updcongo.com

“Genocide Planning”  Again Rejected at ICTR

ARUSHA, TZ – Nov. 17.09 –  The Bureau of the ICTR Defense Lawyers Association (ADAD) applauds the Appeal Chamber rejection of charges of “genocide planning” in acquitting Protais Zigiranyirazo, the brother-in-law of Rwandan President Habyarimana whose assassination in April 1994 triggered the violence that swept Rwanda, which has been portrayed as a “long-planned genocide.”

Allegations that close associates of Habyarimana, (labeled the Akazu or “small house” in Kinyarwanda) were engaged in a conspiracy to kill “Tutsis and moderate Hutus” were rejected by the court for the second time in less than a year.  The acquittal adds to growing evidence that Kagame and the RPF has conducted a successful disinformation campaign to de-legitimize the former Rwandan government, and to deflect attention from their own crimes in Rwanda and the Congo.  In December 2008 the NY Times and most recent of four Reports by UN Experts detailed the occupation and illegal theft of Congo resources by Rwanda and Uganda since the 1996 invasion,  which has resulted in some 6-million civilian deaths.

The Appeal Chamber acquittal follows the December 2008 Military-1 Trial Chamber Judgement, published in Feb. 2009, acquitting four high-ranking military officers guilty of “conspiracy to commit genocide,”  including Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, the alleged  “author of the genocide.”  After 7-years of trial,  the court found that Prosecutor’s evidence was explained by normal military planning in the course of the war that raged for 4-years,  following  the 1990 invasion of Rwanda from Uganda, by the RPF army of current Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

The Zigiranyirazo acquittal was announced on the same day that the ICTR defense concluded a three-day conference at The Hague that highlighted the fact that ICTR Prosecutor Del Ponte publicly stated in 2003 that she had evidence to prosecute the current government.  All of the 80 ICTR accused are associated with the former Rwandan government. None of the “victors” of the four-year Rwanda civil war have been charged by the ICTR, although both France and Spain have charged more than 40 members of the current Rwandan government for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, including current President Paul Kagame.

According to Del Ponte, she was removed from her ICTR post by the US and UK when she refused to follow instructions from the US State Department to drop all investigations of Kagame and RPF crimes because they were important allies of the US in Africa.  The continuing “cover-up” of RPF crimes was furthered by her successors Chief Prosecutor Abu-Bakr Jallow and his deputy Steven Rapp, the current U.S. war crimes ambassador.

ADAD calls for ICTR trials to be halted; ICTR convictions to be reviewed by an independent UN Commission; and, conditional release of detainees pending completion of a full investigation of manipulations of the ICTR by Security Council members.

— 30 –

HISTORIC FIRST INTERNATIONAL DEFENSE COUNSEL CONFERENCE CONVENES AT THE HAGUE:

“The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and Its Legacy”

THE HAGUE – 16 Nov. –  For the first time in history, defense lawyers before international criminal courts convened a self-organized conference to discuss, and publicize, the obstacles that prevent accused persons from receiving fair trials, particularly at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Nearly 20 law schools, legal and human-rights groups from Europe, Africa and N. America were co-sponsors.

The keynote speaker, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, challenged the legality of UN criminal tribunals that are not authorized by the UN Charter and stated that, “…when history becomes a fiction that we agree upon, the most devastating damage results…the ICTR has only prosecuted the side that lost the war in Rwanda, while the victors have been granted total impunity….”

More than 120 international criminal defense lawyers, scholars, historians, philosophers, human rights activists, and experts in Rwandan culture presented some 40 papers and answered audience questions about fair trial issues, in light of former ICTR Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte having publicly documented the manipulation of ICTR prosecutions by the US and UK to create impunity for their ally, the current government of Rwanda.

“Ad hoc criminal courts should not be created by the UN Security Council….which is inherently a political body,” observed Austrian political philosopher Dr. Hans Koehler. Prof. John Laugh land of the Sorbonne noted examples of political interference with UN tribunals for both Rwanda and Yugoslavia. Noted Rwanda scholars Dr. Helmut Stride of Germany, Prof. Fillip Reinters of Belgium, Dr. Bernard Logan of France and ICTR defense counsel provided details of the deepening understanding of the violence that swept Rwanda in 1994.

Although ICTR Prosecutor Del Ponte publicly announced in 2003 that she had evidence to prosecute the current government, the 80 ICTR accused are all supporters of the former Rwandan government. None of the “victors” of the four-year Rwanda civil war have been charged by the ICTR, although both France and Spain have charged more than 40 members of the current Rwandan government for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, including current President Paul Kagame.

The Security Council has announced the de-funding of the Rwanda tribunal.  Speakers noted that the UN has a continuing duty to provide on-going protection of detainees’ rights, proper jail conditions, and meaningful procedures for revision of convictions.  UN protection of the ICTR archives in a neutral site like other international tribunals, is necessary to guarantee an accurate and accessible historical record.  The many outstanding unprosecuted Rwandan government crimes, which continue in the eastern Congo today according to the NY Times and UN Expert Reports in late 2008, disqualify Rwanda as a site for any UN-related institutions.

-     30 –