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PROSECUTOR DEL PONTE: “The Legacy of the ICTR – Exerpts from: PEACE AND
PUNISHMENT: THE SECRET CONFLICT BETWEEN POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE[1] Evidence of Kagame/RPF war crimes within ICTR jurisdiction
sufficient to prosecute.[2] 261-- Carla Del
Ponte, in December 1999, had opened investigations into Tutsi officers of the
army of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) under Kagame’s
command. These investigations, known as "special investigations" 262--…The Judge
was convinced that Paul Kagame was the instigator
of this attack. However, even though his investigations had reached the
conclusion that the current Rwandan Président was
involved, the immunity granted in France to Heads of State in situ prevented
any prosecution there…In November 2001, the Americans were interested in
Judge Bruguiere’s progress at the ICTR and
questioned Del Ponte on what she knew about Kagame.
But they did not at this time make known their opposition to any proceedings
against their ally in the area of the 263--The
International Tribunals were by now perceived as providing justice at too
high a price, without quantifiable impact and as having a destabilising
effect both in 265--…A side
effect of the ICC was to drive the International Tribunal [ICTY/ICTR] out of
the Europeans’ concerns; they failed to understand that this abandonment
suited the American administration’s crusade against international justice.
The great powers from now on had no further scruples in taking the decision
to close the court.. … The year 2003 was to be the Rwandan Government maniputates ICTR Prosecutions …Prosper[3]
forced a meeting between the Rwandan leaders and the prosecutor of the
International Tribunals Carla del Ponte. For a year relations between 266--[In December
2002]…Prosper further encouraged Del Ponte to…reopen a dialogue with the
Rwandan leaders…The prosecutor accepted readily, because Kigali’s
obstructionism was likely to lead to the acquittal of the genocide suspects,
for lack of witnesses. Almost all the prosecution witnesses come from Officially, Kagame promised his assistance, but the General-President
never intended to hand over a single one of his men to the ICTR. As a result
of the pressures exerted during the summer 2002 Del Ponte was forced to order
her three investigators to suspend their mission in Rwanda, but she refused
to suspend, even temporarily, the work…Unknown to Carla Del Ponte, the
American Michael Johnson, who had arrived in September Del Ponte Ordered by the 267--The arrival
of Del Ponte in mid-May On Wednesday May 14,
2003, at the end of the afternoon…at the State Department… Del Ponte and her
advisers took their seats around the table, opposite
the Rwandan delegation[4]…Pierre
Prosper…took an active role, suggesting the broad outline of the discussions.
The game was skewed from the beginning. It was played according to rules
pre-established by the Americans and the Rwandan…he ended this first meeting
by underlining the need for arriving at an agreement on the transfer of cases
to On Thursday May 15 at 5pm
there was a further meeting in the same room of the State Department…The
message was clear: The ICTR cannot legitimately conduct investigations
against the Tutsi soldiers when it is far from having completed its work on
the genocide. The Rwandans did not deny the crimes… 268--They said
they wanted to deal with it themselves…Prosper intervened on several
occasions to encourage the prosecutor to give up the special investigations
to Rwanda…[del Ponte] was ready to grant the Kigali authorities a few months
to show evidence of their desire to do justice: But she demanded control
of these investigations. Prosper tried to dissuade her from this:
"Rwanda would lead the inquiries and the proceedings…But in a Rwanda
dominated by the Tutsi soldiers…Del Ponte…was unable to allow them to be in
sole charge of the possible prosecutions nor give up her primacy in the
trials…as Prosper insistently suggested…Prosper proposed that these should be
summarized, in the next few days, in a document which could be used as a
basis for future negotiations… 269--Friday May
16, at The document was a
travesty of the content of the discussions of the previous day. It envisaged
the abandonment of all the investigations against suspects belonging to the
Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR) by the ICTR prosecution and their reference to
Rwandan jurisdiction, without any guarantee of results. It required the Arusha prosecution to hand over its catalogue of the
sites of massacres and also "to share all the evidence with the
government of The State Department
advisers noted the objections, and promised to make the necessary
corrections. …The document arrived the following week at the office in 270-- Del Ponte
rejected the document out of hand…For her part, she informed Kofi Annan’s office: he
condemned the American manoeuvre but objected to Del Ponte having exposed
herself to State pressure. Del
Ponte ejected from the ICTR for upholding the Security Council Mandate Prosper[‘s]
…government was under obligation to Kigali having already negotiated the quid
pro quo.. In exchange for the guarantees of impunity against any
prosecutions of tutsi soldiers before the TPIR, 271-272-- Reprisals were
not long in coming. The Americans asked the British to take the lead. A
powerful supporter of the ICC, ...The negotiations
between the members of the Security Council to divide Del Ponte’s job, which
combined the ICTR and the ICTY began in early July 2003. Little did they suspect a
manoeuvre motivated by the desire to set aside Del Ponte in order to put an
end to the "special investigations"…. At the beginning of July, the
draft Resolutions began to circulate, initially between the five permanent
members then between the ten other non-permanent members of the Security
Council. The Americans and British were pulling the strings but continued to
deny their involvement. They represented to their partners that the
initiative came from Kofi Annan…
But Kofi Annan was not
ready for a new confrontation with the Americans. …Disillusioned, Iqbal Riza confided privately
to Del Ponte: "Its all politics.. It should not
have happened like this, but everything is politicized.” Del Ponte responded
"It is unfair that politics undermines our work. I find it wounding to
see that we have managed to ridicule the principles of international justice
just because Kagamé has signed a bilateral
agreement [on the ICC with the The American and British
manoeuvring caused a reaction in Supported by several
members of the Security Council, -…Carla Del Ponte was excluded from the ICTR
prosecution with immediate effect. [1] Paix et chatiment :
les guerres de la politique
The author, Ms. Florence Hartmann, has been a close associate of
former ICTR/ICTY Chief Prosecutor for the time period covered in the book. [Flarion Publishers, [2] Subtitles NOT in the original [ed.] Editing of
translated text by: Prof. Peter Erlinder,
Lead Ntabakuze Defence Counsel in Military 1
and President of ADAD, the defence counsel interests at the ICTR and pas-
President of the National Lawyers Guild, NY,NY. peter.erlinder@ [3] Peter “Pierre” Prosper was the lead prosecutor in
the Akeyesu Case at the ICTR and was appointed
Ambassador for War Crimes and served in the U.S. State Department. [4] The Rwandan delegation was composed of Gerald Gahina, Prosecutor General of |
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