All nations equal before the law

Editor,This is a reaction to the article, “Ngoga accuses ICTR of double standards”, (The New Times, February 6, 2013). This relationship sometimes chokes and suffocates. In fact, Rwandans and Africans, in general, are the most resilient people I have known. We stomached slave trade and scramble for Africa. We condoned the partition of Africa as well as colonisation. We tolerated imperialism and paternalist arrogance. I think we have endured every indignity God (or Satan) created. Our justice system is being monitored in these International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda (ICTR) cases not because our courts might commit miscarriages of justice. We are monitored because someone wants to conclude later that the trials were in accordance with international standards because we were being watched over. The other predetermined conclusion will be that we cannot be trusted to deliver justice according to international standards unless we are watched over. Therefore, after Jean Bosco Uwinkindi, a Genocide suspect, we will be back where we began; the presumption will still be that we are more capable of and more willing to intentionally miscarry justice than the reverse. If the monitoring was for a good cause, indeed as the Prosecutor General says, why isn’t France being monitored despite taking in more suspects and doing absolutely nothing about the cases? How come the cases have not been recalled to Arusha? By the way, who monitors the thousands of our cases per year? Are the litigants less human? I know Rwanda acceded to this monitoring arrangement as a token to convince the ICTR that it was acting in good faith, but by the same token, let the ICTR be forced to decide whether France is acting in good or bad faith. Why should Rwanda be subjected to a stiffer regime? What I suggest, however, is that the matters be followed up legally by having formal applications filed by Rwanda or the ICTR Prosecutor to the Court seeking certain specific orders in relation to the matters raised herein. It will be interesting to see the Tribunal’s response.Hope, Mile 40 Nyamirambo, Kigali

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All nations equal before the law