Sunday, October 3, 2010
Navi Pillay
High Commissioner
for Human Rights
The official version of the report is not very far from the draft which was leaked in late August and sparked strong reaction from Rwanda. Many sources had suggested Rwanda wanted all countries in the Great Lakes region to issue a unanimous condemnation of the final publication. But only Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi have done so far.
More importantly, DR Congo has praised the report and reiterated its call for help to create the judicial framework that would allow perpetrators to face justice. The Congolese representative to the UN was careful not to name Rwanda in his statement, perhaps because of the recent rapprochement between Presidents Joseph Kabila and Paul Kagame.
So, let's see how DR Congo follows up. Let's also not forget that along with the Rwandan army, the rebel movement led by Mr Kabila's father was among those accused of "systematic killings" of Hutus. Mr Kabila's next step on this issue will be closely watched. Find outr more HERE
Thomas Fessy
More importantly, DR Congo has praised the report and reiterated its call for help to create the judicial framework that would allow perpetrators to face justice. The Congolese representative to the UN was careful not to name Rwanda in his statement, perhaps because of the recent rapprochement between Presidents Joseph Kabila and Paul Kagame.
So, let's see how DR Congo follows up. Let's also not forget that along with the Rwandan army, the rebel movement led by Mr Kabila's father was among those accused of "systematic killings" of Hutus. Mr Kabila's next step on this issue will be closely watched. Find outr more HERE
Thomas Fessy
Rwanda : Le rapport de l’ONU : Les crimes commis en RDC peuvent être qualifiés de Génocide.
Colère du Rwanda après la publication d’un rapport édulcoré de l’ONU évoquant un génocide en faisant référence aux exactions commises en RDC contre des réfugiés hutus par l’arméepatriotique rwandaise de Paul Kagamé.
Colère du Rwanda après la publication d’un rapport édulcoré de l’ONU évoquant un génocide en faisant référence aux exactions commises en RDC contre des réfugiés hutus par l’armée
Redoutée par les principaux acteurs régionaux de l'interminable drame humain dans la région des Grands Lacs, la radiographie sans précédent des crimes jalonnant dix ans de guerre en République démocratique du Congo (RDC, ex-Zaïre) que vient d'établir le Haut-Commissariat des Nations unies aux droits de l'homme (HCDH) est accablante, principalement pour le Rwanda voisin.
Sur près de 600 pages, ce document, dont Le Monde a obtenu une version quasi définitive, décrit les "violations les plus graves des droits de l'homme et du droit international humanitaire commises entre mars 1993 et juin 2003 en RDC".
Derrière l'intitulé se cache une décennie de meurtres, viols, pillages auxquels prirent part plusieurs pays de la région. Des conflits qui firent un nombre indéterminé de morts, mais qui se chiffrent au bas mot en centaines de milliers.
La compilation des rapports existants et la collecte de nouveaux témoignages menée par le HCDH fournissent une base pour des poursuites judiciaires à venir contre les auteurs de ce que le HCDH qualifie de "crimes contre l'humanité, crimes de guerre, voire de génocide" après des années d'impunité.
"CRIMES DE GÉNOCIDE"
Depuis des semaines, le Rwanda déploie ses réseaux et son énergie pour tenter d'étouffer ce rapport qui risque d'atteindre le cœur du régime du président Paul Kagamé, l'homme fort du Rwanda depuis 1994.
Le document estime en effet que "les attaques systématiques et généralisées [contre des Hutu réfugiés en RDC] révèlent plusieurs éléments accablants qui, s'ils sont prouvés devant un tribunal compétent, pourraient être qualifiés de crimes de génocide".
Il reste à savoir quel tribunal se chargera de cette œuvre de justice alors que la plupart des crimes sortent du champ de compétence de la Cour pénale internationale.
Face aux insuffisances de la justice congolaise, le HCDH insiste sur la nécessité d'imaginer de nouveaux mécanismes judiciaires pour mettre fin au cycle de l'impunité dans la région.
Christophe Châtelot
© Le monde
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Le Carnet de Colette Braeckman
Un rapport sur les massacres de Hutus met en cause les gouvernements de toute la région
La bombe, longtemps maintenue sous le boisseau, a finalement explosé et ses ondes de choc ébranlent toute la région des Grands Lacs : elle fait 545 pages et elle relate les conclusions d’une enquête extensive menée par les Nations unies à propos des crimes de guerre et des crimes contre l’humanité commis au Congo entre 1993 et 2003, et plus précisément durant la première guerre du Congo, de 1996 à 1998. Initialement, les enquêteurs onusiens avaient été chargés de dresser la carte des massacres commis dans la région durant ces années de feu, de recenser les charniers enfouis dans tout le territoire de la République, du Kivu jusque Mbandaka dans l’Equateur, de collationner les témoignages afin d’identifier aussi bien les victimes que les auteurs.
Lire la suite ici
GENEVA (AP) — On Nov. 14, 1996, armed men surrounded the Mugunga refugee camp in eastern Zaire and began shooting indiscriminately at its inhabitants as they huddled for safety or tried to flee.
Hundreds of men, women and children died over a three-day period, according to eyewitnesses and forensic evidence later gathered from mass graves.
A report published Friday by the U.N. human rights office says the killings at Mugunga may have been one of many instances that qualify as crimes against humanity or even — taken together — genocide by the Rwandan army,
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/10/01/uns-congo-report-could-spur-genocide-trials/#ixzz11KjmNH7U
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a "time", yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Kigali 01 October 2010
PRESS RELEASE Ms. Ingabire Umuhoza Victoire
FDU Chairperson
At long last, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights has released its final report into horrendous crimes that were committed among others by Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), against Hutu refugees in DRC from 1996 to 2003. Although justice delayed is justice denied, we salute the bravery of the UNHCHR, for refusing to bow down to intense pressure from the government of President Kagame and its lobbies, in order to water down the tone of the report.
By publishing the report, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights has honoured the mandate bestowed on it by the General Assembly as an independent UN body to cater for the promotion and protection of human rights, and for implementing the human rights programme within the UN. The legal qualification is clear and the facts are so chilling that something has to be done.
It is quite shocking to see negative forces struggling to belittle the crimes that engulfed, according to NGOs, more than 6 millions of DRC citizens and Hutu refugees, by battling over the word "genocide".
Whatever the legal framing, the crimes listed are so chilling that their authors ought to be prosecuted.
1. The July 1995 Srebrenica killings landed Milosevic, Karadzic and other Serbs leaders into jail. Yet, the victims were, according to UN records, between 6,000 and 8,000.
2. The UPC leader, Thomas Lubanga was arrested, and charged in ICC with minor crimes of enlisting and using child soldiers. This was done under the pressure of some of the very powers which are today reluctant to prosecute Rwandan leaders.
3. The killing of Rafik Hariri in Lebanon prompted the United Nations to set up a special tribunal.
Why should the Rwandan Patriotic Army misdeeds not be exposed and prosecuted?
As the report eloquently shows, the killings were systematic, selective, methodical and carried out over a long period of time that they cannot be termed as collateral damage. Nothing can justify the massacres of children, women and elderly people and reducing to ashes their bodies. Alleging that there were elements from former Rwandan government forces among refugees does not at all give to RPA a license for wanton and massive killings.
The Rwandan government reaction filed in Geneva on the eve of the release of this report is sadistic and misleading:
- The Rwandan government does not as such deny the mass and large-scale killings. Instead, it considers them as "self-defence against the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide" (item 14). Some of the killings took place as far as Mbandaka, over 3,000 km in the West. It is hard to believe that those victims were posing a security threat to Rwanda.
- The Rwandan government also links the invasion to "cross—border attacks". The attacks on refugees started the very day RPA troops entered Gisenyi town on 18th July 1994. Indeed, mortar shells landed in the middle of crowds of refugees that were gathered in the vicinity of Goma airport. The airport had to be closed. So was the incursion of RPA in Birava in South Kivu in 1995.The assumption of self-defence betrays rather a well planned and premeditated crime.
- The claim by the Rwandan current regime of invading the DRC for "rescuing its own citizen and facilitating their return and reintegration (item 14) is another scapegoat illustration. There are reliable reports on killings targeting some returnees in different areas of the country. This is the case with the late catholic bishop Phocas Nikwigize of Ruhengeri who went missing at the crossing border of Gisenyi. Furthermore, the only military assault on refugees’ camps is a serious crime.
Leaving unprosecuted the master minders and perpetrators of these crimes, even for the selfish sake of not disturbing the UN peace keeping forces in Darfur (Sudan), or for the sake of a false analysis of regional stability will give licence to militarism and violence as means of achieving political goals.
The embers of hate and mistrust will not be put out as long as there will be a double standard justice in Rwanda.
When the Security Council set up the two ad hoc international criminal tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, it considered truth-seeking and criminal punishment essential prerequisites for reconciliation and for maintaining or restoring peace (item 1010 of the UNHCHR report). The FDU-INKINGI fully agrees with this stance and expects the United Nations to bear this in mind. There will be no peace and sustainable development in the African Great Lakes Region in general and in Rwanda in particular, until there is fair justice and a fair road map to uproot the impunity. All the victims cry for justice and rehabilitation. The FDU- INKINGI urges the UN Security Council in particular, to fulfill its international obligations to punish genocide and crimes against humanity including the establishment of an appropriate international tribunal to punish the culprits within the current Rwandan regime and rehabilitate the victims of these absolute crimes.
A regime accused of such atrocities has no longer any moral legitimacy to run a country, leave alone the fact that it has totally closed down the political space to opponents and through unfair elections that were marred by political killings of opposition leaders and independent journalists. Therefore, we call upon the UN to act on the report as a matter of urgency and ensure that a judicial mechanism is put in place. Otherwise, the UN will be betraying its mandate.
Victoire INGABIRE UMUHOZA
FDU-INKINGI
Chairperson
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