| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
The mandate for the United Nations mission in Rwanda comes up for renewal on June 9, approximately two months after the first anniversary of the plane crash which marked the beginning of last year's genocide in that country. In recent weeks a number of reports have been released concerning the current status in that country, but have received only low-profile international attention. A selection of recent documents received by the Africa Policy Informatin Center follows, in two parts.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH / AFRICA
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May 11, 1995
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/AFRICA AND FIDH COMMEND PEACEFUL END TO KIBEHO CRISIS BUT WARN RWANDAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM NEEDS IMMEDIATE ACTION
Human Rights Watch/Africa and the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) today commended the Rwandan government for the restraint shown by its troops during the standoff which ended peacefully at the Kibeho displaced persons' camp in southwestern Rwanda. The government had closed the camp on April 18, but more than a thousand displaced persons had refused to leave and had sought refuge in a group of buildings. Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) officers at first planned to attack the compound and had positioned their well-armed troops around the site but then agreed to wait for the resisters to come out voluntarily. Deprived of food and clean water and surrounded by human waste, the resisters left by small groups over a two week period. The last persons left the compound on May 9.
The restraint and good order shown by RPA troops during the last two weeks contrasts sharply with their behavior during the days when the camp closing was first being enforced. On April 18, the troops fired in the air to herd frightened refugees together into a clearing at the center of the camp. Thousands of the displaced panicked and stampeded, causing the deaths of nine persons, eight of them children. On April 20, 21and 22, the troops fired directly into the crowd of tens of thousands of persons and on April 23, they chased and shot at people who were trying to flee the camp. The death toll has been estimated at between 2,000 and 4,000 by U.N. and other international observers. The Rwandan government has declared that 338 persons were killed in the incidents which resulted, they claimed, from provocation and gunfire from the crowd.
At the request of the Rwandan government, an international commission of inquiry has begun to investigate the Kibeho killings. Human Rights Watch/Africa and FIDH call upon the commission to focus its attention particularly on the question of who gave the orders to fire in each of the five successive incidents of shooting that occurred between April 20 and April 22 and on the circumstances in which such orders were given.
On April 20 and 21, men armed with machetes killed and wounded dozens of the displaced in night-time attacks. The assailants, whose identity has not been established, apparently intended to sow terror by random assaults in the crowd. Three of the assailants were apprehended by U.N. troops.
Human Rights Watch/Africa and FIDH call upon the international commission to interrogate these assailants and others to determine who ordered the attacks.
Some 200,000 displaced persons had sought protection in the camps because they feared arrest and insecurity in their home communities. Many are thought to have participated in the genocide that last year killed between one half million and one million Tutsi. When the camps were closed, tens of thousands of the displaced were escorted home by Rwandan soldiers. Tens of thousands of others have either returned on their own, fled elsewhere in Rwanda, or crossed into neighboring Burundi or Zaire. Of the estimated 10,000 who fled to Burundi, some 300 were forcibly repatriated on May 9 by Burundian authorities, in violation of the 1951 U.N. refugee convention.
Hundreds of returnees have been arrested on accusation of having participated in the genocide and have been confined in inhumane conditions in local lock-ups. Twenty-eight per sons died of suffocation on April 26 after having been forced with hundreds of others into a small jail in the commune of Rusatira. The local military commander subsequently released the other detainees. The public prosecutor for the region then visited several other communities and ordered the release of detainees against whom charges had not been filed.
Rwandan authorities have acted appropriately in releasing detainees held in inhumane and life- threatening conditions or held in violation of due process regulations. But such liberations return to the community persons suspected of having massacred others and raise the danger of reprisal attacks and killings against the suspects. Such killings have already taken place in the commune of Huye, where at least fourteen persons just returned from the camps were found stoned and beaten to death at the end of April. The forcible return of refugees from Burundi, most of whom are young men--those most often accused in the genocide--will increase further the number of potential suspects in the local communities.
The presence of suspects at large in the communities also raises serious and understandable concerns among the survivors of the genocide who may fear attacks intended to eliminate them as potential witnesses against the accused.
Even before the camps were closed, more than 30,000 persons were detained in the badly overcrowded Rwandan jails, awaiting trials that have been delayed by lack of human and material resources needed to make the judicial system function. The paralysis of the judicial system has been complicated by interference from the military, which has been acting as a police force in the absence of a civilian police force.
Human Rights Watch/Africa and FIDH warn that continued paralysis of the judicial system contributes to serious insecurity within local communities and increases the likelihood of violence either by or against survivors of the genocide. The need to protect lives adds great urgency to the need for prompt action to establish a state of law in Rwanda.
Although little progress has been made in the administration of civilian justice, officers of a military justice system took the oath of office before the Rwandan Minister of Justice on May 2. They immediately began the trials of twelve soldiers accused of theft and murder. Such progress offers hope of dealing with the cases of some five hundred soldiers charged with various crimes, including serious human rights violations against civilians. Should the international commission investigating the Kibeho killings find evidence of criminal or negligent behavior on the part of Rwandan soldiers, it should submit its findings to the Rwandan military justice system.
Human Rights Watch/Africa and FIDH also commend those foreign judicial authorities who are beginning to take action on cases of persons accused of participation in the genocide. Belgian judicial authorities have detained two suspects, Alphonse Higaniro and Vincent Ntezimana, and have recently gathered evidence in Rwanda concerning their cases. Canadian authorities are preparing to begin the trial in late June of Leon Mugesera, accused of crimes against humanity and violations of Canadian immigration law.
Recommendations
Human Rights Watch/Africa and FIDH call upon the international commission of inquiry investigating the Kibeho killings to:
1. Focus their attention on identifying the officers who gave the orders to fire in the five separate incidents at the camp between April 20 and April 22 and on establishing the circumstances in which such orders were given; 2. Investigate the killings of displaced persons by machete attack during the nights of April 20 and 21.
Human Rights Watch/Africa and FIDH call upon the government of Rwanda:
1. To make the beginning of the trials of persons accused of genocide its priority;
2. To ensure that arrests and trials of persons accused of genocide and other crimes are carried out according to due process;
3. To act promptly to bring to justice any soldiers or officers against whom the commission finds serious grounds for suspicion of criminal behavior;
4. To take every possible measure to ensure the security of all Rwandans within their home communities;
5. To use the radio and other media to reassure the population to encourage the orderly reception of returnees from the displaced persons' camps and to inform people of their lawful recourse against persons suspected of involvement in the genocide.
Human Rights Watch/Africa and FIDH call upon the international community to:
1. Make available immediately the human and material resources necessary to a ssist the Rwandan judicial system; 2. Continue to provide the resources needed for U.N. troops and human rights monitors to contribute to the security of Rwandans in their home communities.
Human Rights Watch/Africa and FIDH have set up a joint office in Butare in order to document the genocide and investigate current human rights violations in Rwanda. The office is also working to assist Rwandan human rights organizations.
Human Rights Watch/Africa was established in 1988 to monitor and promote internationally recognized human rights in Africa. Human Rights Watch/Africa is a division of Human Rights Watch, which was established in 1978 to monitor and promote internationally recognized human rights worldwide. Federation Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH). The International Federation of Human Rights is an international nongovernmental organization for the defense of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. Created in 1922, it includes 89 national affiliates throughout the world.
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Message-Id: 199505241445.HAA20301@igc3.igc.apc.org
From: "Washington Office on Africa" woa@igc.apc.org
Date: Wed, 24 May 1995 08:55:52 +0000
Subject: Recent Rwanda Documents: Part 1,