International courts: justice vs politics

The tribunals judging crimes in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia were intended to deliver justice for victims of genocide. But several recent impossible to forget. The same goes for those in the states of former Yugoslavia who, also in the 1990s, suffered the loss of their relatives in genocidal crimes. A degree of forgetting may be understandable if not welcome. But far more disturbing is the possibility that political influences or judicial agendas are interfering with the application of justice over the violations of those years. cases suggest that politics may be getting in the way, says Andrew Wallis in Kigali.

Andrew Wallis 27 February 2013

The genocide in Rwanda that claimed up to one million lives in summer 1994 is today far from the top concerns of the international community. But for many thousands of still grieving survivors, it is Monitors from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), based in Arusha, Tanzania were expected in the Rwandan capital Kiagli in the third week of February 2013. The ICTR has handed over a number of genocide suspects to Rwandan jurisdiction, and the monitors' mandate is to assess whether the Rwandan justice system is working effectively with due process in the matter. In fact, Rwanda has within months of the prisoners' arrival finished legal investigations, prepared cases and begun trials. But this very efficiency contributes to the anger of the Kigali authorities at the United Nations monitors' visit, for – according to Rwanda's prosecutor-general Martin Ngoga - it contrasts greatly with the record of France, where two suspects accused of genocide, extermination and multiple rape were transferred for trial in 2008. There, the investigations have made almost no progress. Moreover, the ICTR decided that the French justice system was "competent" and did not need monitors to oversee the cases of former prefect Laurent Bucyibaruta and Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, who continue to enjoy their freedom pending any trial. Why should Rwanda's justice system be subject to monitoring when it is working smoothly in these cases, while France's is endorsed when it is not? Speaking before the monitors' arrival in Kigali, Ngoga was clear. "If these monitors turn up I’ll tell them clearly it is their last time. They are not welcome here. We have done all the ICTR required yet they still send monitors. France has done nothing - and yet is not required to host these people. It seems a clear case of politics, with the poor African country yet again being treated differently despite abiding by rules the western states flout." This new hard stance seems to have paid off in the short term, at least with the ICTR registrar, Bongani Majora. On his own three-day visit to Rwanda in February 2013, he promised that monitors would now be sent to Paris – and that they would be in place before their colleagues are next in Rwanda. It is a victory of sorts for Ngoga; but there is still a suspicion that when it comes to actions, the ICTR is very often found wanting as politics blocks its judicial remit. A question of impunity The charge of hypocrisy over these two alleged genocidaire is part of a far wider malaise at the heart of international justice. Laurent Bucyibaruta and Wenceslas Munyeshyaka were first brought before the French courts in 1995, having fled Rwanda after the genocide. In 2004, the European Court of Human Rights - reacting to a complaint from survivors - condemned the French judiciary's slowness in bringing their cases to trial. The ICTR had considered taking the cases to Arusha before, in 2007, transferring them to France - but only on the understanding that France's justice system would indeed implement justice quickly and thoroughly, according to its obligations. In 2013, however - six years later - the files for both men remain closed and untouched. The ICTR had the option to recall the cases on the grounds that France was doing nothing, but chose for political reasons to remain silent. Bongani Majora, the ICTR registrar, announced during his recent visit: "We have sent a delegation to France to express our concerns that their investigation is going slowly”. After nineteen years of inaction, that is masterful understatement. French pressure-groups such as Survie and the Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR) have noted that Bucyibaruta worked closely with France's Operation Turquoise - the intervention at the end of the genocide that is accused of allowing tens of thousands of suspects to escape justice (many to France). Munyeshyaka, for his part, was allowed to settle in the picturesque Normandy town of Gisors, where the Catholic church gave him a parish and legal assistance to fight the charges of genocide and rape against him. In addition, there are more than twenty high-profile cases in France where no judicial action has been taken, with suspects either released pending further investigation or charges dropped. They include the case of the wife of the former Rwandan president, Agathe Habyarimana, who was described in a lengthy, independent asylum report as "being at the heart of the genocide". French investigators have visited Rwanda searching for witnesses and evidence more than thirty times, without any judicial outcome at home. It is worth continued