DATE=2/25/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=RWANDA GENOCIDE
NUMBER=5-45517
BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS
DATELINE=ARUSHA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations prosecutor
investigating Rwanda's 1994 genocide says some
criminal trials should be moved to Rwanda. As V-
O-A's Scott Stearns reports, the prosecutor is
trying to get those most affected by the violence
more involved in the search for justice.
TEXT: United Nations prosecutor Carla del Ponte
says you can not have justice in a vacuum. The
tribunal established to try war crimes from
Rwanda's genocide sits in the Tanzanian town of
Arusha, some 700 kilometers from the scene of the
violence.
Now, Ms. del Ponte wants to move some of those
trials to Rwanda, closer to the people and the
places involved in the murder of more than 500-
thousand people. While Rwanda has its own
genocide tribunal in the capital, Kigali, the
most senior officials implicated in the violence
are at the U-N tribunal in Arusha.
/// FIRST DEL PONTE ACT ///
The most important consideration is that
the Rwandan people must follow more easily
what is happening here in Arusha because
Arusha is far away from Kigali.
/// END ACT ///
Ms. del Ponte says most Rwandans do not know
what is going on in the Arusha trials and thus
may never feel there has been justice under the
U-N system.
Assistant prosecutor Bernard Muna says part of
the tribunal's job is helping Rwanda heal its
wounds. He believes U-N trials in Rwanda will
help everyone better understand what happened six
years ago when the army and ruling party militia
began killing ethnic Tutsi and politically
moderate Hutu.
/// FIRST MUNA ACT ///
Part of the mandate is to hope that the
procedures and the condemnation will help
the reconciliation process in Rwanda. Now,
in order to do that, the people of Rwanda
must participate in this trial and not just
coming as witness, but they are in a hall,
they are listening to what is saying, they
are learning what happened in their commune
or in their prefecture. They have a lot of
emotions that they give out, and so that is
part of the participation.
/// END ACT ///
Holding some of the trials in Rwanda is not the
decision of prosecutors. Judges at the U-N
tribunal must approve the change, and that may be
difficult. There are obvious questions of
security and logistics. Legal observers say
defense attorneys may also object, claiming their
client's right to a fair trial may be tainted if
those proceedings are held inside Rwanda.
The government there is made up of former rebels
who stopped the violence. They have made pursuing
genocide suspects one of the country's highest
priorities -- twice invading neighboring Congo on
the grounds that it was harboring some of those
responsible for the killing.
/// OPT /// Rwanda's government has had a rocky
relationship with the U-N tribunal. It suspended
cooperation for three months after judges ruled a
top suspect should be freed because he had to
wait too long for his trial. Ms. del Ponte -- who
was refused a visa to visit Rwanda last year --
has argued that the decision be overturned. ///
END OPT ///
/// SECOND DEL PONTE ACT IN FRENCH, ESTABLISH AND
FADE ///
Without the cooperation of Rwanda's government,
Ms. del Ponte says it is impossible for the
tribunal to carry out its investigations. That is
the political world, she says.
It is also part of the reason she wants to move
some of the trials. Many in Rwanda's judicial
system believe their own proceedings have been
slighted by the U-N tribunal. In the past, the
two bodies competed for the extradition of
suspects arrested abroad. The tribunal won, in
part, because Rwanda has the death penalty and
the U-N does not.
/// OPT /// Assistant prosecutor Muna rejected
suggestions that political motives behind moving
some trials would taint the tribunal's
impartiality. International justice is often
political, he says, citing as an example the
controversy over efforts to deport former Chilean
leader Augusto Pinochet from Britain.
/// SECOND MUNA ACT /// ///OPT ACT///
When we talk of justice, people tend to
forget that justice is situated sometimes
in the political arena. Like it or not.
/// END ACT /// ///END OPT///
The prosecutors' office and the Rwandan
government have discussed details of moving some
trials. A chamber in Rwanda's Supreme Court is
being refurbished in preparation. U-N judges are
expected to make a final decision on the move
later this year. (SIGNED)
NEB/SS/GE/KL/Africa
25-Feb-2000 10:29 AM EDT (25-Feb-2000 1529 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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