13 November 2008
editorial
Kigali — The retraction by key witness, Abdul Joshua Ruzibiza, in the Jean Louis Bruguière, indictments against key Rwandan Government officials is likely to throw the spanner in the works of the case the French Government has so tenaciously pursued over the years.
In his confession, aired on Rwanda's private radio station, Contact FM, the former Rwanda Defence Forces officer, exposes the link between the French government and the notorious Genocidal forces, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
A development that vindicates those who have long argued that the invocation by the French of the principle of Universal Jurisdiction was just a malicious abuse of the international justice system to meet their political ends against the current Rwandan Government.
Rwanda has since warned of the potential flaws in the application of the principle that can lead to anarchy in the global justice system.
But, as the old adage goes, truth has long years. No amount of political chicanery, blackmail or any kind of deception can hide the fact that there are over a million bodies buried on Rwandan soil today.
People who were killed in a well oiled (financial and technically supported) operation, that was well calculated and organised for months as exposed in the Mucyo Commission Report. There are French officials named in the report who are yet to be made to account for their actions.
Thus, the importance of Ruzibiza's confession. It shames Rwanda's detractors but also punches holes into the notion of the thoroughness and superiority of Western justice systems. While confessing that he framed the indictments, Ruzibiza tells us that he met the judge Bruguiere in question, for less than 30 minutes.
"Even for the 30 minutes we were together, we actually did not even exchange more than five words as far as I remember," said Ruzibiza. And a whole country's leadership is supposed to come down.
De grâce, messieurs!
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