Rwandans acquitted by ICTR can return home, says CNLG

The National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) prefers to see people acquitted by the now defunct International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) returning home where, if indisputably spotless, they will help other Rwandans in nation building other than opting to go to live in other countries. More than 10 acquitted or convicted persons who served their sentences still live in Arusha, Tanzania where the ICTR was headquartered before it closed shop end last December. Such people include Prosper Mugiraneza, Justin Mugenzi, Protais Zigiranyirazo, Francois Xavier Nzuwonemeye, Andre Ntagerura, Casimir Bizimingu, Gratien Kabiligi, Jerome Bicamumpaka, Augustin Ndindiliyimana, Anatole Nsengiyumva and Tharcisse Muvunyi. Recent news reports indicate that Ghana has agreed to host any two of the persons currently living in Arusha. In an interview with The New Times, last week, Jean Damascène Bizimana, the executive secretary of CNLG, said he was aware of the reports about Ghana, but that those acquitted or those who have served their jail sentences and have nothing else to answer for should have no fear of returning home. He said if they returned home, Rwanda cannot charge them if they have been acquitted, or convicted and served their sentences, because any action contrary to that would be what is, in law, called double jeopardy, which means someone cannot be tried twice for the same crime or crimes. Bizimana, however, reiterated that during the trials, the tribunal made mistakes as many of these individuals were pardoned yet they were not innocent given their direct involvement in the 1994 Genocide against the Genocide. Bizimana said: “Others were given lesser punishments not matching the crimes committed, such as in the case of Anatole Nsengiyumva who provided the weapons used to kill thousands of people in Gisenyi, and in Nyundo. “He was in charge of training of Interahamwe in what was then known as the Commune Rouge (Red district).” Nsengiyumva, a former military commander in the region, would be given 15 years in jail and then get released, in the same fashion as Gen Augustin Ndindiliyimana, who also served 12 years and walked free in February 2014, when the tribunal’s Appeals Chamber reversed the convictions and acquitted him on all counts. In February 2014, Ndindiliyimana, was acquitted on appeal for genocide conviction. At the time, he was already free as his sentence was almost the same years he had spent in custody awaiting trial. Both these men, and others, Bizimana says, were given lesser sentences on purpose. “It was one of the strategies used to set Genocide suspects free, by giving them short jail terms that were equal to the time they had already spent in jail so that they could then be released,” Bizimana said. According to Bizimana, even if the legal principle of double jeopardy must be respected, Rwandan courts would still pursue people and try them for cases not tackled by the tribunal. An example, he noted, is the case of Emmanuel Bagambiki, former mayor of Cyangugu Prefecture, who was acquitted of genocide in 2004 but the Tribunal never pursued charges of rape and incitement to commit rape. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Rwandans acquitted by ICTR can return home, says CNLG