.

Gacaca in the traditional form of justice was meant to settle family disputes and not to try criminal cases, which are well beyond their legal know-how. Besides those who are tried do not have any legal representation. This serious shortcoming in any legal system has been pointed out by many respected human rights organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Besides the accused will be tried by those who already consider them as guilty.

Members of our organisations and of the Rwandan community believe that all human beings, irrespective of creed, colour and culture deserve minimum standards of legal safeguards in their trial, especially in matters of life and death.

We believe that handing over the work of the ICTR to the present Rwandan government led by people who are themselves suspected of the very same crimes that the Tribunal was set up to try will have the following consequences;

• Reinforcing the culture of impunity
• Increasing the chances of cyclic violence and militarism. Everybody will feel that the only way to avoid being tried for crimes is to take power militarily.
• Ending any prospect of national reconciliation
• The strong influence of the RPF government on the work of ICTR ending any prospect of justice for the Rwandan people.

We would like to believe that the American authorities and the international community wishes well for Rwandans and consequently will act with caution while considering the ominous prospect of surrendering the lives of people, however big their alleged crimes may be, into the hands of a military oligarchy suspected of having committed the worst crimes against its own people and the people of the Great Lakes Region.

The best prospect and cheapest way that we recommend would be for the US authorities and the International community to do everything in their power to bring to justice the criminal elements within the present regime in Rwanda and help to establish a regime that respects democracy and the rule of law before the year 2007.

Sincerely yours,

Jean Marie Vianney NDAGIJIMANA

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs

Spokesman of AJIIR