Gen Karake and the travesty of justice

Philosopher Charles de Monstesquieu once said that: “There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of Justice”. For General Karake Karenzi, the Head of the National Security and Intelligence Services, there is no greater tyranny than being accused of crimes that he sacrificed his life to fight against. Gen Karake, who is set to appear in a London court in September for an extradition hearing, was arrested on June 20 by British Metropolitan Police on a highly controversial arrest warrant issued by a junior Spanish magistrate, Fernando Andreu Merelles, who also indicted 39 other senior Rwandan military officers on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, terrorism and the murders of nine Spanish citizens killed in four separate incidents in Rwanda and DRC between 1994-2000. Rwandans protest outside Westminster Magistrates Court in UK on June 25. (Courtesy) Ironically, the officers who are being indicted spearheaded the liberation struggle that brought to an end the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. This has left many people wondering how the people who are globally recognized for stopping the Genocide and bringing peace to Rwanda are now being framed as the killers. However, a deeper look into the nature and origin of charges, reveals a link between the indictment and those responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Indictment links to FDLR militia The Spanish judge built his case based on information from NGOs that enjoy strong links to FDLR, a terrorist group that comprises elements responsible for 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, that left over one million dead. Rwandans protest outside Westminster Magistrates Court in UK on June 25. (Courtesy) According to a 2009 UN Panel of Experts report on DR Congo, Judge Fernando Andreu Merelles received support to work on the indictment from the same NGOs that had extended support to FDLR genocidaires. Fundaciò S’Olivar and Inshuti, both Spanish charitable organisations, received nearly €200,000 in grants from the local government of the Balearic Islands (Mallorca) to help prepare the indictments against RPF, the experts wrote in their report. “On the basis of testimonies, original email correspondence, audio recordings of conversations, phone logs analysis and receipts of money transfers, as well as other documents, the Group established that FDLR has received regular financial, logistical and political support from individuals belonging to the above charitable institutions which, in turn, were funded directly or indirectly by the government of Islas Baleares, a provincial authority in Spain,” the Group of Experts said in its November 23, 2009 report to the UN Security Council. FDLR, which has since defied several international and regional ultimatums to disarm, was blacklisted by the US as a terrorist organisation. Rwandans protest outside Westminster Magistrates Court in UK on June 25. (Courtesy) The Group of Experts added: “An FDLR liaison officer who had been part of a weapons transfer between the FNL (then Burundi rebels) and FDLR in December 2008, stated to the Group that he had been in touch with Joan Casoliva, a Spanish citizen in contact with the government of Islas Baleares in Spain, and who had promised to FDLR liaison officer that he would raise up to two hundred thousand dollars for FDLR.” Casoliva, the UN panel said, was listed in 1999 as the president of Inshuti, which runs a Barcelona-based website posting articles alleging war crimes committed by top officials of the Rwandan government and military, as well as hosting a link to the FDLR website. Documents show that Fundaciò S’Olivar received Euros 198,000 between 2001 and 2008 from the Fons Mallorquì de Solidaritat i Cooperaciò, a trust established by various mayoral offices in the Islas Baleares, to sustain the prosecution of RPF officials through Spanish courts, the UN panel said. “Casoliva reportedly worked on and off for Fundaciò S’Olivar in this same period of time.” Questionable witnesses In building the case, the judge based on testimonies of individuals who later turned out not to be credible either based on their links to the Genocidal regime or ill-motives. One of them, Abdul Joshua Ruzibiza, retracted the testimony that had formed the centre-piece of a similar indictment, by French judge Jean Louis Bruguière against Rwandan officials, leading to the collapse of that case. Another witness, Sixbert Musangamfura, who served as Intelligence coordinator for former Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu, is on record making outright calls for genocide against the Tutsi in the newspaper ‘Isibo’ of 27 October 1991, writing; “If we don’t exterminate the Tutsi, they’ll do it to us.” Musangamfura’s infamous testimony was not corroborated at all. The others like Christophe Hakizabera and Joseph Ruyenzi are known FDLR collaborators with political and personal motivations. How the judge built his case around such witnesses, yet a little research would have unearthed their motives, is among the questions Rwandans are demanding answers from the judicial systems that have given weight to the charges. Rwanda has always cooperated closely with Spain so that justice is achieved. Rwandan ministers have repeatedly met Spanish counterparts over the years to reiterate Rwanda’s commitment to assist Spain in pursuing justice for the victims and their families. Rwandans protest outside Westminster Magistrates Court in UK on June 25. (Courtesy) In 1997, Spanish Police conducted an investigation in Rwanda with the full cooperation of the Rwandan authorities. None of their findings implicated entities or officials of the Rwandan government. Several Rwandan soldiers were killed in the same attack. The sole survivor of that attack, a U.S. citizen and USAID official Nitin Madhav, who was not interviewed by Spanish magistrate Fernando Andreu, continues to describe it as ‘an attack by Interahamwe insurgents’. At the time, the U.S. State Department, The New York Times, as well as other international media outlets, reported Interahamwe insurgents as the primary suspects. Secret American Cables To further understand how sinister the indictment is, one can refer to the leaked US cables dated April, 2008 classified by the US ambassador at the time Michael R. Arietti who described the indictment as “outrageous and inaccurate.” “The Spanish Indictment of 40 Rwandan military officers offers an unrecorgnisable version of some of the most painful and violent episodes in Rwanda’s history, distorting the established record, inventing mass killings,” the cable reads in part. In further questioning the indictment, the cable points to the inaccurate and repugnant description by the Spanish judge on the origins of the Genocide. “At no point in the judge’s narrative is the Habyarimana regime or extremist elements within that government at fault – there is no planning of Genocide, no carrying out of prepared massacres, nor a mention of the insidious and all-encompassing psychological preparation of mass killings by the media outlets controlled by extremist elements,” The cable adds; adding that “an unrecognisable version of Rwanda’s history, distorting the established record, inventing mass killings, and placing the blame for any misfortune Rwandans have suffered, including the 1994 Genocide, on the Kagame government”. An affront to Africa Gen. Karake’s arrest did not only draw ire from Rwandans who protested day and night but also from the African Union which released a statement calling the arrest a “blatant violation of the principle of international jurisdiction by some non-African states against African officials and its implication on peace and security on the continent.” Rwandans protest outside Westminster Magistrates Court in UK on June 25. (Courtesy) The AU added that the arrest was a violation of a mutual agreement reached last year to have a political dialogue between the EU and Africa to address the issue of abuse of the principles of universal jurisdiction “once and for all”. Crucially, Interpol had even refused to issue Red Notices against the 40 Rwandan officers, among them Karake, “to avoid breaching its constitutional statutes which stay away from politically motivated warrants”. Many in Africa see the decision to arrest General Karenzi as an affront to Africans. This is because there is a lot of doubt that the UK would arrest a senior official of a government who is visiting on an official mission had they been from a Europe, America, China or Israel. And such double standards say a lot about the so-called universal jurisdiction. Genocide survivors outraged In a letter to the UK government, IBUKA, a Genocide survivors’ organisation, it expressed its anger at the arrest of a man who sacrificed himself and saved people from killing grounds of the ‘barbaric’ genocide perpetrators. “Since 1994, he has worked tirelessly to protect Rwandans from those who wish to continue their genocide mission. We are outraged at this injustice, which undermines Rwanda’s renewal 21 years after more than a million people were killed in the Genocide against the Tutsi,” read the letter which urged the UK government to find and bring to justice the hundreds of killers responsible for the Genocide who continue to roam freely across the UK and Europe. ****** WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT GEN. KARAKES ARREST Mitchell Andrew Mitchell, a senior British parliamentarian, described the arrest as an abuse of justice and a misuse of the European Arrest Warrant system. “It’s being used by the supporters of the genocidal regime against those who stopped the Genocide,” he said, adding that the junior Spanish judge’s warrants had been suspended by the Spanish High Court in March 2014. “The indictment is being used for political reasons, and not judicial ones,” Mitchell told the British media. ** Mushikiwabo Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo blasted the arrest, calling it “western solidarity in demeaning Africans” which she said was “unacceptable” “It is an outrage to arrest a Rwandan official based on pro-genocidaires lunacy!” Mushikiwabo wrote on her Twitter account. The minister further added that, “The UN in 2009 amply documented support of Spanish NGOs behind the preposterous “valid European arrest warrant” to genocidal militia FDLR!” ** Ndahiro Genocide expert Tom Ndahiro, in his article, “Merelles: The Indictable Spanish Judge,” published in February 2011, argued that in analysing the indictment, it is substantially clear that either for his own ideological motives Judge Merelles consciously manipulated and misrepresented historical facts. This, Ndahiro wrote, enabled him to portray genocidaires in an intolerably positive way, hiding their clear responsibility for the planning and commission of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. ** Gourevitch Philip Gourevitch, a US journalist with The New Yorker questioned the timing of Gen. Karake’s arrest. He wondered why he had travelled for several years to the UK without any incidence yet the indictments had been issued.

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Gen Karake and the travesty of justice