Jean Bosco Barayagwiza was ordered free by
the
Appeals Court's decision at the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda (ICTR).
Several organizations and individuals seeking justice around the World hailed the decision. The Organization for Peace, Justice, and Development in Rwanda (OPJDR) would like to underscore the fact that this decision was overdue. But above all, The OPJDR calls on the international community and other individuals to focus more on justice, than on individual cases. As a matter of fact, beyond Jean Bosco Barayagwiza's cases lie many more cases of Rwandan people being illegally detained , some being persecuted, tortured, or killed.
The release by the Appeals Court on procedural grounds closes the case against Jean Bosco Barayagwiza in the ICTR. Since the ICTR is the sole independent tribunal set up to prosecute crimes committed by both the former and current regimes in Rwanda, Barayagwiza should be free from any other prosecution on the subject matter. In fact, although the Appeals Court directed that he be returned to Cameroon, Jean Bosco Barayagwiza cannot be prosecuted there or anywhere else if the international law is applied and his human rights are respected. The ICTR supersedes any other tribunal, local or international, regarding the crimes under prosecution in Arusha.
The case of Jean Bosco Barayagwiza has uncovered a can of worms of the injustice against Rwandans. At Arusha, most of the detainees were illegally arrested and abusively charged. Furthermore all the 150,000 prisoners in Rwanda were illegally arrested and have spent five years in detention without clear charges -if charges at all, trial, or prospect of trial.
Despite, these unprecedented grave Human Rights violations by the current Government of Rwanda, the ICTR has allowed the involvement of the Government of Rwanda in its daily and strategic operations by appointing a Representative of that government in Arusha.
The OPJDR believes that the guilty must be tried and punished. However, as the statutes and laws creating the ICTR clearly stipulate, the guilty comes from both sides of the conflict. These sides include the current government of Rwanda.
But, most importantly, the innocent must be given justice. The 150,000 prisoners of Rwanda must be freed since they cannot get any form of justice from a government accused of the same crimes. Instead of justice, as reported by several international news organization "(they are) kept in prisons for more than five years without trial. These Rwandan prisons have arguably become the most crowded, most dangerous, and most inhumane prisons in the World. Hundreds of thousands of people are held in truck containers, disused factories, old bathrooms, wet or leaking dungeons, or anywhere things can be confined. Crowded cells serve as toilets, sleeping, and living rooms. Prisoners are regularly tortured. Thousands have lost limbs, developed skin diseases, or caught recurrent or terminal illnesses."
Only those with clear and sufficient charges should be prosecuted, not in Rwanda, but by the ICTR. The ICTR, if it sticks to its own statutes, rules, and regulations, is capable of trying all the suspects. No other government can legally try crimes not committed on its own territory.
The OPJDR hopes that the release of Mr. Jean Bosco Barayagwiza has opened the floodgate of justice for all Rwandan detainees around the World, and for all Rwandans in general.
For the Organization for Peace, Justice, and Development in Rwanda (OPJDR).
Felicien Kanyamibwa, PhD.
Coordinator.
The Organization for Peace, Justice, and Development in Rwanda is a non-political, non-profit organization of Rwandans and friends of Rwanda.