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Rwanda: Indictments Faulty, Say Experts
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The Nation (Nairobi)
27 May 2008
Posted to the web 27 May 2008
Kezio-Musoke David
Kigali
Three legal experts in Rwanda studying the indictments issued against the country's top leaders by two foreign judges to determine their implications have pointed out a number of legal and procedural flaws in the documents by both judges.
Dr Jean-Damascène Bizimana, Umurungi Providence and Prof Jean-Baptiste Mvano said French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière and Spanish judge Fernando Andreu Merrelles, who called for President Paul Kagame's arrest, issued the indictments against Rwanda's top brass without thorough investigations, noting that t neither judge visited Rwanda.
They noted that the French judge's accusations, based on eight years of investigations, provided no proof of field investigations as required by international law.
They also noted that while the Spanish judge repeatedly said his investigations were based on the testimonies of about 22 people, most of these people live abroad in witness protection programmes.
Further, Mr Bizimana, noted, the witnesses where selected only by the two judges. He added that the judges interviewed only those implicated in the genocide or opposed to the current Rwandan regime.
"They are not bona fide or trustworthy witnesses. The judges should consider the moral standing of witnesses. Why did they rely on people who had already been implicated in genocide?" Prof Mvano wondered.
He questioned the authenticity of the witnesses and challenged the judges to produce them.
The three experts noted that the witnesses gave their testimonies on condition of anonymity, which made their evidence tantamount to hearsay.
Turning to the flaws in Mr Merrelles' indictment, the lawyers said his statement that the Rwanda Patriotic Force (RPF) was the rebel group that planned the genocide, when it in fact stopped the genocide, was erroneous.
They pointed out that at the time, the RPF was an internationally recognised political liberation movement and a signatory to the Arusha Accords.
"Would governments have wanted to sign an accord with a terrorist organisation?" Dr Bizimana asked. The legal experts said the Spanish judge had confused deaths during war with murder, crimes against humanity and genocide. Rwanda's Minister for Justice, Tharcisse Karugarama, who attended the extraordinary joint session where the experts presented their views, noted that the principle of "universal jurisdiction" should have been used as a last resort since it was not the sole option.
Mr Karugarama was quoted as saying, "It is very rare for judges to use the independence of the judicial authority where they live from where it is applied. How can they be given value yet they violate basic international legal procedures even in their own countries?"
The experts gave their views just days after legislators attending the ninth ordinary session of the first Pan-African Parliament sitting in Johannesburg, South Africa, resolved to condemn the judges' actions as a blatant affront to the sovereignty an African Union state.
The indictment by the French judge, Mr Bruguière, came in November 2006, when he said the findings of investigations into the circumstances under which the plane that killed former Rwandan president JuvenalHabyarimana crashed had prompted him to sign an international arrest warrant for nine officials serving in President Kagame's government.
Before UN tribunal
Judge Bruguière's also sought to have Mr Kagame brought before the UN tribunal, a move that strained relations between Paris and Kigali, leading them to sever diplomatic relations. Then, in February this year, Mr Merrelles of Spain's National Court issued a 182-page indictment, accusing 40 Rwandan civil and military officers of participating in mass murder and crimes against humanity in the aftermath of the country's 1994 genocide.
He based his accusations on a concept of justice known as "universal jurisdiction", championed in Spain.
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The doctrine holds that crimes such as torture and genocide are so atrocious that those accused of committing them can be tried anywhere.
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