I have the honor to transmit to your excellency, herewith attached, the analysis which I made of the nature of the International Criminal for Rwanda and of his capacity to achieve the official missions that the Security Council assigned to it on November 8, 1994.

This analysis is based on an experiment of more than four years that I have just passed in detention under the responsibility of this Court including two years, approximately, in illegal and arbitrary detention (April 1, 1996 - October 23, 1997) under deplorable conditions for my physical and moral health.

The 20 months passed in the Cameroon prison were very testing and gave me the first real impressions on the nature of the justice which I was going to face. I was unpleasantly surprised against to run up a wall when none ofmany complaints sent to the President of the ICTR on the violation of my fundamental rights received no answer.

The three years that I have just passed in the United Nations detention Center in Arusha (Tanzania) were not less testing owing to the fact that I continued to carry out the same combat against Titans for the safeguarding of my ridiculed fundamental rights. If it should be recognized that, as for the conditions of detention, the situation is far better than in Cameroon, in relation with the psychological pressure, there was no improvement, on the contrary. It is true that, this time, I do not carry out any more the struggle against an invisible, anonymous and inaccessible adversary. But, it is true thathis face is shifty, cold and as much insensitive with the respect to my inalienable rights.

However been rewarded in my efforts to defend my rights was paying. Indeed, by its Decision of November 3, 1999, the ICTR Appeals Chamber recognized the systematic violation of my fundamental rights since my setting in detention on request of the Prosecutor (1 April 1996) until my extremely late appearance before the Judges (February 23, 1997). It ordered my immediate release and the dismissal of the indictment drawn upagainst me by the Prosecutor. But the political pressures exerted on the ICTR by the Rwandan Government and its powerful sponsors have constrained the Appeals Chamber to revise, on March 31 2000, its decision to release me and to dismiss of the indictment of the Prosecutor while confirming the violation of my fundamental rights. I did not give up for as much my struggle, but unfortunately the Appeals Chamber refused to examine, on the merits, my motion for review of the Decision of March 31, 2000 which is based on documents falsified or obtained under fraudulent conditions.

And yet, I had accepted with hope and confidence, like other Rwandan compatriots, the establishment of the International Tribunal for Rwanda. I had believed that this court was going to finallymake it possible to establish the truth on the Rwandan catastrophe cause by 4 years of fratricidal war and of unprecedented ethnico-political massacres. I had thought, with naivety perhaps, that this court will be able to finally do justice after exhaustive and impartial investigations; to make appear all persons suspected of serious violations of humanitarian international law ; to condemn the culprits and to release the innocent ones following a procedure respectful of the rights of all the parties and leading to just and equitable trials. I currently note that I was mistaken on all the line.

I ran up against the reality of life.  I understood that law is the slave of the force and of the power and I knew that actually, the truth is only relative. It is too dependent on the political environment and not necessarily on the reality of the facts. I found a court obliged to give up its independence and its impartiality to take into account this "  reality  " and " environment  ". I was amazed to learn from the writings of the Judges themselves who were to render justice to me that the Court did not function in "   clouds  ", but in the "  reality  ". It stems from that that the justice which they must render can onlyto answer the actual balance of force as so well illustrated by the decision to maintain me in detention following the pressures from the Government of Rwanda and from its powerful sponsors.

The Judges of the appeals Chamber of course proposed compensations for the violations which I underwent during approximately two years of illegal and arbitrary detention, but as long as I know, there is not any possible compensation for the loss of liberty. There cannot be any adequate pecuniary evaluation even for a single day of detention. No day of recovered freedom can compensate for one day of freedom lost following an illegal detention. It is irremediable. The compensation suggested, in my case, by the Appeals Chamber is thus an illusion. In fact,this compensation is all the more illusory as the possibility of having a just and equitable trial in a court subjected to constant political pressures and which consequently seems compelled to render the justice of powerful and of the victor, is non-existent.

The document attached herewith will give you the details of my reflexions which are true, not only in my own case but in all the proceedings carried out within this tribunal. My case is only one illustration, rather eloquent one. The conclusion of all this analysis is obvious : the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was created under the conditions which do not guarantee its independence and its impartiality ; the Judges of this court work under intolerable extra-legal pressures which do not enable them to carry out just and equitable trials ; this court is unable to fulfil its primary objectives , namely, to put an end to the massacres in Rwanda, to fight against impunity while making appear before justice all the persons responsible for serious violations of the humanitarian international law related to the period under its competence and thus contribute to national reconciliation. The defendants at the ICTR deserve however that the right to an independent court and impartial Judges is guaranteed.

For my part, I am convinced of my innocence. I am ready to face the charges from the ICTR Prosecutor and all other charges in front of a just and independent tribunal and really impartial Judges who would not be obligedto give up justice to satisfy political pressures as it is currently the case with the ICTR. I am ready to appear before any court of any democratic country, respectful of the humans right and, particularly, of the right to life and to a just and equitable trial.

I thus request from you, Excellency Mr the Secretary-general, to agree to examine with benevolence my cry of distress, in the name of the universal justice which the Organization that you lead is supposed to be the best guarantor. I do hope to know the conclusions of your analysis of the situation before the beginning of my trial (October 23 2000) towards which I am inexorably pushed with too much precipitation in violation of my right to have time and facilities necessary for the adequate preparation of my defence.

Please accept, Mr the Secretary-general, the assurance of my deepest respect.

Judges at ICTR (all) - Arusha & Hague

Me Carmelle Marchessault, the Lead Counsel. Fax N° 514 843 81 04

Mr. David Danielson, Co-Counsel. Fax N° 206 623 87 17

Mrs. Marie Robinson, High Commissioner for Humans Right - Geneva

Amnesty International -London

Human Rights Watch -New York

Fédération Internationale pour les Droits de l'Homme (FIDH) - Paris