The ICTR was already held in abysmal regard by Rwandans for its acting as if its primary goal was its own self-aggrandizement, with the victims and survivors of the Genocide against the Tutsi assigned only bit background roles, almost as if they were merely an afterthought.
Editor, RE: "Ibuka condemns early release of Genocide convicts by UN tribunal” (The New Times, December 21).
The ICTR was already held in abysmal regard by Rwandans for its acting as if its primary goal was its own self-aggrandizement, with the victims and survivors of the Genocide against the Tutsi assigned only bit background roles, almost as if they were merely an afterthought.
For many Rwandans, the ICTR has always been a distant thing with very little connection to their efforts to heal from the wounds of the Genocide and to surmount the continuing pain from their experiences and massive loss.
They have certainly not experienced the ICTR ‘trials’ and magnanimous sentences for the most abominable of crimes, far away from the places where those criminals perpetrated their evil and in conditions of luxury compared to what the survivors of their evil have to endure on a daily basis, as anything close to restorative justice - many have in fact seen the ICTR and its results as nothing more than adding serious insult to unimaginable injury.
Then in waltzes this Theodor Meron character on mission to undo even the little symbolic value some might have derived from this over US$2 billion self-enrichment boondoggle for lawyers, investigators, administrators, assorted other carpetbaggers as well as a platform for genocide deniers and revisionists, and any modicum of regard Rwandans may have had for this contraption just evaporated.
And, they still wonder why—having been direct witnesses to the unfunny circus of what was billed as ‘international justice’ in Arusha—Rwandans have nothing but utter contempt for its progeny, the ICC for which the ICTR and its other brethren for the ex-Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone or Cambodia were supposed to be prototypes? Mwene Kalinda ***
Very unfortunate that justice is being deliberately denied to victims of Genocide. It’s a clear indication that so called judges are politicized individuals conspiring with those who supported and physically participated in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Ephraim Murenzi