IV. The Unsupported GEnocide Claim Fails as a Matter of Fact and Law

33. The methodology employed in

49. Rwanda, having been the victim of one of the most intense modern genocides, cannot allow the crime of genocide to become a political tool in the hands of individuals who seek to manipulate it. This does not honor or bring justice to any victim, past or future.

50. By addressing the charges of genocide specifically, the GoR is in no way conceding to the accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, or ignoring the gravity of such accusations. However, given the lack of transparency in the report in terms of anonymous witnesses, victims, perpetrators and investigators, we are simply unable to address those charges in an informed manner.

Lack of Identification of Alleged Victims and Perpetrators

51. The Draft Mapping Report documents alleged crimes committed against a broad array of unidentified victims – Rwandan and Congolese, Hutu and Tutsi alike -by a large number of state armies and armed insurgencies. In this sense, it serves to illustrate that in war, as opposed to genocide, there are casualties on all sides.

52. The Draft Mapping Report fails to distinguish between alleged perpetrators. In most of the alleged incidents, the authors lump together the RPA with AFDL, FAB and UPDF. Such lumping at best serves to create confusion. Where the RPA is bundled with FAB and sometimes UPDF, it is on record that the RPA forces never carried out any joint operations with either FAB or UPDF in the first war in the DRC, the same time period that gives rise to most of the allegations of genocide in The Draft Mapping Report.

53. During the period of The Draft Mapping Report, there were millions of Rwandan Hutu citizens living in Rwanda freely. Moreover, prior to the Rwandan intervention, in 1995, the Rwandan forces integrated 2,000 ex-FAR40 The Security Council noted this reintegration, saying that �[t]he Security Council welcomes progress made by the GoR in the reconciliation process, including the integration of more than 2,000 members of former Rwandan Government Forces (RGF) troops in to the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA).� These new recruits were deployed to the former Zaire. As such, if the Rwandan forces are being accused of committing genocide, the argument follows that these ex-FAR, then integrated into the RPA, targeted their former comrades with genocidal intent.

54. Hutu civilian refugees were being repatriated and reintegrated into Rwandan society by the millions from 1993 to 2003. At one point The Draft Mapping Report states �that certain elements could cause a court to hesitate to decide on the existence of a genocidal plan�several tens of thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees, many of whom had survived previous attacks, were repatriated to Rwanda with the help of the AFDL/APR authorities and that hundreds of thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees were able to return to Rwanda�� This information would lead a court to do more than just hesitate. The Draft Mapping Report trivializes the repatriation, reintegration and reconciliation process that was central to the policy of the GoR throughout the entire region. The numbers of refugees repatriated and reintegrated from across the region are as follows:

Source: MINALOC 2010

55. A total of 1, 528,626 Hutu refugees were repatriated and reintegrated from the former Zaire, and 1,763,828 refugees were repatriated and reintegrated from Uganda, Burundi, and Tanzania alone. There have never been any allegations of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity commit against the returning Hutu refugees from countries other than the former Zaire. The critical difference between Zaire and these other nations is that there was a war in the former Zaire. The casualties did not result from a genocidal plan; rather, the casualties resulted from combat between armed combatants who were intent on finishing the genocide, Rwandan government forces, and other government forces and informal military groups.

Conclusion

56. These numbers illustrate that the GoR did, indeed, have a clear policy from 1994 through 2003, and that policy continues today: to bring home all Rwandan refugees. This applies to refugees who have never taken a part in the hostilities, and combatants who have chosen to lay down their arms and return. During the timeframe that The Draft Mapping Report alleges genocide, the GoR repatriated over three million Hutu refugees and began down the path of reconciliation with the participation of an additional number of Rwandan Hutu, Tutsi and Twa citizens numbering in the millions who remained in the country.