A French court on Wednesday rejected Kigali’s request to extradite Rwandan doctor Eugene Rwamucyo, who is suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide.

The court in Versailles, just outside Paris, also ordered the release of Rwamucyo, who was arrested while attending a funeral in May on the strength of an international warrant issued by Rwanda in 2007.
“This is a relief because this matter is very political and so it’s a victory of law over politics,” said Rwamucyo’s lawyer, Philippe Meilhac.
Rwamucyo is wanted by Kigali for having allegedly planned and carried out atrocities in the Butare region of southern Rwanda.
The doctor, aged in his 50s, is still the subject in Paris of a complaint filed by the families of genocide victims for crimes against humanity.

“The idea is not to avoid proceedings,” said Meilhac. “We hope that French justice will pick up the pace and hear his case (brought by the families) as there’s nothing worse than not being able to defend onself.”

Alain Gauthier, who heads Rwandan victims’ group CPCR, called on French magistrates to “take in hand the other 17 or 18 cases as Mr Rwamucyo is only one among many.”

A court in the southwestern city of Bordeaux is to rule on October 7 on an extradition request against Sosthene Munyemana, another doctor accused of involvement in the genocide.

France has transferred three Rwandan suspects to Tanzania to face prosecution before the international tribunal, but judges have so far refused to extradite genocide suspects to Kigali.

In recent cases, French courts have ruled that the suspects cannot expect a fair trial in their homeland.

Rwamucyo’s arrest came nearly three months after police detained Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of Rwanda’s assassinated ex-president, and one of the alleged masterminds of the genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

It also follows President Nicolas Sarkozy’s landmark trip to Kigali in March during which he said France would do everything possible to ensure that “all those responsible for the genocide are found and are punished.”

Rwamucyo lived in Belgium with his family and until April worked as a doctor in a city hospital in Maubeuge, northern France.

In an interview to AFP last year, Rwamucyo denied the allegations of genocide. He accused the Tutsi-led government in Kigali of waging a campaign against him.

“They are trying to make people believe that all of the Hutus who held any position of responsibility at the time were thinking about killing Tutsis,” Rwamucyo said.

Rwanda has repeatedly accused France of allowing genocide suspects to live comfortable lives in French towns and villages and turning a blind eye to calls for them to face justice.

This news comes amid intense activities of Human Rights groups urging the UN and the international community to cease the cover-up of Rwandan leaders’ genocide crimes. A recent UN report, due to be officially released on October 1st, accuses Paul Kagame and the Rwandan army of crimes against humanity and acts of genocide against Hutus in the DR Congo. Experts estimate that Kagame’s invasion of DR Congo has already cost more than 6 million Rwandans and Congolese lives .

Kigali – President Paul Kagame, reappointed on Tuesday former ministers to their portfolios, maintaining the entire cabinet line-up.

Kagame had earlier on, indicated that he was not about to change a team that was still vibrant and delivering. He made the remarks on Tuesday at the Parliament, during the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister, Bernard Makuza, who was reappointed on Monday evening.

The ceremony was attended by top government officials, lawmakers and diplomats.
In the 8-minute address to the joint session of Parliament, President Kagame accepted the Oath of PM Makuza who sealed his stay at the helm of government which he has led since 2000.

The 49 year-old Makuza took the Oath at exactly 11:00am (0900GMT), some eight days after the swearing of President Kagame, and some seven days left to the end of the constitutionally stipulated timeframe for a PM to be in place.

President Kagame said that he would �wish� to see the current cabinet team returned without any changes � after the new Prime Minister Bernard Makuza had just taken the Oath of Office.

�Even if it will be a new cabinet, I can promise you that a majority – if not all, will return,� said Kagame as the audience in the Parliamentary buildings erupted into lengthy applause.

Essentially closing up on the silent debate that has been ongoing as to who will be named to the new government, President Kagame was clear that he did not expect any changes at the moment.

�That is my wish. I hope we will agree on that with the Prime Minister very soon to avoid a continued vacuum, to allow cabinet to start work soon,� said Kagame, as the audience gave him more applause.

�For those who were preparing to be appointed,� said Kagame as his address was swallowed up by the continued applause, before adding: �You will have to be a little bit patient.�

�As I can see, the current team is not tired yet. We will look at the other aspects in the years to come,� said Kagame.

Kagame said that although the ceremony was about the swearing-in of a new Prime Minister, Makuza was not new to the position. The President pointed out that during his last mandate, a lot was accomplished, and added that there is still more to be done in the next seven years.

He went on to say that he would like to have a nation of hardworking citizens who would fast track the country’s development. The Head of State thanked the leaders for their partnership and commitment. As Prime Minister, he will be in charge of coordinating cabinet activities in accordance with guidelines set by the President.

Makuza, 49, who does not belong to any political party, served as Rwanda’s Ambassador to Burundi and Germany, prior to becoming Prime Minister in 2000, under ex- President Pasteur Bizimungu. He continued as Prime Minister under President Kagame � up until today.
Related:

General Kagame reappoints Bernard Makuza as Prime Minister

Bernard Makuza:
Rwandan Prime Minister since 2000.

Kigali – President Paul Kagame has reappointed Bernard Makuza as Prime Minister on Monday. He is to remain PM after 10 years.

This was announced by the Office of the President.

“According to the Rwandan Constitution, the President has to name the Prime Minister within 15 days of the inauguration and in turn, the Prime Minister will work with the Head of State to identify and put in place a new government or cabinet.”

“As the constitution requires, President Kagame named Bernard Makuza Prime Minister who will be sworn in today in the Parliamentary Building,” official communication from President’s Office indicates.

Speculation had been rife suggesting the Social Democratic Party (PSD) could be asked to provide a candidate for premiership. The most likely candidate was Lower Chamber of Parliament and losing presidential candidate Dr. Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo.

But during preparations for the Kagame swearing, Makuza received all the Heads of State who were in Kigali for the inauguration fete.

As Prime Minister, Makuza will now commence the search for those to make up the cabinet, in consultation with President Kagame. Parliament has no role.

According to the Official Website of the Prime Minister, with regard to his responsibilities, the Premier is in charge of coordinating the functioning of the Cabinet in accordance with broad guidelines set by the President of the Republic, and ensures the implementation of the law.

He also formulates the Government’s program in consultation with other members of the Cabinet, assigns duties to Ministers, Ministers of State and other members of the Cabinet.

Among his powers, he can also convene Cabinet meetings, draw up the agenda of the Cabinet in consultation with other members of the Cabinet and communicate it to the President; he can also preside over Cabinet meetings when the President is not in attendance.

The Prime Minister can also countersign laws enacted by the Parliament and promulgated by the President of the Republic, and also appoint civil and military officers with the exception of those appointed by the President of the Republic.

Among other things, he can sign orders in respect of the appointment and promotion of junior officers of Rwanda Defence Force and National Police.

Prior to his appointment as Prime Minister, 49 year-old Makuza, who is not a member of any political party, was Rwanda’s Ambassador to Burundi and Germany.

His first appointment came under President Pasteur Bizimungu in March 2000, as he replaced Pierre C�lestin Rwigema.

He remained as the head of a new government named on March 8, 2008, which was composed of 21 ministers and six secretaries of state.

As the Rwandan Government grapples to shake off international uproar over the leaked UN report accusing the Rwandan troops of committing acts of genocide and mass murder in DRC,a former RPA Major has joined the fray, accusing genocide suspect General Kagame of systematic Hutu mass killings since 1990. Major Alphonse Furuma also accuses Kagame of attempting to kill former President Habyarimana at the aborted swearing in ceremony of the broad based government early 1994, and reveals why former MP Evariste Burakari, was assassinated.

In a lengthy statement to The Newsline,�Maj. Furuma, a former Rwandese Patriotic Army Political Commissar during the RPA war, and later Aide de Camp (ADC) to the former army Chief of Staff Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa, further accuses his former Commander in Chief, President Kagame, of ordering killings of thousands of innocent civilians during the RPA war and after capture of power.

Maj. Furuma, the first senior officer to fall out with Kagame, details numerous Hutu mass killings, dating from the early days of RPA invasion.

He also accuses Kagame of ordering systematic massacres, laying of mines, looting property,demolishing homes and other building as well as destruction of crops so as to displace the population and create an RPF/RPA controlled territory free of the Hutu.

These crimes, Furuma explains, were carried out between 1992-4 in the Districts of Muvumba, Ngarama, Bwisigye, Kiyombe, Mukarangye and Cyumba. Other districts were Kibali, Kivuye, Cyungo, as well as in Kinigi, Butaro, Cyeru and Nyamugari.

He further says military operations were carried out against known civilian targets, in most cases peasants. �Known Refugee Camps and densely populated villages and Towns were routinely shelled with 120 mm motors, 107 mm rocked launchers and 122 mm guns mounted on hill tops overlooking such locations,� he writes.

Examples of these incidents include the shelling of Rwibare Refugee Camp in Muvumba, Kisaro Refugee Camp in Buyoga as well as Byumba and Ruhengeri towns in 1991 and 1992.

The exiled officer claims that when the Arusha Peace Talks for Rwanda started in 1992, Paul Kagame launched a deliberate policy to create a Tutsiland through Hutu massacres, massive population displacement, property appropriation and land grabbing in the North East, East, South East and in Central Rwanda. �This is the policy we saw at work in 1993, 1994 and 1995,� Furuma says in the statement.

Furuma also accuses Kagame of assassinating Hutu elites including members of the RPF/RPA like Member of High Command Muvunanyambo who was killed in 1992 as well as many civilian cadres recruited from the demilitarized zone in Northern Rwanda between 1992 and 1994.

�Once again, the districts most affected include Muvumba, Ngarama, Bwisigye, Kiyombe, Mukarangye, Cyumba, Kibali, Kivuye, Cyungo, Kinigi, Butaro, Cyeru and Nyamugari,� he asserts.

The former officer also claims there were periodic revenge massacres against the Hutu population whenever the regime in Kigali massacred the Tutsi. For example such revenge massacres were carried out in the RPA Offensive of February 1993 covering the entire North of the country, he says.

�The offensive was launched overnight, by morning several districts had been taken over by the RPA and in the hours and days that followed the Hutu were hunted and shot at sight.

In one location in the District of Ngarama, at least 134 people were massacred and buried in shallow graves�, Furuma writes.

From 1992 up to 1994, Major Furuma alleges politico-military cadres (RPF/A) were infiltrated behind government lines to carry out terrorist activities especially in urban areas.

�From 28th December 1993 to 6th April 1994, this time using the RPA Unit in Kigali, more people were trained, arms distributed and an urban terrorist campaign launched against civilian targets in Kigali City,� he adds.

Furuma says these terrorist groups, among others, targeted high profile politicians including the late President Juvenal Habyarimana, former Minister Gatabazi, Gapyisi and Martin Bucyana. �For example President Habyalimana had been a target for assassination between January and April 1994 at a swearing ceremony of the Broad Based Transition Government scheduled to have taken place at the Parliamentary Buildings in Kigali�, he says.

Major Furuma also says Kagame ordered counter genocide massacres covering the entire nation immediately the genocide started. �All RPA Units were under orders to kill any Hutu on sight and for several months, many soldiers did kill as many Hutu as they could� the statement adds.

Furuma details the massacres at Rwesero Seminary on April 21, 1994, which included seven priests who had taken refugee there; the massacres at Kabgayi on June 5, 1994, which included three Catholic Bishops and other Church leaders; the massacres by the RPA Kigali Battalion in the hours and daysimmediately following the start of the genocide and, the killing of Hutu families in locations north of Kigali City like Kimihurura and Remera. Others massacres, he contends, were carried out in the Province of Gitarama.

by Christopher Black

On August 26, the French newspaper Le Monde revealed the existence of a draft UN report on the most serious violations of human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo over an eleven-year period (1993-2003).1 The massive draft report states that after the Rwandan Patriotic Front’s takeover of Rwanda in 1994, it proceeded to carry out "systematic and widespread attacks" against Hutu refugees who had fled Rwanda to neighboring Zaire (now the DRC) as well as against the Hutu civilian population of the DRC in general.� Crucially, it concludes that the pattern of these attacks "reveal[s] a number of damning elements that, if they were proven before a competent court, could be classified as crimes of genocide."2

The draft report was leaked to Le Monde out of the plausible fear that its most damning facts and charges against the armed forces of the Rwandan Patriotic Front and President Paul Kagame would be expunged prior to its official release.� Sure enough, one week later, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay announced that the official report’s release would be delayed until October 1 "to give concerned states a further month to comment on the draft," and even "offered to publish any comments alongside the report itself."3

Such an unprecedented offer by the UNHCHR follows from a number of factors, including the role that Rwandan troops play in UN peacekeeping operations, and the fact that earlier this year, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Kagame to serve along with Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero as co-chairs of a new Millennium Development Goal Advisory Group.� According to the New Yorker‘s Philip Gourevitch — who, after Alison Des Forges, did as much as anyone to sell the official version of the 1994 "Rwanda genocide" to the West, and clearly remains on very friendly terms with the Kagame dictatorship — "top Rwandan officials [have been speaking] freely and on the record about their efforts to have the draft report quashed."� As Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Louise Mushikiwabo confided in Gourevitch, "If it is endorsed by the U.N. and it’s ever published, . . . if the U.N. releases it as a U.N. report, the moment it’s released, the next day all our troops are coming home. �Not just Darfur, all the five countries where we have police."4

A third, no doubt more decisive factor is that the Kagame dictatorship is a client of the United States and "acts as a mercenary for U.S. interests in Africa," as Glen Ford observes; the current conflict between this dictatorship and the UN "threatens to reveal the United States’ role as enabler in the deaths of as many assix million people while Washington’s allies occupied and looted the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo."5�It is Washington’s ties to Kagame’ RPF, ultimately, as well as London’s and Brussels’, that public discussions of the draft UN report should turn the spotlight on.

But this is not the first such report to have been drafted by the UN — nor is it the first one to be covered up.� As early as October 11, 1994, Robert Gersony, an employee of the U.S. Agency for International Development then attached to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, made an oral presentation to the UN Commission of Experts on Rwanda.� Gersony had been dispatched to survey the situation inside Rwanda to determine if conditions were right for a return of the Hutu refugees who had fled the RPF.� Instead he found that the RPF had been committing systematic massacres of the Hutu population in Rwanda starting in April 1994 and continuing through the date of his presentation.

On page 4 of the UN record of Gersony’s oral presentation, we read:

"Significant areas of Butare Prefecture, Kibungo Prefecture, and the southern and eastern areas of Kigali Prefecture have been — and in some cases were reported to remain as early as September — the scene of systematic and sustained killing and persecution of the civilian Hutu populations by the [Rwandan Patriotic Army]. �These activities are reported to have begun, depending on location, between April and July 1994, immediately following the expulsion from each area of former Government military, militia and surrogate forces. �These [Rwandan Patriotic Army] actions were consistently reported to be conducted in areas where opposition forces of any kind — armed or unarmed — or resistance of any kind — other than attempts by the victims of these actions to escape — were absent. �Large scale indiscriminate killings of men, women and children, including the sick and elderly, were consistently reported."

And on page 6 we also learn that "an unmistakable pattern of systematic [Rwandan Patriotic Army] conduct of such actions is the unavoidable conclusion of the team’s interviews."

The Gersony report is identified in a cover letter dated October 11, 1994, from one Francois Fouinat to Mrs. B. Molina-Abram, the Secretary to the Commission of Experts on Rwanda.� In this brief letter, Fouinat explains:

"We refer to the UNHCR’s briefing to the Commission of Experts on Monday, 11 October 1994.

"As requested by the Commission, we are forwarding herewith a written summary of Mr. Gersony’s oral presentation and copies of some field reports sent to UNHCR Headquarters by UNHCR Field Offices.

"We are confident that as agreed by the President of the Commission of Experts, these documents will be treated as confidential and only be made available to the members of the Commission."

I possess copies of these two UN documents from October 1994 because they are part of the evidence-base at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where I serve as the lead defense counsel for Hutu former General Augustin Ndindiliyimana, once the Chief of Staff of the Rwanda Gendarmerie.� The documents were found by my legal assistant purely by chance while scanning the prosecution’s Electronic Disclosure System, which contains hundreds of thousands of documents that are not indexed in any order.� My assistant came across them as part of a package of material organized by Robert Gersony himself while he was assigned to the UNHCR.� It must be assumed that Mr. Gersony thought the documents relevant, as they affected the fate of the Hutu refugees.

At the ICTR, the brief cover letter by Francois Fouinat bears the index number "R0002906." �The next 14 pages of R0002906 contain the Gersony report and are numbered sequentially with an ‘R’ — prefix number used by the ICTR for documents contained in its Rwanda files.

Because I possess the series of ICTR documents beginning with R0002906, I also have in my possession an even more astonishing document the true historical significance of which has once again been underscored by the leaked UNHCHR report: Namely, the copy of a letter from Paul Kagame to his fellow Tutsi Jean-Baptiste Bagaza of Burundi, dated August 10, 1994.

Let me share with you an exchange that took place on November 18, 2008 in the Military II trial at the ICTR.6� What was said in court that particular day explains how these documents came to light. �I was one of the speakers.

Mr. Black,7

"Mr. President, before I do that — that takes place, I have something which I would like to raise of great importance, I think.

"Yesterday my legal assistant found by accident, something, I think of grave importance for this Tribunal and for the world. �It’s a letter from General Paul Kagame dated the 10th of August 1994 to Jean Baptiste Bagaza, . . . in Burundi. �It’s marked ‘confidential’.

"I didn’t have time to make copies, so I want to read it to you. �It has an ‘R’-number.� R0002905. �It’s in French, so please bear with me to make a loose translation. �It says — it’s only one page and it is short:

‘Dear Brother Jean Baptiste Bagaza, we have the greatest honour to extend our sincere gratitude to you both for your financial and technical support in our struggle that has just ended with the taking of Kigali.

‘Rest assured that our plan to continue shall be pursued as we agreed at our last meeting in Kampala. �Last week I communicated with our big brother Yoweri Museveni and decided to make some modifications to the plan. �Indeed, as you have noted, the taking of Kigali quickly provoked a panic among the Hutus who fled to Goma and Bukavu. �We have found that the presence of a large number of Rwandan refugees at Goma and the international community can cause our plan for Zaire to fail. �We cannot occupy ourselves with Zaire until after the return of these Hutus. �All means are being used for their return as rapidly as possible. �In any case, our external intelligence services continue to crisscross the east of Zaire and our Belgian, British and American collaborators, the rest of Zaire. �The action reports are expected in the next few days.

‘Concerning the Burundi plan, we are very content with your work to ensure the failure of the policies of FRODEBU. �It is necessary to paralyze the power of FRODEBU until the total ruin of the situation in order to justify your action that must not miss its target. �Our soldiers will be deployed, this time, not only in Bujumbura, but in the places you judge strategic. �Our elements stationed at Bugesera are ready to intervene at any moment. �The plan for Burundi must be executed as soon as possible before the Hutus of Rwanda can organize themselves.

‘In the hope of seeing you next time at Kigali, we ask you to accept, dear brother, our most respectful greetings’.

General Paul Kagame
Minister of Defence (signed by his assistant Mr. Rwego8)

"The importance of this letter if you have grasped it fully cannot be overstated. �It means the attack on Rwanda from 1990 was not the prime objective of Kagame and his collaborators. �Zaire was always the prime objective. �That their excuse for the attack on Rwanda about establishing democracy and return of refugees, was completely false. �That the invasion from Uganda had only one purpose: to clear the path through Rwanda to Zaire. �That the return of refugees, as many witnesses have stated, was not for humanitarian reasons, but to clear the path for the invasion of Zaire. �It means that the Americans, British, particularly with Kagame and Museveni, planned the invasion of Zaire [sic] in 1994, probably before that. �It means that the excuse given for the invasions of Congo since this letter was written to clear the ‘Interahamwe’ or ‘genocidaires‘ is completely false. �No mention is made of ‘Interahamwe’.� �No mention is made of ‘genocide’.� It means, since this was received, it looks like a date stamp of this tribunal, 8th December 1994, that the Prosecutor of this Tribunal has been hiding information indicating a conspiracy to commit a war of aggression against Congo-Zaire, Zaire and all of the war crimes have flowed from it since and the continuation of those wars in Congo now begun 14 years ago, if not longer. �And that the principal parties are the principal parties stated in this letter. �It indicates that the prime target, Hutus in Rwanda and Burundi, that they want to suppress the Hutu population in order to carry out their plan. �Democracy was never their concern. �And it indicates that the Prosecutor was in — had information in a territorial and temporal jurisdiction of this Tribunal under rule — under Statute-Article 1. �That they are also concerned with war crimes committed in neighboring states.

"So, here you have the smoking gun, the letter, planning the invasion of Zaire with the Americans and British. �And it confirms our theory all the way through this trial that the Belgians were involved with those other countries. �And again, there must be — and this, as a colleague pointed out, is page 8 of 12. ��So where are the other eleven pages of — what other letters do they have in their hands? �And again, it indicates that these men have been stitched up, falsely accused, in order to clear them out of the way so this plan can take place. �If this is published in the New York Times or Washington Post, the whole picture of the war in Rwanda and the wars n Congo would change.

"So I ask the Prosecutor, once again, where is that file? �And in fact I would like them to produce the indictment against Kagame9 because I want to see what he’s been charged with, exactly what crimes and where.� So, again, I ask for this file to be produced and I ask why they have not acted. �Mr. Jallow and Louise Arbour and everybody else have been protecting the RPF which has now resulted in millions of deaths in the Congo and continues up till today and what is going on in Congo now.

"And I state openly that the Prosecution office is complicit with this invasion of Congo and is responsible themselves for all those murders in Congo because they’ve hidden this for a long time and they could have exposed it many years ago and stopped the invasions.

"If the international community, that is, other than the United States and the Britain, had been aware of what was going on, it would never have taken place. �But they sit there and they accuse us, my client, and the other officers here of committing crimes, they knew what they were doing in Zaire. �I don’t think they can even shave and look in the mirror in the morning."

Mr. President,10

"Counsel, having said all of that, why don’t you send this to the New York Times?"

Black,

"It will be sent . . . whether they publish it I do not know."11

In the days after this letter was exposed the prosecution accused the defence of having fabricated the letter and raised questions about its authenticity.

I replied, first, that the letter bears a sequential ICTR index number with an ‘R’-prefix — the prefix used for Rwanda documents.

Second, as mentioned above, this letter was found among the package of material organized by Robert Gersony while assigned to the UNHCR.

Third, the letter was date-stamped "December 8, 1994" by the ICTR.� Presumably, this was its date of receipt by the ICTR.

Fourth, it is also noteworthy that the letter that we know was created no later than December 8th 1994 speaks of moving the Hutus out of the way in Zaire and this is exactly what happened. �First the UN tried to force them back into Rwanda and partly succeeded.� But the mass of refugees refused to return, so in 1996 the attacks on the Hutu refugee camps began, forcing them to flee into the Congo forest. �There is a lot of testimony by Hutus who were either forced at gunpoint to return to Rwanda or experienced the manhunt against them conducted by the RPF and its allies.

Fifth, the letter is further authenticated by noting that the addressee (the Burundian Tutsi Jean Baptiste Bagaza) did in fact carry out a coup d’�tat in Burundi against a more moderate Tutsi and turned against the Hutu political group called Front pour la D�mocratie au Burundi (FRODEBU, or Front for Democracy in Burundi). �Unquestionably, Bagaza and Kagame were allies.� According to the testimony of expert witness Dr. Helmut Strizek before the ICTR:

Q. "Very well, doctor, let’s move toward the end. �What clarification would you like to make on the relationship between Bagaza and Kagame when the president’s aeroplane was shot down?"

Strizek. "If my memory serves me right, Bagaza had left the country, and I think returned after or before the assassination of Ndadaye. �Bagaza was a hardliner, a Tutsi hardliner, so there was an alliance between the two of them, and they wanted to prevent a Hutu president from being in charge of Burundi."

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Strizek. "Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was a Hima or Tutsi president of Burundi who took power when he overthrew President Micombero, who had been responsible of anti-Hutu genocide in 1972. �He was in power for some time. . . .
"In my opinion, it’s quite clear that Bagaza and Kagame follow the same line."12

Sixth, the man whose signature appears on the letter on behalf of Paul Kagame, Mr. Rwego, confirmed to a member of the defence team that he did in fact sign it.

The accidental discovery of this August 10, 1994 letter from Paul Kagame to his "Dear Brother Jean Baptiste Bagaza" was met with an immediate reaction by the prosecution, who accused the defence of fabricating it, pointing out a typo in the letterhead.� But this line of criticism failed, as it was shown that there are other letters in existence from the RPF on the same stationary, with the same typo in the letterhead, and these letters are regarded as authentic.

That someone regarded the letter as authentic and dangerous is highlighted the fact that I was followed by a Tanzanian police officer the night after I produced it in court and was forced to complain about this surveillance in court the next day.� Yet the prosecution continued its attacks on the letter’s authenticity, even though the document came from the files of the prosecutor.� And this important revelation during the Military II trial was never reported in the mass media — though I did send it to many journalists, including the New York Times.

Now that the draft UN report on the atrocities committed by the RPF in the Congo has been leaked, the findings of the very first UN report of RPF atrocities against the Hutus beginning in 1994 should also be recognized and addressed.

The UN must explain why the record of that 1994 presentation by Robert Gersony was marked "confidential" and why the latest draft UN report does not refer to it.

The prosecutors at the ICTR must explain why they hid these documents from the defence for nearly 15 years, and why, even though they have these documents in their possession, they have never once used these documents to bring charges against a single member of the RPF.

Last, Paul Kagame and his American, Belgian, and British collaborators must explain the meaning of the letter — and in particular, the meaning of the phrase, "plan for Zaire."

�

Endnotes

�1 Christophe Ch�telot, "L’acte d’accusation de dix ans de crimes au Congo RDC," Le Monde, August 26, 2010.� For some additional news reports, see: "UN Uncovers Possible Genocide in Congo: Report," Agence France Presse, August 26, 2010; David Lewis, "Rwandan Army May Have Committed Genocide — UN Report," Reuters, August 26, 2010; Judi Rever, "UN Lawyer Says Congo Butchery Resembled Rwandan Genocide," Agence France Presse, August 27, 2010; Michelle Faul, "UN Draft Report: Rwandan Army Attacks on Refugees in Congo in the 1990s Could Be Genocide," Associated Press, August 27, 2010; "DR Congo Killings ‘May Be Genocide’ — UN Draft Report," BBC, August 27, 2010; Max Delany, Rwanda Dismisses UN Report Detailing Possible Hutu Genocide in Congo Christian Science Monitor, August 27, 2010; Chris McGreal et al., "Leaked UN Report Accuses Rwanda of Possible Genocide in Congo," The Guardian, August 27, 2010; Xan Rice, "Returning Refugees: Lush Land the Prize That Could Reignite Ethnic Conflict in DRC," The Guardian, August 27, 2010; Howard French, "U.N. Report on Congo Offers New View of Genocide Era," New York Times, August 28, 2010; Colum Lynch, "U.N. Says Rwandan Troops Carried Out Mass Killings in ’90s," Washington Post, August 29, 2010.

2�See "Report of the Mapping Exercise documenting the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed within the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between March 1993 and June 2003," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, draft report dated June, 2010, para. 517.

3 �"UN Report on Rights Violations in DR Congo to Be Released Next Month," UN News Center, September 2, 2010.

4 �Philip Gourevitch, "Rwanda Pushes Back Against UN Genocide Charges," New Yorker Blog, August 27, 2010.

5 �Glen Ford, "Rwanda Crisis Could Expose U.S. Role in Congo Genocide," Black Agenda Report, September 1, 2010.

6 �The Military II trial concerns the joint trial of General Augustin Bizimungu, Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Army, General Augustin Ndindiliyimana, Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Gendarmerie, Major Nzwonyemeye, Commander of the Reconnaissance Battalion, and Captain Sagahutu , Commander, Squadron A of the Reconnaissance Battalion.

7 �Let the record show that I have written here exactly what I said in court.� The translation in the trial transcripts is a bit garbled, and I have corrected the text accordingly.

8 �Reference ICTR document number R0002905, letter dated August 10th, 1994, date stamped by the ICTR 8th December, 1994.� Marked as page 8 of 12.

9 �Defence counsel had been informed by a member of the prosecution that an indictment exists against Paul Kagame for war crimes and is being held by the ICTR for the appropriate time. �In order to determine whether this was correct information the defence counsel several times asked the prosecution to provide that indictment as it would affect the defense. �The prosecution never denied its existence and the defence was advised to bring a motion to request it.

10 �Judge Asoka Da Silva of Sri Lanka, Presiding Judge, Tria, Chamber III, ICTR.

11 �Transcript, Military II Trial, November 18th, 2008, pages 1-3.

12 �Transcript, Military II Trial, November 24th, 2008, page 62, lines 19-24; and page 63.

Christopher Black serves as Lead Counsel for the Hutu former General Augustin Ndindiliyimana, Chief of Staff, Rwanda Gendarmerie, in Military II trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

[Mr Zine Monthly Review]

Here is the Commonwealth Final Report on the 2010 Rwandan Presidential Elections.

As a UN report suggests Rwandan complicity in slaughter of refugees, forensic scientists hope to find the evidence

Forensic science experts examining mass graves in the Democratic Republic of the Congo could provide further evidence of a Tutsi-led genocide of Hutu civilians in the mid-1990s.

Jose Pablo Baraybar is a Peruvian forensic expert ( a forensic anthropologist)

A diplomatic row is raging over a draft of a UN report, leaked to the press late last month, that accuses Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s troops of massacring Hutu refugees who had fled to neighbouring Zaire, now Congo, after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that left 800,000 dead.

The Rwandan government reacted furiously to the UN draft last week, calling it “outrageous” and describing its claims as “immoral”. The government is now threatening to pull troops out of UN peacekeeping duties in protest. Many fear the UN will be forced to tone down the report when it is published, after some delay, next month.

Evidence is mounting that Rwandan forces, which were ordered by Kagame into Congo in pursuit of Hutu militias, may have taken systematic revenge on refugees, killing tens of thousands of civilians who had taken refuge in camps and villages across the border.

Killings of Hutus continued into the subsequent war, the Second Congo War, which ended in 2003, and the country is still scarred by conflict.

The Observer has learned that the leak of the report coincides with the completion of the training of the first team of Congolese forensic science investigators, which is being led by Peruvian forensic expert Jos� Pablo Baraybar.

He gained international renown for his investigations in Srebrenica, where 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were murdered by Serbian forces in 1995. Baraybar’s work there was crucial to the declaration that a genocide had taken place.

Baraybar, who has previously worked at exhumations in Haiti, Rwanda and Ethiopia, has spent three months training 40 carefully selected members of the police and the Congolese army in the province of North Kivu, eastern DRC, to “investigate their own dead”.

He told the Observer that the apparent acknowledgment by the world of the massacres in Congo meant work could now start on uncovering the stories of the millions who had since died.

The UN draft report suggests that both Hutu DRC civilians and Rwandan Hutu refugees were being killed up until 2003 by the Rwandan armed forces and Congolese militias.

“Thanks to this new report by the UN we will be able to exhume the bodies that are spread throughout a country waiting for justice to be done for a community that has suffered a genocide, which has been silenced for over 10 years,” said Baraybar.

The new Congolese forensic science team had been practising on cloth dummies in mock graves, he said.

“This was excellent training, very participatory,” said Major David Bodeli Dombi, as he finished the two-week foundation course. “None of us can say we knew this material before we came.”

The testimonies of more than 1,200 Hutus who survived attacks in Congo were collated by the authors of the UN report. Those accounts were corroborated by witnesses in North Kivu, interviewed by the Observer, who backed the claims of Rwandan atrocities.

One witness, Mukaru, a Hutu who was living in the Congolese village of Rutshuru in 1996 when the soldiers came, said: “The Rwandan army arrived in my village, and put us all in an enclosed space. They wanted to talk, they said. I was small and scared, and I didn’t want to go. I ran off and hid, but my family and all the other villagers went in.

“A little while later they took them to the banana plantation and the massacre began. They cut off their heads, and hit them with hammers. They killed all of them, more than 400 people. Women, children, they all died. There was no one left, only me. I was 10 years old.”

Emmanuel, from the same village,said simply: “I am a victim of genocide. They locked us into a large place and began to separate the men from the women. I thought I was going to die.

“There were about 300 of us in that room. They began to take us off in groups of 10 and I could hear gunshots outside. And no one came back. Then they took another 10 men, and then another 10. They did this 30 times. They were being executed. I had to escape.” Thousands of Hutu were decapitated and their bodies thrown into trenches � just as the Hutu killers in Rwanda had done with their Tutsi victims.

In the provincial capital, Goma, police captain Wivine Emwendo has become one of the first female forensic science technicians in her country. She is aware of the importance of her role. “Soldiers and rebel groups have been humiliating and exterminating an ethnic group. I want to help bring those responsible to justice, and I now have the tools necessary to do this,” she said.

Farther north in the town of Rubare, Herve Sabiarimana has created, with the help of the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team, a human rights centre which is compiling a list of the victims, essential data for identification and for the eventual prosecution of those responsible.

Herve said: “We already know where the mass graves are, a total of 49,000 people have been buried in this area alone, and we are now in the process of finding all possible data linked to the disappearances.”

Outside the centre is 12-year-old Bamako who watched his entire family die at the hands of machete-wielding Rwandan soldiers. “My pain is so huge that I need to recover my dead so that I can bury them and weep for them. I don’t want them to be left, buried like animals,” he said.

Despite the fury of Rwandan politicians, the survivors of what may yet be declared a second genocide are eagerly awaiting recognition by the world of what their relatives and neighbours suffered. “Hope now lies in the heart of an entire people who have suffered in silence, suffering a systematic genocide that has gone unpunished,” said Baraybar.

“A light seems to have appeared at the end of a dark tunnel of death. The new Congolese forensic team is ready, at last, to exhume its own dead.”

[Guardian]

Kigal – Two French judges arrived in Kigali on Saturday with a team to investigate the assassination of Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana in 1994. Rwanda cut off diplomatic ties with France in November 2006 over the investigation, after arrest warrants were issued against nine people close to President Paul Kagame. They have since been restored.

�We are in a new diplomatic environment. Today�s situation allows the mission to go ahead, something that was not possible two or three years ago,� Emmanuel Bidanda, a lawyer of one of the victims, told RFI.

Lawyers for the victims, who are plaintiffs in the inquiry, along with lawyers of three Rwandans close to Kagame who were wanted on international arrest warrants, are accompanying the French team.

Judges Marc Tr�vidic and Nathalie Poux will spend a week in Rwanda looking into how Habyarimana�s plane was shot down. He was killed, along with Burundi president Cyprien Ntaryamira and others who were on board. The incident sparked the three-month genocide in which 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, were killed.

France is investigating the assassination because the pilots of the plane were French. The judges will be accompanied by experts in geometry, ballistics, explosives and fires, and hope to determine from where the missiles were shot.

They suspect a commando squad of Rwandan Patriotic Front, the Tutsi rebel group headed by Kagame, who seized power after the genocide, infiltrated the lines of the mainly Hutu Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR).

Rwanda says the attack was carried out by Hutu extremists within the FAR who wanted to eliminate the president in a coup d��tat. A Rwandan report, supported by a ballistic survey conducted by British experts, shows the missiles were fired from a big FAR military camp.

At the request of defence authorities, the investigating team will take witness statements as well as copies of the evidence that the copies of the evidence used by Rwanda to draw its conclusions.

�What is important for the serenity of the judge�s work is that there not be any diplomatic consequences,� said Bidanda, who added that the investigation is a new step that will help to �resolve contradictions�.

When Alison des Forges made several requests to the UN for the report, she was told the report didn�t exist.

�Gersony Report� is the name given to the unpublished 1994 findings made by a team under American Robert Gersony under contract to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that identified mass killings by the Rwandan Patriotic Front rebels after their military victory in the civil war in post-genocide Rwanda.

Large-scale indiscriminate killings of men, women, children, including the sick and the elderly, were consistently reported � Mass killings at meetings: Local residents, including entire families, were called to community meetings, invited to receive information about �peace�, �security� or �food distribution� issues. Once a crowd has assembled, it was assaulted through sudden sustained gunfire; or locked in buildings into which hand-grenades were thrown; systematically killed with manual instruments; or killed in large numbers by other means. Large-scale killings which did not involve such �meetings� were also reported.�

Soldiers asking residents to gather in order to attend a meeting, surrounding them and opening fire on the crowd are the same RPA killings pattern reported in DR Congo by the authors of �maping exercise� draft report (see page 118 to 122).

Similar to the recently leaked UN �mapping exercise� Report, Gersony�s findings were leaked to the international media, infuriating the RPF-led Rwandan government which claimed to have not been consulted during the evidence gathering exercise.

Gersony Report available here (PDF file)

The Gersony Report: It�s Findings and more.

(by the World News Journal)

In 1994, as the UNHCR and the U.S. Embassy in Kigali encouraged Rwandan Hutu refugees to come back to Rwanda, reports of wide scale massacres emanated out of the countryside. The UNHCR appointed a team (led by Robert Gersony) to investigate. This team was unique because it was the only team that was allowed to travel freely though the country without RPA escorts. They visited 41 communes and 9 refugee camps to collect evidence. In the report on his findings, Mr. Gersony states he believes that the RPA committed genocide against Hutu in Kibungo, Butare, and parts of Kigali and between early April to mid-September 1994, the RPF killed between 25,000-45,000 Rwandans, both Hutu and Tutsi. At times, Hutu prisoners were used as slave labor to dig the mass graves and dump the bodies in.

The report was so damaging to the UNHCR, RPF and UNAMIR that UN officials covered it up in October 1994, despite the fact UNHCR officials on the ground (on the order of UNHCR head Ms. Sagato Ogata) stopped encouraging Rwandan Hutu refugees to return to Rwanda because of the killings, as reported in the New York Times at the end of September.

Mr. Gersony was instructed never to talk about it publicly.

The public would even be told in later years that the report never existed. In her book �The Turbulent Decade,�� Ms. Ogata describes Gersony �formalizing his report for presentation to the commision of experts� on October 11, 1994. In his recent book on the Congo, Mr. Gerard Prunier said Kofi Annan told then VP Kagame, the late Seth Sendashonga (then Interior Minister), PM Faustin Twagiramungu, and President Pasteur Bizimungu the UN would withhold the report to allow the RPF government time to consolidate after providing them with a copy of the report.

The report made its way to the UN Commission of Experts on Human Rights via then UN Secretary General Boutros-Boutros Ghali. Mr. Gersony briefed the commission in Geneva. However, they inexplicably basically dismissed the report (pg. 15). Mr. Gersony later allegedly told Mr. Prunier during a meeting with him that he had never written a �fully developed version� of his findings because he knew they would not be published. Instead, he had only �field notes� in �documentary form.� (pg. 466) When Alison des Forges made several requests to the UN for the report, she was told the report didn�t exist.

The report was also potentially damaging to the United States, a strong supporter of the new Rwandan government. As described by Mr. Prunier in his book, then Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs Timothy Wirth was given orders by the State Department to discredit the report. Mr. Wirth travelled to Kigali and several places in New York, spreading disinformation by attacking Gersony�s methodology and claiming it was a �Hutu conspiracy.� He also delivered carefully crafted propagandic press statements. (pg. 31)

Though a physical report itself has proven to be very elusive and, as noted above, some claim it doesn�t exist, a cable from Mr. Shaharyar Kahn to UN HQ in New York gives the findings and is available below. Mr. Gersony and his team subjectively concluded from the investigation that the RPA committed genocide against the Hutu. The cable also shows Kofi Annan (then Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping) and Mrs. Sagato Ogata, head of the UNHCR, expressing their concern if the report were to be released publicly. According to Mr. Kahn, he and Mr. Annan later concluded that RPA massacres did occur, but they were not genocide, contradicting the findings of Mr. Gersony, a seasoned investigator.

Cable 1: (Gersony Cable)

The second cable is from Refugees International, who had a station across the Tanzanian-Rwandan border. It describes in detail some of the RPF massacres and served as input for the Gersony Report.

Cable 2: (Refugees International)

A very special thanks to Canadian Barrister and ICTR defense counsel Chris Black for providing these documents. References to Mr. Pruner�s book do not necessarily constitute an endorsement of his book. � WNJ

[The Proxy Lake]

Brussels – The commander of the Belgian forces during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis is facing prosecution for causing the deaths of 2000 Tutsis after he ordered his troops to withdraw � leaving the victims for dead.

In a landmark case which opened Wednesday in a Brussels court, several Genocide survivors including two renowned women want Belgian Colonel Luc Marchal and the State of Belgium to stand trial. Col Marchal is charged along with two other officers.

Among those who launched the suit in 2004 and then 2007 are: author Florida Mukeshimana-Ngulinzira (in Photo), the widow of ex-Rwandan Foreign Minister Boniface Ngulinzira, and Marie-Agn�s Uwali.

Court documents before the judge alleged that on April 11, 1994, the Belgium government through Colonel Luc Marchal withdrew their troops which were protecting a technical school here in Kigali (ETO) where some 2000 Tutsis were taking refuge.

The refugees were taken up a hill, where “most of them were killed with machine guns and finished off with machetes shortly after the departure of the Belgians,” the attorney for the survivors, Eric Gillet, told the Brussels court.

The Belgians withdrew four days earlier after their 10 paratroopers were slaughtered along with ex-PM Agathe Uwiringiyimana.

By abandoning a people under threat from interahamwe militias, the plaintiffs argue, the Belgian State and the three officers are guilty to have �failed to act� � which is prescribed under the Geneva Convention.

The plaintiffs reveal that the order to withdraw from ETO was given to Capt. Lemaire by Major Dewez � with accordance from Colonel Marchal.

However, the defense of the State and the officers argues that the 97 Belgian soldiers stationed at ETO and the entire contingent was under the UN � which apparently gave the pull-out order.

The ex-foreign minister Boniface Ngulinzira, the husband of Ngulinzira � one of the plaintiffs, a �Hutu� who backed the Arusha peace accord, was killed with others as they tried to escape, says the court documents.

The drama was the subject of the critically-acclaimed 2005 movie “Shooting Dogs”.

“I want to know why my husband, whose goal was peace between Rwandans, was abandoned by Blue Helmets whose mission was to protect him along with the other refugees,” the minister’s widow, Florida Ngulinzira, told reporters.

The plaintiffs accused the Belgian government and soldiers of “failing to act” to prevent or put an end to violations of international human rights, a crime recognised by Belgian law since 1993.

The defendant Col Luc Marchal told RFI earlier this year: “We were under critical circumstances, with inadequate weaponry.”

“Everybody was dispersed in the city so it was imperative to regroup. We really had no idea at that moment that the fate of the 2,000 refugees was going to be what it ended up being,” he said.

IBUKA head Theodore Simburudali warned Thursday that more mass suits are coming.

“If the Belgian state is declared criminally liable, all the people abandoned in this place on that day will file a civil suit,” he told AFP news agency.

Two women are behind the Brussels case including author Florida Mukeshimana-Ngulinzira, the widow of ex-Rwandan Foreign Minister Boniface Ngulinzira, and Marie-Agn�s Uwali.

“The initiative of these two plaintiffs is a very good thing which we support very much. We ask that it should be supported right to the end,” said Simburudali.

“The role of Belgium and the United Nations no longer needs to be proven. Belgium had the best trained and best equipped force in UNAMIR (the UN mission in Rwanda.

“People pleaded in vain, asking the Belgian soldiers not to abandon them. They even asked in vain to be driven to the zone under the control of the FPR,” Simburudali added, referring to the Rwanda Patriotic Front rebels, which was fighting the government army and extremist militias.

The two plaintiffs accused the Belgian government and soldiers of “failing to act” to prevent or put an end to violations of international human rights, a crime recognised by Belgian law since 1993.

“The Belgian soldiers knew, when they left, that these people were going to be killed. It’s all the more serious when it’s the Belgian contingent that had the responsibility for ensuring safety in the capital,” Simburudali said.

[ARI-RNA]