ICTR folds: Has it delivered?

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) wrapped up its activities on June 30 and handed over to the International Residual Mechanism.The UN Security Council swiftly permitted four judges of the tribunal to serve beyond the expiry of their terms of office so that the court can wrap up its work by the target date of December 2014.In a unanimously adopted resolution, the Council decided that Judge William H. Sekule of Tanzania, Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda and Judge Mparany Mamy Richard Rajohnson of Madagascar may continue until the completion of cases that they began before the 30 June expiry of their tenure.The Council also decided to extend until December 31, 2014 the service of the ICTR president, Judge Vagn Joensen of Denmark, whose term was also to have expired on June 30, in an effort to complete the court’s remaining work.The tribunal was set up 17 years ago to try the masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.At the time, the international community was locked in debate on whether the Rwandan massacre was genocide or a civil conflict, and according to several Rwandans, the United Nations’ decision to establish the ICTR on November 8, 1994, confirmed that the international community had indubitably accepted that there indeed was a genocide in Rwanda.But though many hailed the UN’s decision to establish the tribunal, they lamented over its failure to live up to its mandate after having spent a whopping US$1.7 billion to try 72 cases.Principally, the intention of establishing the tribunal was to break the cycle of impunity by holding to account architects of the Genocide who had fled beyond the reach of the Rwandan government.Yet the Arusha-based tribunal had always had difficult relations with Kigali, with the latter at one time cutting contacts over lenient sentences and other differences.The head of Kigali Bar Association, Athanase Rutabingwa, acknowledges the tribunal’s efforts but expresses reservations over its performance.“Given the resources ICTR has had at its disposal, it should have tried very many cases than it did. The tribunal performed but not to the expectations of the international community and Rwandans,” says Rutabingwa.“Our judicial practitioners acquired skills through trainings from the ICTR although we believe ICTR could have offered more than they did,” Rutabingwa observes.“We appreciate the fact that with the transfer of several cases to Rwanda from the tribunal, the international community now recognises that the Rwandan judiciary can perform to the expectation and accord fair justice, but I will emphasise the fact that Rwandans believe ICTR could have done much more and they are right.”When the United Nations set up the ICTR, it clearly defined its roles; one of them being delivery of justice to genocide victims and survivors, and promotion of national reconciliation in Rwanda.The coordinator of the Student Genocide Survivors Association (AERG), Constantin Rukundo, believes the ICTR performed its roles at a snail’s pace.“The pace at which the court tried cases was very slow. Maybe they had reasons behind that but if the tribunal had tried cases faster, we would have seen many of the genocide suspects serving their sentences by now.”The acting Secretary General of the umbrella organisation of genocide survivor’s associations,IBUKA, Naftari Ahishakiye, also noted there were cracks within the tribunal’s operations. “Some suspects were released yet we had enough implicating evidence. There are also cases of suspects who were handed short sentences yet they were the masterminds of the Genocide.“We want the world to know that the closure of ICTR is not the end of justice. The world should follow up on all the indictments that were issued by the tribunal and prosecute genocide suspects wherever they are,” he insists.Although the UN Security Council recently ruled that the archives of the tribunal would remain in the Tanzanian city of Arusha, Ahishakiye says Rwanda is still interested in hosting them.“We still insist that the ICTR archives should be sent to their original home, which is Rwanda and we are also requesting that the convicted genocide perpetrators should serve their sentences here”.A Kigali-based lawyer and commissioner with the National Human Rights Commission, Maitre Laurent Nkongori, said one of the lessons the ICTR is leaving for legal practitioners is the jurisprudence, mainly on cases related to rape. “Scholars and international researchers now have a highly recognised reference which is the ICTR cases,” Nkongori said. “This is why Rwanda has always expressed interest in hosting the archives.”On the recent transfers of cases from the Arusha, Nkongori pointed out that although it took very long, the transfers confirmed that the international community now recognises Rwanda’s judiciary.“This is actually supported by a provision in the international law against genocide which clearly stipulates that cases of genocide should primarily be tried by courts of the country where atrocities where committed,” he says.The president of Rwanda National Unity and Reconciliation Commission, Dr Jean Baptiste Habyalimana, said the ICTR was inefficient compared to the traditional Gacaca courts that also concluded recently.“We assess the performance of the ICTR in comparison with the Gacaca courts which tried close to two million dossiers.”External pundits believe it has contributed a lot to justice in Rwanda.The trials completed by the tribunal have challenged the historical impunity that existed in Rwanda by bringing to justice former government and military officials who conducted massacres of Tutsi civilians under a societal ideology of hatred and extermination as a final solution to a scapegoat minority.The indictment of the perpetrators has eliminated their ability to promote genocide ideology, hate propaganda, and the justification of human rights abuses, observers argue.The first trial at the ICTR started in January 1997, following the arrival of the first accused in Arusha in May 1996.The tribunal has so far finalised 45 cases while 17 are still pending. The court has also made 10 acquittals.The only case presently in progress is that of former government minister, Augustine Ngirabatware.But the tribunal folded business without arresting some of the key architects of the Genocide, including Felicien Kabuga, the man accused of bankrolling the Genocide, and who is widely believed to be hiding in Kenya.Others include former Commander of the Presidential Guard, Protais Mpiranyi, believed to be in Zimbabwe, and former Defence minister, Augustin Bizimana.