ICTR on the spot over Kambanda interview

The National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) has sent a note of protest to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) over Genocide convict Jean Kambanda’s interview with a major British broadcaster. On Tuesday, ITV news network aired an exclusive interview with Kambanda who is serving a life sentence in Bamako, Mali having pleaded guilty at the Tanzania-based tribunal in 1998. The commission said it had also protested to ITV and the Malian government. In the interview, Kambanda backtracks on his guilty plea claiming he had been manipulated by the prosecution which resulted in a conviction on all the six counts related to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in which more than a million people were killed. In 2000, Kambanda sought to withdraw his earlier admission that his regime had prepared the Genocide but lost the case with the upper chamber upholding the life sentence. In the latest interview, he claims the Genocide was not planned and criticises the ongoing rebuilding process in the country. Even though the standard minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners accord Kambanda and fellow Genocide convicts some rights, it prohibits them from accessing media platforms to influence the public negatively. According to a statement from CNLG, a 1999 agreement between Mali and the United Nations does not allow ICTR Genocide convicts to access a media platform to deny the crimes for which they were convicted and imprisoned. The treaty also forbids convicts from spreading the hateful propaganda that was used during the preparation and execution of the Genocide against the Tutsi. Speaking to The New Times yesterday, Dr Jean Damascène Bizimana, the Executive Secretary of CNLG, said questions posed by ITV journalist John Ray were predetermined for Kambanda to assert his revisionist agenda and distort the truth about the Genocide as well as undermine the Kigali government. “Our position is spelled out in a statement which we will share with international agencies, local institutions and the media. We strongly condemn all efforts to deny and undermine the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi,” said Bizimana. He said interviewing incarcerated ICTR convicts also undermined the verdicts handed down by the same U tribunal. In the ITV interview, Kambanda claimed he played no role in the Genocide. He denies ever supplying weapons to people for the purpose of killing claiming the arms were for self-defence – contrary to an infamous footage in which an armed Kambanda, in military fatigue, incites the public to kill. Kambanda speaks to John Ray of ITV in prison in Mali. ITV News Picture. (Net photo) The interview contradicts what he pleaded voluntarily before both the Trial Chamber and the Appeals Chamber of the ICTR. Kambanda went on to question the current reconciliation efforts. But Bizimana questions the motives of the interview. “The reality of Rwanda’s reconciliation process can be obtained by visiting the country and asking the people or through various reports by credible institutions, not from Jean Kambanda, a mastermind of the Genocide.” “The content of the interview in its entirety lacks objectivity and is one-sided, in breach of the tenets of professional journalism,” he added. Bizimana said it was regrettable and unfortunate that the same people who masterminded the Genocide were now being given airtime to attempt to cleanse themselves and distort history. “On behalf of CNLG and the victims of the Genocide, I condemn the act and the continued attempts to undermine the government that stopped the Genocide and the efforts to unite and reconcile the people of Rwanda.” “I urge the Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to stop providing room to Genocide masterminds in UN detention facilities to continue propagating Genocide ideology,” he said. Bizimana urged the ICTR Registrar to put in place concrete measures to ensure that the breach does not continue, citing a similar incident in 2004 when a BBC journalist, Venuste Nshimiyimana, was given access to the same Genocide prisoners in Mali to air hateful ideologies. Bizimana also pointed to a sequence of articles and documentaries by foreign media agencies, such as the BBC2, Canal+, France 2 and RFI with a predetermined agenda to shift responsibility from the authors of Genocide to the victims over the last couple of years. editorial@newtimes.co.rw