Hungry for Truth, Peace and Justice

Letter to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon

By General Emmanuel Habyarimana
September 7, 2009

PARTENARIAT INTWARI – IMANZI
Adress: Avenue de Tourbillon 42, 1950 Sion, witzerland.
Tel: 0041786522183 /0033620627806
E-mail : em.hame@laposte.net
USA Contact: 170 Colombia Avenue, New York, NY , 10025 Tel :1347 764 1860/16036445894
Email :umulisatoti@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.partenariat-intwari.com/

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon
2 United Nations Plaza
New York, New York 10017

September 7th, 2009

Your Excellency,

Re: Our concerns about the Government of Rwanda's claim to have the ICTR's Archives of the Rwandan conflict transferred from Tanzania to Rwanda.

The Government of Rwanda's insistence that the archives be transferred to Rwanda when the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) closes down has created a controversy among Rwandans and the international community. We are convinced that transferring these archives to Rwanda under the current government would be an attack on justice and a regrettable mistake for our generation due to the following reasons:

1. The archives are intended, inter alia, to be a source of data for researchers. For this reason, they must be kept in a country that can receive, in its jurisdiction, even `liberal' and/or independent researchers. Even before the ICTR closes down, there are new and urgent controversial issues about the Rwandan genocide that should be addressed, such as the `inflation' of the present government's numbers of people killed. As well, there is significant data that the genocide of Rwanda was used as a military tactic by both parties, in which case, RPF, the current government of Rwanda is equally guilty. For the world to get methodological ideas over such issues there is need for independent researchers to investigate into the dynamic of the Rwandan genocide. The ICTR archives will be vital for this. Unfortunately, the government of Rwanda has proven to the world that it does not accommodate dissenting views and researchers. A big number of local independent researchers/ thinkers are in prisons or in exile. Several independent international researchers/ thinkers were barred from entering the country by the same government. Placing the ICTR Archives under the government of Rwanda's custody would therefore mean, virtually, sealing off access to the documents. This would defeat the rationale of the archives.

2. By giving total control of the ICTR Archives to the current Rwandan government, the UN Security Council will be exposing witnesses, most of whom gave witness under cover for fear of persecution, to the wrath of the Kigali Rwandan government. If this happens, apart from having broken the trust these witnesses had in the ICTR, other future specialized international criminal courts may fail to get witnesses for fear of similar consequences. This will be a blow to international criminal Justice.

3. There is overwhelming evidence that some Rwandan government officials committed similar crimes under the ICTR jurisdiction. Although there is no political will to prosecute these individuals yet, the future might dictate that these officials are also prosecuted. If the archives are in the hands of the same people, these guilty officials will get hints of the vital evidence in the ICTR documents that will be used against them and, it will certainly be in their interest to destroy that evidence. The government of Rwanda should therefore not be allowed `to come to equity with dirty hands'.

4. The government of Rwanda has already altered terms and facts of the Rwandan genocide. Whereas the UN Security Council and the ICTR Statute termed the atrocities as Rwandan Genocide, the government of Rwanda officially calls it `Tutsi genocide'. This is an overt act by the Tutsi dominated government to deny that the Hutu and Twa were also victims. It is undisputable that thousands of Hutu and hundreds of the Twa were exterminated simply because of what they were. In some parts of the country there was systematic extermination of the Hutu as well. If the UN grants custody of the ICTR archives to the government of Rwanda, there is a good probability that the government of Rwanda will manipulate and/or alter the ICTR documents to suit its own selfish interests.

5. There are all manner of signs that the government of Rwanda chose to pursue a coercive and dictatorial style of state administration. In the absence of independent institutions and the `victor-vanquished justice' Rwanda opted for after the genocide, together with opting for military solution instead of a dialogue to the country's long unresolved serious political problems, the most likely logical consequence will be a protracted ethnic armed conflict. It would be a strategic mistake to entrust valuable documents like the ICTR Archives to a country which is `seated on a time bomb' of self destruction.

It is therefore our considered submission that the ICTR Archives are not transferred to Rwanda given the prevailing unfortunate socio-political conditions in the country. We believe that the archives should remain in Tanzania because this country hosted the ICTR without any reproach. Tanzania as a nation has the basics for sustainable peace and security and, above all, is one of the few countries that have remained relatively impartial in the Rwandan ethnic conflict. We contend that although the crimes which were tried by the ICTR were committed mostly against Rwandans and mostly by Rwandans, it is our deep conviction that these crimes were at the same time committed against humanity. Therefore, keeping the ICTR archives in another country would not amount to denying Rwandans of any privilege or right. We also pray that the ICTR, if possible, is given more time. If granted, during that additional time, the ICTR should make sure that it prosecutes both civil and military officials in the government of Rwanda who allegedly committed the same crimes within the court's jurisdiction. If this is not done, the ICTR will have acted contrary to the letter and spirit of the ICTR Statute and, as such, the honorable court will have institutionalized victor's justice in what is seemingly a perpetual ethnic conflict among Rwandans.

Please allow me to pledge the highest level of cooperation in the peaceful settlement of Rwanda's protracted ethnic conflict which has made the entire Great Lakes Region of Africa a high risk region.

Most respectfully yours,

General Emmanuel Habyarimana
President of Partenariat Intwari – Imanzi

CC:
- Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council (All)
- The Republic of Tanzania Representative to the UN- The CEO, Human Rights Watch, New York, USA
- The CEO, Crisis Group, New York, USA
- The President of the ICTR – Arusha, Tanzania

Note:
General Emmanuel Habyarimana, a former Rwandan Defence Minister in Kagame's regime, is President of Partenariat Intwari– Imanzi, a political party of the Rwandan opposition in exile.

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posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 10:17 PM