Rwanda : un rapport balistique décisif?
Les réactions des avocats des autorités rwandaises (en fonction aussi bien à l’époque du génocide qu’actuellement) aux conclusions du récent rapport d’expertise des juges Trevidic et Poux, ainsi que son traitement par les médias, soulignent une fois encore la complexité d’un dossier sensible et la persistance de velléités d’instrumentalisation politique .
Synthèse
L’attentat contre le Falcon 50 qui transportait le président Juvénal Habyarimana le 6 avril 1994 fut le point de départ du génocide des Rwandais tutsi. L’absence de certitudes sur les auteurs de l’attaque continue de créer encore aujourd’hui un débat passionné.
La présentation le 10 janvier 2012 par les juges Trévidic et Poux d’un rapport d’expertise balistique renforçant le doute sur le point d’origine du tir qui a abattu l’appareil a donné aux avocats des dirigeants rwandais poursuivis une tribune inespérée pour absoudre leurs clients. Quant aux médias, ils n’ont pas manqué de présenter ce rapport comme la pierre angulaire d’un changement de direction dans l’enquête et dans l’identité des responsables. Mais qu’en est-il vraiment ?
Le propos du rapport était d’identifier le lieu du tir et le type de missiles utilisés pour abattre l’avion présidentiel. Il ne s’agit que d’un rapport d’étape et en aucun cas des conclusions d’une enquête qui viendrait désigner tel ou tel camp comme coupable. L’instruction sera encore longue et parsemée d’expertises et de contre-expertises.
Le rapport, qui se base sur des simulations acoustiques et les souvenirs, forcément parcellaires, des témoins du drame, ne fait qu’élaborer des hypothèses. La première est que la zone dite du « site de Kanombe » est une zone de tir plus probable que celle de la « ferme de Masaka » ; ce qui n’équivaut évidemment pas à dire qu’il s’agit assurément du lieu du tir. De plus, les experts désignent par cette zone autant la base militaire de Kanombe que le domaine poreux d’une centaine d’hectares qui l’entoure. Il n’y a donc là aucune affirmation que l’attaque aurait été perpétrée par les partisans du « Hutu power » depuis la base militaire. De plus, nombre de témoins oculaires continuent de situer la zone de Masaka comme point de départ des tirs.
Deuxième élément, les experts estiment, par élimination, que le type de missiles utilisés était de fabrication soviétique. De tels missiles existaient dans les arsenaux de l’Ouganda, allié du FPR, mais pas, en l’absence de preuves contraires, dans les arsenaux rwandais.
Ainsi, si ce rapport met à mal les certitudes de l’enquête précédemment menée par le juge Bruguière, il n’en infirme pas pour autant définitivement la direction et pourrait même la renforcer par des éléments techniques nouveaux. Comment expliquer alors une telle distorsion entre ce rapport et les propos rapportés par la presse ?
Depuis dix-huit ans, le régime de Kigali instrumentalise la charge émotionnelle du génocide afin de renforcer sa propre légitimité et son impunité au regard des crimes commis lors de cette période. Si le FPR venait à être reconnu coupable d’avoir organisé cet attentat, Paul Kagame perdrait son statut de pourfendeur du génocide et son assise politique s’effondrerait. On comprend alors l’acharnement des avocats à manipuler ce rapport, d’autant qu’ils étaient au départ la seule source des médias sur son contenu.
La seule certitude à ce jour est la suivante : toutes les options restent ouvertes. L’expertise n’accuse ni n’innocente personne. Des éléments nouveaux ont été apportés par l’enquête, qui remettent en lumière certaines hypothèses aux côtés d’hypothèses existantes. Il reste à confronter les unes et les autres, puis à les étayer aux fins de validation.
Rwanda: Opposition Leader’s Sentence Upheld
Ntaganda’s arrest and prosecution have been politically motivated from the outset. Putting an opposition politician in prison solely for criticizing state policies has no place in a democratic society.
Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
(Nairobi) – The confirmation by the Rwandan Supreme Court of a four-year prison sentence for Bernard Ntaganda, an opposition leader, is a blow for those who had hoped the Court might protect free speech, Human Rights Watch said today. Ntaganda, founding president of the PS-Imberakuri opposition party, is one of several government critics, including two journalists, who remain in prison solely for the legitimate expression of their views.
In its judgment on April 27, 2012, the Supreme Court in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, upheld charges of endangering national security and “divisionism”– inciting ethnic divisions – against Ntaganda.
“Ntaganda’s arrest and prosecution have been politically motivated from the outset,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Putting an opposition politician in prison solely for criticizing state policies has no place in a democratic society.”
Human Rights Watch has documented other cases in which laws and charges such as endangering state security and inciting public disobedience have been used to prosecute and intimidate government critics.
Ntaganda was arrested on June 24, 2010, during a crackdown on opposition parties, journalists and other perceived government critics in the period leading up to presidential elections in August 2010. He was charged with endangering national security, “divisionism,” and attempting to organize demonstrations without authorization. On February 11, 2011, he was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay a fine.
The Supreme Court’s judgment in Ntaganda’s case comes just three weeks after its judgment in another key case – of the Umurabyo newspaper journalists Agnès Uwimana and Saidati Mukakibibi. The two journalists, who were arrested in July 2010, were sentenced in February 2011 to 17 and 7 years in prison respectively in connection with articles viewed as critical of the government and President Paul Kagame.
They appealed the verdict, and on April 5, the Supreme Court reduced their sentences to four and three years respectively. It upheld charges of endangering national security against both women, and a charge of defamation against Uwimana, the newspaper’s editor. It dropped charges of minimization of the 1994 genocide and divisionism against Uwimana.
“If the Supreme Court had any regard for protecting free speech under the law, it should have acquitted these two journalists, as it should have acquitted Ntaganda,” Bekele said. “The reduction of the journalists’ sentences may be of some comfort, but they should not have to spend any time in prison at all.”
Rwanda has embarked on a process of legal and other reforms of the media. Several donor governments have been quick to praise these proposals. However, the scope for independent journalism and investigative reporting in Rwanda remains very limited.
“The new draft media laws contain positive amendments, such as lifting burdensome professional requirements on journalists, but these reforms remain theoretical for as long as journalists like Uwimana and Mukakibibi serve time in prison for publishing critical articles,” Bekele said. “Rwanda should abolish defamation as a criminal offense.”
Background
Freedom of expression and association are severely restricted in Rwanda. Almost two years after the presidential elections in which Kagame was re-elected with more than 93 percent of the vote, Rwanda still has no functioning opposition parties.
The PS-Imberakuri has been greatly weakened since Ntaganda’s arrest. In March 2010, members of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), together with dissident members of the PS-Imberakuri, engineered a takeover of the PS-Imberakuri and replaced Ntaganda with a new and compliant leadership. That wing of the party has not been known to criticize the government.
Party members who have remained faithful to Ntaganda have been subjected to intimidation and threats. Two PS-Imberakuri members, Sylver Mwizerwa and Donatien Mukeshimana, remain in prison after being sentenced in August 2011 to three years and two years respectively for “rebellion” and destruction of property, allegedly for breaking into the PS-Imberakuri office after the landlord had reclaimed it.
The FDU-Inkingi, another opposition party, has been similarly weakened since the arrest of its leader, Victoire Ingabire, in October 2010. Ingabire has been charged with six offenses, including terrorist acts linked to allegations of collaboration with armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, “genocide ideology,” and “divisionism.” Her trial, which began in September 2011, has had numerous delays and setbacks. On April 16, Ingabire announced she would boycott the rest of her trial after a witness called by the defense described events that appeared to constitute attempts to intimidate him.
The witness had undermined the credibility of evidence provided by one of Ingabire’s co-defendants, who, he said, may have been induced into incriminating Ingabire. On the order of the prosecution the prison authorities searched the cell of the witness – who is serving a prison sentence – and, as the witness confirmed to the court, all his personal documents were seized, including notes he had prepared for his court statement. In court the prosecution confirmed the search by producing the notes. In a highly unusual procedure, the witness had also been questioned out of court, by prison authorities, without a lawyer.
In April 2011 two other members of the FDU-Inkingi, Anastase Hagabimana and Norbert Manirafasha, were arrested in connection with a draft statement by their party criticizing an increase in the cost of living in Rwanda. Manirafasha spent two weeks in prison and Hagabimana four months. Both were released.
A third opposition party, the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, has effectively been unable to function since the murder of its vice president in July 2010 . In the aftermath of the vice president’s death, the party’s president fled the country and remains in exile.
The landscape for independent journalists in Rwanda also remains bleak. Following the suspension of two popular independent newspapers, Umuseso and Umuvugizi, and the murder of an Umuvugizijournalist, Jean-Léonard Rugambage, in 2010 , several leading independent journalists fled the country. Others have opted to remain silent or limit their reporting to non-controversial issues.
Less prominent people have also been punished for criticizing state policies. For example Abbé Emile Nsengiyumva, a priest in Rwamagana, eastern Rwanda, is serving an 18-month prison sentence after being found guilty of endangering state security and inciting civil disobedience. He was arrested in December 2010 after speaking out against certain government policies, including plans to destroy thatched houses (known as nyakatsi) in favor of more durable housing and proposals to introduce family planning restrictions.
Call for Action: Tell William Penn University about Paul Kagame
Dear All,
Please contact William Penn University's leadership and tell them about the real nature of Paul Kagame.
Contacts:
Ms. Ann M. Fields, Ph.D.,
President, William Penn University
Tel: 641-673-1076
Fax: 641-673-1390
Email: fieldsa@wmpenn.edu
Mr. Steven Noah, Vice President for Advancement,
William Penn University
William Penn University, Marketing Media Director
Indicative
script
Hi,
My name is
____
Purpose for
calling:
-To protest
President Kagame’s invitation to speak and to receive a Doctoral Honorary
Degree in Humane Letters.
Why I am calling:
-President Paul Kagame is a human rights outcast and a mass murderer.
-Here is my personal story:
Full script:
Hi, my name is __________.
I’m calling to protest President
Kagame’s invitation to speak at William Penn University 2012 Commencement,
where he will receive a Doctoral Honoris Causa in Humane Letters.
Kagame is a notorious human
rights outcast and a mass murderer.
He governs his people by terror
and has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity against his own people
and in the neighboring Congo.
According to UN Mapping Report
these crimes could amount to genocide if brought in court of law.
President Paul Kagame should not be awarded degrees at William Penn
University.
Rather, he should be arrested and handed over to international justice.
###
USA-RWANDA: ANTI-KAGAME RALLY AT WILLIAM PENN UNIVERSITY
Rwandan and Congolese Americans team up with Oskaloosa
community at large to protest President Paul Kagame’s commencement address and
his Doctoral Honoris Causa award in Humane Letters at William Penn University,
Oskaloosa, Iowa.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Theophile Murayi, FDU-Inkingi/USA: 443-980-4676
Providence Rubingisa, RNC-Ihuliro/USA: 630-401-4719
Celestin Muhindura, IDD/USA: 682-203-7948
What:
This rally is a protest against President Kagame’s war crimes
and crimes against humanity in the African Great Lakes Region and beyond and
his repression of human and civil rights of the Rwandan people, a record
incompatible with a Doctoral Honoris Causa award in humane Letters by an
American University on American soil.
Where:
The rally will be held at:
William Penn University
201 Trueblood Avenue
Oskaloosa, IA 52577
When:
Saturday, May 12, 2012.
From 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Central time.
Please join us in our effort to honor the spirit of William
Penn University founding fathers, the members of the Religious Society of
Friends (Quakers) known for philanthropy and social justice.
Such core values don’t fare very well with the human and civil
rights repression and the crimes against humanity President Kagame is accused
of.
USA-RWANDA: OPEN LETTER TO ANN M. FIELDS, PRESIDENT OF WILLIAM PENN UNIVERSITY
Washington DC, April 27, 2012.
Ann M. Fields, Ph.D.,
President
William Penn University
201 Trueblood Avenue
Oskaloosa, Iowa 52577
Tel: 641-673-1076
Fax: 641-673-1390
Re: President
Paul Kagame’s invitation to speak at William Penn University 2012 Commencement.
Ms. President:
While we praise William Penn University for entering a cooperative agreement
with the Rwandan Ministry of Education to help Rwanda educate its citizens, we cannot help but
regret the University leadership's mistake to invite President Kagame to come
and address William Penn University graduating class of 2012, ignoring his
worldwide reputation as a human rights outcast.
It
is ironic at best that William Penn University leadership is also planning
to bestow the honor of Doctor Honoris Causa in Humane Letters on that same
man who has shined from his cruelty, his mockery of human rights and his mass
murdering record, not only against his own people but also across the borders
in the Democratic Republic the Congo (DRC). Beside his well documented mass
murdering record before, during and after the Rwandan genocide of 1994
(Gersony report1, Garreton report2, and others),
Kagame is also credited to have exterminated more than 200,000 unarmed Rwandan
refugees in DRC, mostly women, children, the sick and the elderly. He
invaded DRC more than three times with the help of his co-conspirator,
President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, and caused the death of over 5
million Congolese citizens in a killing spree that is extensively
documented and classified by the UN Mapping Report3 as a possible genocide pending the
ad-hoc confirmation in the court of law.
For these reasons and for many others for which we don't have neither the room
nor the time to report here, we respectfully request that President Kagame's
inhumane record be kept out of William Penn University's graduation ceremonies
and that such a record be kept out of the University’s reputable Alumni
membership, especially the one in Humane Letters, an area that is contrary
to Kagame’s record as a renowned inhumane tyrannical leader.
Your informed
understanding and your proper action in this matter will save William Penn University, its faculty and its student body from
the embarrassment of associating with one of the most notorious human rights
abuser and mass murderer of the 21st century.
Sincerely,
Theophile Murayi, FDU-Inkingi/USA: 443-980-4676
Providence Rubingisa, RNC-Ihuriro/USA: 630-401-4719
Celestin Muhindura, IDD/USA: 682-203-7948
CC:
Mr. Steven Noah, Vice President for Advancement,
William Penn University, Marketing Media Director
References:
1) The
Gersony Report to the UNHCR, December 03, 2007.
2) The
UN Report by Roberto Garreton,
3) UN
Mapping Report on Human Rights Abuse in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, 1993-2003
RWANDA: INGABIRE ORIGINAL LETTER TO CHIEF PROSECUTOR
Released on request of Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Chair of FDU-INKINGI.
By Boniface Twagirimana
FDU-INKINGI
Interim Vice President
Photo: Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza
Chair of FDU-Inkingi
“On April 8, 2011 I was taken to a closed door secret meeting in the office of the Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga who told me that I was arrested because I have caused a political stand-off with the government alleging that we are promoting a new Hutu rule because I and my party are accusing RPF of crimes against the Hutu populations. Further to those private discussions on May 13, 2011 I sent a 9-page letter to the Prosecutor General explaining my position on these crucial problems and the way I think the country should be governed in a way that assures everybody”
FACEBOOK
LINKEDIN
EMAIL
REDDIT
STUMBLEUPON
TECHNORATI
TWITTER
