November 30, 1999

The Union of Rwandese Democratic Forces (UFDR), a Coalition formed by the Democratic Forces for Resistance (FRD), the Initiative Group for Reconciliation (GID) and the Rally for the Return of the Refugees and Democracy in Rwanda ( RDR), is concerned by the ICTR’s lack of impartiality in indictments and prosecutions of all rwandan suspected war criminals and its progressive loss of independence from the self-proclaimed dictatorial government of Rwanda under the influence and control of the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF)’s suspected war criminals.

In fact, it is on the basis of the reports of the Secretary-General (S/1994/879 and S/1994/906), the Special Rapporteur for Rwanda of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (S/1994/1157, annex I and annex II) and the impartial Commission of Experts’ preliminary report on violations of international humanitarian law in Rwanda (S/1994/1125), that the United Nations (U.N.) Security Council created the ICTR by its resolution 955 of 8 November 1994. The Commission of Experts clearly concluded in its preliminary and final reports that " individuals from both sides to the armed conflict in Rwanda during the period from 6 April 1994 to 15 July 1994 perpetrated serious breaches of international humanitarian law, in particular of obligations set forth in Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions and relating to the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts of 8 June 1977 " and that " ample evidence indicates that individuals from both sides to the armed conflict perpetrated crimes against humanity ". Among the perpetrators of those crimes against humanity and serious violations of international humanitarian law, the Special Rapporteur of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights clearly identified the then "Rwandese State authorities" overthrown by the RPF’s armed wing, Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR), in July 1994 and the "RPF organs, particularly those in charge of military operations", now ruling Rwanda. No one can’t claim that justice is being done if two gangsters commit the same crime but the police chooses to arrest and prosecute only one and leaves the other one completely free of charges.

Although overwhelming evidence proves that the RPF’s military and political leadership also committed crimes against humanity and other serious violations of humanitarian law in 1994, the ICTR’s Chief Prosecutor has until now chosen, for unknown reasons, to indict and prosecute only the weak side to the armed conflict which occurred in Rwanda during the period 1990-1994, namely those who lost power. Five years after the creation of the ICTR, no single RPF’s political or military leader now in power in Rwanda has been indicted and held accountable for his crimes.

All RPF’s suspected war criminals enjoy complete impunity, have been promoted and are protected by the Rwandan State. Even worse, the ICTR’s personnel depend on them for entry visas in Rwanda and need their full cooperation for movement of prosecution and defense witnesses. The oppressed people of Rwanda needs justice for all, without any discrimination based on the ethnic group, past or current position, race, color, sex or wealth of the perpetrators or of the victims of the genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of international humanitarian law. The UFDR believes that the State power should not be a shield from international justice and should not deter the ICTR’s Chief Prosecutor’s office to indict and prosecute RPF’s suspected war criminals now free in Rwanda.

The RPF’s suspected war criminals now controlling the rwandan government have interpreted the absence of any indictment against them as a granted international immunity and extended their crimes beyond the Rwandan borders. Their armed wing, APR, invaded the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), former Zaïre, in 1996 and committed again crimes against humanity and other serious violations of humanitarian law by massacring more than 200 000 civilian Hutu refugees in 1996-1997 in the eastern provinces of Kivu. By its Presidential Statement S/PRST/20 on 13 July 1998, the U.N. Security Council condemned those crimes and urged in particular the rwandan government to arrest and prosecute their perpetrators. Until now, no single rwandan official or any military officer has been punished for these war crimes and crimes against humanity. Instead, all high-ranking officers who committed them have been promoted. Many of them are conducting military operations of the so-called Congolese rebellion against the DR Congo’s President, Laurent-Desire Kabila, and still massacring civilian population.

On October 15, 1999, the rwandan government appointed Mr. Martin Ngoga as its special representative to the ICTR. However, on November 3, 1999, the ICTR’s Appeals Chamber ruled that Mr. Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza be released because of his illegal and prolonged detention without charges. This decision angered the rwandan government which immediately suspended cooperation with the ICTR and incited the organisation IBUKA to demonstrate in the streets of Kigali. It issued an international arrest warrant against Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, refused entry visa to the ICTR’s new Chief Prosecutor, Justice Carla Del Ponte, on 21 November 1999 and asked to appear itself before the Appeals Chamber. In so doing, the rwandan government intends to completely hijack the ICTR and put it directly under its total influence and control. The UFDR condemns the rwandan government’s interference in the process of international justice and appeals to the United Nations and other members of the international community to take all necessary measures to preserve the ICTR’s independence.

For the UFDR

Former Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu

Chairman

(Signed)