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RALLY FOR THE RETURN OF | |
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4, RUE A. CLUYSENAAR 1060 BRUXELLES BELGIQUE Tél: 32-2-5348035 Fax: 32-2-5348053 |
7, RESIDENCE MONTESQUIEU 49000 ANGERS FRANCE Tél/Fax: 33-41489987 |
December 30,1996
PRESS RELEASE Nº113
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda should get more involved in the ongoing genocide trials in Rwanda.
When the United Nations Security Council took a decision to set up an international tribunal to try genocide suspects in Rwanda, it did so on the ground that the RPF government could not guarantee a fair trial for people with whom it had been at odd for so long.
Indeed, RPF having been the master planner and architect of the so-called October War which had sowed the seeds of the massacres, there was no way RPF could be a judge and a jury. It would have been like asking a moslem court in former Yugoslavia to try a serbian genocide suspect.
In an effort to hoodwink the world that there is a semblance of sanity in the judicial system in Rwanda, RPF has just launched the genocide trials in what look like " Kangaroo trials", whereby a suspect is convicted before trial. RPF is merely interested in creating quickly more room in prison for new caseload returnees who are being rounded up.
On top of the genocide act that is tailored to ensure nothing short of a conviction, RPF is denying suspects basic rights of the defence:
(1) Some of the suspects have not been assisted by legal counsellors of their choice.
(2) There is no slight independence between the prosecution and the bench, because all of them are hard core members of the same ideology, the same political mould(i.e RPF).
(3) Some suspects have been denied the right to plead in a language of their choice, just to accommodate english speaking prosecutors.
(4) The burly crowed of RPF informers consistently intimidate the suspects and at time even bow him down while cheering the prosecutor each time he takes the floor. At no time has the bench tried to cool them down so as to allow the suspect plead his case quietly.
(5) Suspects are not given enough notice to prepare their defence and address the bench. At one time, a suspect was not even given a chance to make the summary of his case.
Given these serious shortfalls in the running of the trials, it is high time the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda gets actively involved in the trials, either as an active observer or by taking over the cases. This is provided for in the statute of the ICTR so long as there is enough reason to believe that there would be a miscarriage of justice.
Eye openers being already there, the ICTR should not wait until the first capital sentence is handed, in order to intervene. It is its "raison d'être" that is in jeopardy.
