The paradox that international justice can be

For obvious reasons, I will keep her identity anonymous but she has witnessed firsthand a number of cases in some of which, she has appeared as a ‘star witness’, as they are called in court drama, from Arusha to Montreal to her birthplace Butare (now Huye). To give this story a flow, I will henceforth call her Solange. Unfortunately, this is no court drama, it is real, and in all courtrooms she has appeared, she has had to endure narrating the ordeal she suffered at the hands of the ruthless militia who butchered her entire family in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Solange, whose entire family was wiped out in the Genocide that claimed over a million innocent souls, has for two decades waited to see justice served, even at the cost of having to live through the grilling of the merciless defence lawyers during cross-examinations. Through Gacaca courts, she got a lease of life because at least, a forest that was planted, not for the love of the environment but to cover up the remains of thousands of Genocide victims buried there was cleared. A site in memory of thousands of victims killed there replaced the forest. The forest was allegedly planted on orders from a local leader who wanted to conceal the atrocities committed on this hill called Akabakobwa, crimes orchestrated by, among others, a clique of people bound in a trial of what has now come to be known as the Butare Group at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The cover was blown up in the semi-traditional Gacaca courts during which perpetrators came forth and confessed of their atrocities, ordered by most of the elements in the Butare Trial, which brings me to my story of the day. Media reports are rife that the UN-backed ICTR, which was instituted to bring to book key architects of the Genocide, is now in some kind of dilemma, brought about by the pending appeal case of the Butare Group involving, among others, the first woman to be brought before an international tribunal, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko. Nyiramasuhuko, who was the Minister for Family Welfare and Women Promotion, is the lead suspect (convict) in the case that also includes her son Arsene Shalom Ntahobari. A social worker by training, she ordered the rape of women and their daughters, and among the rapists she commandeered, was her son, then a university student at the National University of Rwanda. The tribunal, after series of missed deadlines, is finally meant to close shop in December 2014, to pave way for the Residual Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals. For the record, Nyiramasuhuko and her son, both arrested in 1997, were sentenced to life by the ICTR Trial Chamber for crimes, among others, those committed against the family of Solange and others who lived in the former Butare Prefecture, now Southern Province. But a new deadlock has conveniently presented itself; the convicts in the Butare Trial, which was completed on first instance in June 2011, could not lodge their appeal in time, because they do not understand English and needed a French translation of the verdict, to prepare their appeals arguments, which, according to reports, were presented to them only in February this year; almost two years after the ruling was made. By implication, their case, which, on first instance, was heard for a record 726 trial days, cannot possibly be completed before the December 2014 deadline, bearing in mind that they have not even appeared once as of now. This means that the tribunal, through which Solange and thousands of others in her shoes are eagerly waiting to see justice served, is likely to outlive the residual mechanism, which, according to its statute, will close its doors by the end of 2015, if no new arrests are made. The new arrests can only involve the ‘Big Fish’ who include Felicien Kabuga, Augustin Bizimungu and Protais Mpiranya, who have eluded justice for the past two decades. Yes, the ICTR has done a good job, compared to any other international tribunal, having dealt with cases involving at least 90 high profile people, but to Solange, the technicalities do not count, but rather seeing justice served. The writer is an Editor at The New Times Twitter: @kimenyif

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The paradox that international justice can be