Rwanda: “Genocide Planning” Again Rejected at ICTR

NEWS RELEASE
November 17, 2009

Contact: ICTR Association des Avocats de la Défense (ADAD)
Me. John Philpot: 0755352931 (Arusha)/ 514-844-4655 (Can.)/jphilpot@videotron.ca
Me. Beth Lyons: 201-295-3103 (U.S.)/ bethlyons@aol.com
Prof. Peter Erlinder: 31(0)70 345 92 00 (Hague) 651-271-4616 (U.S.)/peter.erlinder@wmitchell.edu

"Genocide Planning" Again Rejected at ICTR

ARUSHA, TZ – Nov. 17.09 – The Bureau of the ICTR Defense Lawyers Association (ADAD) applauds the Appeal Chamber rejection of charges of “genocide planning” in acquitting Protais Zigiranyirazo, the brother-in-law of Rwandan President Habyarimana whose assassination in April 1994 triggered the violence that swept Rwanda, which has been portrayed as a “long-planned genocide.”

Allegations that close associates of Habyarimana, (labeled the Akazu or “small house” in Kinyarwanda) were engaged in a conspiracy to kill “Tutsis and moderate Hutus” were rejected by the court for the second time in less than a year. The acquittal adds to growing evidence that Kagame and the RPF has conducted a successful disinformation campaign to de-legitimize the former Rwandan government, and to deflect attention from their own crimes in Rwanda and the Congo. In December 2008 the NY Times and most recent of four Reports by UN Experts detailed the occupation and illegal theft of Congo resources by Rwanda and Uganda since the 1996 invasion, which has resulted in some 6-million civilian deaths.

The Appeal Chamber acquittal follows the December 2008 Military-1 Trial Chamber Judgement, published in Feb. 2009, acquitting four high-ranking military officers guilty of “conspiracy to commit genocide,” including Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, the alleged “author of the genocide.” After 7-years of trial, the court found that Prosecutor’s evidence was explained by normal military planning in the course of the war that raged for 4-years, following the 1990 invasion of Rwanda from Uganda, by the RPF army of current Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

The Zigiranyirazo acquittal was announced on the same day that the ICTR defense concluded a three-day conference at The Hague that highlighted the fact that ICTR Prosecutor Del Ponte publicly stated in 2003 that she had evidence to prosecute the current government. All of the 80 ICTR accused are associated with the former Rwandan government. None of the “victors” of the four-year Rwanda civil war have been charged by the ICTR, although both France and Spain have charged more than 40 members of the current Rwandan government for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, including current President Paul Kagame.

According to Del Ponte, she was removed from her ICTR post by the US and UK when she refused to follow instructions from the US State Department to drop all investigations of Kagame and RPF crimes because they were important allies of the US in Africa. The continuing “cover-up” of RPF crimes was furthered by her successors Chief Prosecutor Abu-Bakr Jallow and his deputy Steven Rapp, the current U.S. war crimes ambassador.

ADAD calls for ICTR trials to be halted; ICTR convictions to be reviewed by an independent UN Commission; and, conditional release of detainees pending completion of a full investigation of manipulations of the ICTR by Security Council members.

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