June 09, 2020

Rwanda genocide victims deserve justice and closure

topic:	Genocide
located:	Rwanda
editor:	Bob Koigi

The recent ruling by a French court to have Rwanda genocide mastermind Felicien Kabuga tried by a United Nations Tribunal has set in motion the possibility of having the international fugitive, who has been on the run for over two decades, tried closer home.

His defence team has opposed the transfer to the UN’s International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, IRMCT, based in The Hague Netherlands with an office in Arusha Tanzania. Kabuga's lawyers opposed the extradition on grounds of his failing health and further argued that he may not get justice if tried at the East African nation. They have lodged an appeal with France's court of cassation.

In Rwanda, where he is accused of having bankrolled and armed ethnic Hutu militias attack the Tutsi community and moderate Hutus in the 1994 bloodbath that lasted for 100 days and killed an estimated one million people, his capture has elicited a cocktail of emotions and rekindled old wounds and memories of those dreaded three months.

There has been varied legal interpretations and recommendations on where Kabuga should be tried. The survivors of the genocide, under the umbrella organisation Ibuka, had requested to have Kabuga face trial in Rwanda and in the event of a conviction, to have him serve his sentence there. Ibuka argues that it would give his accusers a chance to face him in court, a post-genocide justice process that has proven effective in Rwanda under the traditional Gacaca courts that are premised on traditional dispute resolution mechanism, reconciliation and closure. Between 2001 and 2012 when the courts operated, the accused were given a chance to confess with the courts chaperoning the reconciliation process and justice. Within the 11 years of their existence, the courts tried approximately two million cases with survivors commending the courts for championing healing and reconciliation.

Rwandans have traditionally been apprehensive and opposed to the international justice system and believe previous attempts have never delivered justice to victims.

Even as IRMCT mulls over all the options of where to try Kabuga and walks the tight legal, political and diplomatic ropes, it must keep in mind the fact that justice must be delivered and seen to be delivered to victims and survivors of Rwanda genocide. Now more than ever they need justice and closure.

Image: Portraitor