DRC Has Taken Rwanda To The World Court Over Genocide Again. A Law Scholar Explains What’s Different This Time

The Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, which is the seat of the International Court of Justice. Wikimedia Commons

BY KERSTIN BREE CARLSON

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR INTERNATIONAL

LAW, ROSKILDE UNIVERSITY, DENMARK

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) filed a lawsuit against Rwanda at the International Court of Justice at the end of June 2026. The 60-page complaint alleges acts of genocide and other atrocity crimes by Rwandan forces and their intermediaries dating from 1996 to the present day.

The DRC has twice before brought similar cases against Rwanda at this court. Both failed on questions of jurisdiction. So, what explains yet another case against Rwanda? Kerstin Bree Carlson, a scholar of international justice and author of a book on international law in Africa, examines this history and what’s behind the DRC’s confidence in its latest push.
What did the DRC’s previous cases involve?

The DRC has twice tried to bring Rwanda before the International Court of Justice in relation to violence carried out or backed by Rwanda on its soil. It was unsuccessful both times.

In 1999, the DRC brought claims against Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda before the court over the armed invasion of its territory. It sought reparations for armed aggression and intentional acts of destruction and looting.

It later dropped its claims against Rwanda and Burundi because neither country had consented to the court’s jurisdiction.

The case against Uganda went ahead, and in 2005 the court ruled in the DRC’s favour. It found that Uganda was responsible for acts of violence in the country. In 2022, the court ordered Uganda to pay US$325 million in reparations, marking a significant victory for the DRC. Kampala paid the first instalment of US$65 million that year.

In 2002, the DRC resubmitted claims against Rwanda.

The DRC invoked eight international treaties, including the Genocide Convention. This is a UN treaty that entered into force in 1951 and establishes genocide as an international crime.

The International Court of Justice dismissed the DRC’s case on jurisdictional grounds, which drew criticism. The court said it lacked the authority to hear the dispute because Rwanda had entered a “reservation” when it joined the Genocide Convention, rejecting the court’s jurisdiction under the treaty. In the 2006 ruling, a majority of International Court of Justice judges recognised the validity of this reservation.
What has happened in the past 20 years that might change the outcome?

First, in 2008 Rwanda withdrew its reservation to International Court of Justice jurisdiction under the Genocide Convention and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (which came into force in 1969). That means that the jurisdictional hurdle relating to Rwanda’s consent is resolved.

The DRC has invoked both these treaties in its current submission to the court.

Second, in 2008 Rwanda became a party to the Convention Against Torture (which came into force in 1987). Claims made under this UN treaty do not need to meet the same rigorous “intent” standard that genocide claims do. Further, the court’s jurisprudence is well established under the torture convention. For example, claims under this treaty played a critical role in efforts to bring Chad’s former president Hissène Habré to justice.

The DRC has invoked this history in its submission.

Third, international law has evolved. Recent cases like The Gambia’s suit againt Myanmar (2019) and South Africa’s case against Israel (2023) have expanded the Genocide Convention’s reach.

Together, these factors suggest that the DRC’s third attempt may have a stronger chance of clearing the jurisdictional hurdle. However, whether this would eventually lead to a judgment against Rwanda is much harder to predict.
Why has the DRC turned to international law?

International law, the law of nations, creates all nations as equals. The International Court of Justice is the oldest, most established global arbiter of disputes between them.

There are two principles of international law that play out in this case.

First, states are generally bound only by obligations they have explicitly accepted. This includes agreeing to the jurisdiction of the court. Second, international courts have no police force or other means of enforcing their judgments. It is up to states themselves to comply with court rulings. This compliance includes a duty on other states not to recognise as lawful situations created through serious breaches of international law.

Although the court cannot compel states to act, its opinions matter. They represent the most authoritative statements of international legal norms. In other words, International Court of Justice judgments represent the clearest statements we have regarding how international legal principles apply in practice.

Recognising international law’s persuasive power is key to understanding why the DRC has repeatedly turned to the International Court of Justice and other international courts to seek rulings against Rwanda and its proxies. These include the International Criminal Court and the African Court on Human and People’s Rights. International lawfare represents a principled battle for recognition and legitimacy.
Why does the case matter?

The DRC’s creative legal attempts to bring Rwanda to justice in relation to its engagement in and support of armed conflict in the DRC over the past several decades are efforts to invalidate violent incursions on its soil. It also seeks to reassert its sovereignty by having Rwandan-backed violence recognised as illegal by international law’s apex court.

As I have argued before and in my book examining international law in Africa, the power of international law resides in states’ agreements to use it in place of violent conflagration, and to be bound by it.

Rwanda challenges these standards in both regards. Credible allegations of Rwandan-backed massacres in the DRC date from 1996 through to the present day. Despite being the recipient of significant international legal investment, Rwanda resists participating as a good international citizen. So far, neither Rwanda nor its allies are addressing or redressing its behaviour.

By contrast, the DRC is expanding international law’s promise and potential by applying it as intended. International law derives its power chiefly from the expectations it creates.

The DRC is not blameless in the three decades of violence its submission describes. But by framing that violence through the lens of international law, the country helps legitimise alternatives to violence.

Rwanda’s Leader Is Concerned Over Perceived US Ambiguity About Victims Of The 1994 Genocide

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame gestures as he gives a press conference at Kigali Convention Center in Kigali, Rwanda, Monday, April 8, 2024...(AP Photo/Brian Nganga)

BY RODNEY MUHUMUZA AND IGNATIUS SSUUNA

KIGALI, RWANDA (AP) — Rwandan President Paul Kagame said Monday he was concerned by what he saw as a U.S. failure to characterize the 1994 massacres as a genocide against the country’s minority Tutsis.

Kagame told reporters that the issue was an “element of discussion” in talks with former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who led the American delegation to a ceremony Sunday commemorating the 30th anniversary of the genocide in which Hutu extremists slaughtered about 800,000 people, most of them Tutsis, in a government-orchestrated campaign.

Many Rwandans criticized U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for failing to specify that the genocide targeted the Tutsis when he wrote late Sunday: “We mourn the many thousands of Tutsis, Hutus, Twas, and others whose lives were lost during 100 days of unspeakable violence.”

Responding to a journalist’s question about Blinken’s post on the social platform X, Kagame said he believed he had reached an agreement with U.S. authorities a decade ago for them not to voice any criticism on the genocide anniversary.

“Give us that day,” he said, adding that criticism over “everything we are thought not to have at all” is unwanted on the genocide anniversary. Rwandan authorities insist any ambiguity on who the genocide victims were is an attempt to distort history and disrespects the memory of the victims.

U.S. officials did not comment on Monday. President Joe Biden issued a statement Sunday, saying, “We will never forget the horrors of those 100 days, the pain and loss suffered by the people of Rwanda, or the shared humanity that connects us all, which hate can never overcome.”

“In the 100 days that followed, more than 800,000 women, men, and children were murdered. Most were ethnic Tutsis; some were Hutus and Twa people. It was a methodical mass extermination, turning neighbor against neighbor, and decades later, its repercussions are still felt across Rwanda and around the world,” Biden wrote. “We honor the victims who died senselessly and the survivors who courageously rebuilt their lives. And we commend all Rwandans who have contributed to reconciliation and justice efforts, striving to help their nation bind its wounds, heal its trauma, and build a foundation of peace and unity. Those efforts continue to this day.”

The question of how to memorialize the genocide stems from allegations that the Rwandan Patriotic Front — the rebel group that stopped the massacres and has ruled Rwanda unchallenged since 1994 — carried out its own revenge killings during and after the genocide.

Kagame has previously said that his forces showed restraint. He said in a speech Sunday that Rwandans are disgusted by what he described as the hypocrisy of Western nations that failed to stop the genocide.

The genocide was ignited when a plane carrying then-President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down over Kigali on April 6, 1994. The Tutsis were blamed for downing the plane and killing the president, and became targets in massacres led by Hutu extremists that lasted over 100 days. Some moderate Hutus who tried to protect members of the Tutsi minority were also killed. As part of weeklong commemorations, flags flew at half-staff and public places across Rwanda were told to keep entertainment quiet.

Rwandan authorities also face questions over how to present commemoration activities in a way that acknowledges the efforts of some Hutus to protect their Tutsi neighbors.

“You see, those who are denying the genocide are saying, ’Ah, to commemorate? It’s a big serious barrier to unity. We have to move forward, to forget about commemoration,’” said Naphtal Ahishakiye, executive secretary of a prominent group of genocide survivors in Kigali. “Those are wrong. They have genocide ideology. They don’t want to remember what happened.”

The government has long blamed the international community for ignoring warnings about the killings, and some Western leaders have expressed regret.

French President Emmanuel Macron said last week that France and its allies could have stopped the genocide but lacked the will to do so. Macron’s declaration came three years after he acknowledged the “overwhelming responsibility” of France — Rwanda’s closest European ally in 1994 — for failing to stop Rwanda’s slide into the slaughter. Although Kagame is a U.S. ally and has friendly relations with many Western leaders, he is under growing pressure over Rwanda’s military involvement in eastern Congo, where tensions have flared recently as the two countries’ leaders accuse one another of supporting armed groups. In February, the U.S. urged Rwanda to withdrawal its troops and missile systems from eastern Congo, for the first time describing the M23 as a Rwanda-backed rebel group.

U.N. experts have said they had “solid evidence” that members of Rwanda’s armed forces were conducting operations there in support of M23, whose rebellion has caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in Congo’s North Kivu’s province. Kagame said Monday that the M23 are fighting for the rights of Congolese Tutsis, with at least 100,000 of them now seeking shelter in Rwanda after fleeing attacks in eastern Congo.

Rwandan authorities say they want to deter rebels, including Hutu extremists responsible for the genocide, who fled to eastern Congo.

Rwanda’s ethnic composition remains largely unchanged since 1994, with a Hutu majority. The Tutsis account for 14% and the Twa just 1% of Rwanda’s 14 million people.

Kagame’s Tutsi-dominated government has outlawed any form of organization along ethnic lines, as part of efforts to build a uniform Rwandan identity. National ID cards no longer identify citizens by ethnic group, and authorities imposed a tough penal code to prosecute those suspected of denying the genocide or the “ideology” behind it.

But some observers say the law has been used to silence critics who question the government’s policies, including how to build lasting unity and reconciliation.

Rwandan Genocide, 30 Years On: Omitting Women’s Memories Encourages Incomplete Understanding Of Violence

Rwandan Hutu refugees at the Kibumba camp in the Congo in 1994. (AP Photo/Javier Bauluz)

BY ANNELIESE M. SCHENK-DAY

The eruption of violence that Rwanda experienced beginning on the evening of April 6, 1994, continues to haunt the central African nation 30 years on – it has also changed the country’s gender dynamics.

The genocide resulted in hundreds of thousands of men being killed, with many more fleeing the country or being incarcerated. It left a previously male-centered society with hundreds of thousands of female-headed households. Of course, women were also subjected to the violence itself, with many killed and between 250,000 and 500,000 raped in the three months of genocide.

The scale of violence and disruption to Rwandan society created a need to systematically restructure the country. This was achieved, in part, by setting a quota for 30% of Parliament to be made up of women.

In the years since the genocide, Rwanda has been touted as one of the most gender egalitarian countries in the world, with women making up 61.3% of the nation’s parliament today. Likewise, after the genocide, the nation restructured many of its laws to be more equitable, allowing women to own and inherit land and open bank accounts. Legislation was also put in place to prohibit workplace gender discrimination.

However, despite these accomplishments toward gender equality, women have not necessarily achieved equal status. Women still experience high rates of domestic violence, low employment rates and low educational attainment compared with Rwandan men.

And, as my research shows, women have been largely omitted from the narratives and collective memories of the genocide. I analyzed the interviews of 175 “rescuers” – the term used for people who hid or protected those hunted during the genocide – and found that women’s recollections of the violence were being excluded at disproportionately higher rates than those of men. The interviews were originally conducted by Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira and Nicole Fox, two of the leading researchers on the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda.

Incomplete narratives

Omitting women’s voices in the process of remembering the violence in Rwanda will, I believe, further a narrative of the genocide that is at best incomplete and at worst misleading.

Already, there is criticism over the way that a single narrative has been adopted that lacks nuance. The atrocity is often framed as the natural culmination of two historically feuding ethnic groups, the Hutus and Tutsis, who vied for political power, with the Hutus eventually committing a genocide against the Tutsis.

However, this is an incomplete version of both Rwanda’s history as well as the genocide. Prior to colonization in 1919, Hutus and Tutsi were impermanent economic class categories, likely determined by the number of cattle individuals owned. The ethnicization of the categories was then arbitrarily created by the colonial power, Belgium, in 1935 and remained in place when Rwanda was decolonized in 1962.

The common narrative that during the genocide the Hutus killed the Tutsis is also only a portion of the story. Many moderate Hutus were killed because of their refusal to participate in the violence. Twa, a third ethnic group, were also targeted and killed, while other Hutus chose to rescue Tutsis from violence.

Today the Rwandan government accepts only the narrative of Tutsis being targeted by Hutus, with the official title of the genocide being the “1994 Rwandan Genocide Against the Tutsi.”

Downplaying the role of women

Recent academic work has pointed toward criticism of how Rwanda’s national narrative of the genocide has created a hierarchy of victimhood in which only Tutsis’ victimhood is acknowledged.

Memorials, monuments and textbooks are some of the ways in which collective memories are formed after war, conflict and natural disasters.

Rwanda is unique, however, in that the country facilitates collective memories during annual commemoration events held in local communities. At these commemorations, survivors, rescuers and perpetrators of the violence publicly share their testimonies.

Similar to how the Rwandan government considers only Tutsis to be the victims of the genocide, it also has a narrow definition of “rescuers.” Rescuers are defined by the Rwandan government as individuals who protected or evacuated Tutsis, or made other efforts to save them, and who did not participate in the genocide whether by killing, raping, destroying property or looting.

Rescuers are some of the most frequent speakers at formal commemoration events. By giving a platform to people who were willing to risk their lives to protect their fellow citizens, the government hopes to promote national unity.

But my research has found that male rescuers have a higher profile and more options to tell their story, compared with their female counterparts.

The people asked to testify at formal commemoration events are chosen by local leaders and are not always a representative sample. Women are often not asked to testify, as they are deemed too emotional. Likewise, individuals who are selected to testify often have their stories vetted to ensure their narrative aligns with that of the Rwandan governments.

I analyzed interviews with 175 rescuers – 113 men and 62 women. Of those, 50 people – 23 men and 27 women – had not yet shared their story at a formal commemoration event.

When the 50 individuals who had not shared their story at commemoration were asked why they had not yet done so, and whether they felt they would be asked to testify in the future, two clearly gendered responses emerged.

The women in the sample expressed two reasons for having not yet testified: 10 said that their husbands always testified instead of them, and another seven stated that they had never been asked. Those who had never been asked to testify likewise expressed no hope that they would be asked to testify in the future and had not found alternative ways of sharing their stories.

Meanwhile, just six men stated that they had not been asked to speak at a formal commemoration event. However, all six men said that they had already found other ways of sharing their stories, such as through working with a local NGO or speaking to schoolchildren about the genocide.

Witnesses to violence

Commemoration events are far from the only times in which women’s voices have been omitted from the genocide.

Women’s names have been left off formal lists of rescuers, and their unique rescue contributions have largely been ignored.

Meanwhile, women who participated in the violence have been dismissed as monsters. This has resulted in a disparity in how women are able to recover after the genocide compared with men who participated. It also largely erases conversations around why women may have chosen to participate in the violence.

Likewise, female victims of the genocide have been primarily framed as victims of rape or helpless widows. Focusing on women as victims risks ignoring their other experiences.

Including more women’s voices – and a more nuanced discussion of women’s experiences during mass violence – is vital to understanding how the collective memory of the Rwandan genocide is being constructed, and in flagging concerns around gender disparities in who is permitted to help construct such memories.

READ ORIGINAL STORY HERE

New Mass Graves In Rwanda Reveal Cracks In Reconciliation Efforts, 30 Years After The Genocide

Skulls on display at the Kigali Memorial for Victims of the 1994 Rwandan genocide in Kigali, Rwanda, Tuesday, April 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

BY RODNEY MUHUMUZA AND IGNATIUS SSUUNA

HUYE, RWANDA (AP) — The diggers’ hoes scrape the brown soil, looking for — and often finding — human bone fragments. The women then wipe the bone pieces with their hands as others watch in solemn silence.

The digging goes on, a scene that’s become all too familiar in a verdant area of rural southern Rwanda, where the discovery in October of human remains at the site of a house under construction triggered another search for new mass graves believed to hold victims of the 1994 genocide against Rwanda’s Tutsi.

In the months since, Rwandan authorities say the remains of at least 1,000 people have been found in this farming community in the district of Huye, a surprisingly high number after three decades of government efforts to give genocide victims dignified burials.

As Rwanda prepares to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the genocide next week, continuing discoveries of mass graves are a stark reminder not only of the country’s determination to reconcile with its grim past but also of the challenges it faces in aiming for lasting peace.

Speaking to The Associated Press, the head of a prominent genocide survivors’ group and several other Rwandans said the discoveries underscore that more needs to be done for true reconciliation.

Rwanda has made it a criminal offense to withhold information about a previously unknown mass grave. For years perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, including those who served prison terms and were later released, have been urged to speak up and say what they know.

Yet the mass graves are still mostly found by accident, leading to new arrests and traumatizing survivors all over again.

The October discovery led to the arrest of Jean Baptiste Hishamunda, 87, and four of his relatives.

After the remains of six people were discovered under his home, diggers started going through his entire property, finding dozens and then hundreds more remains as their search extended to other sites in Huye.

An estimated 800,000 Tutsi were killed by extremist Hutu in massacres that lasted over 100 days in 1994. Some moderate Hutu who tried to protect members of the Tutsi minority also were targeted.

The genocide was ignited on April 6 when a plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana, a member of the majority Hutu, was shot down in the capital Kigali. The Tutsi were blamed for downing the plane and killing the president. Enraged, gangs of Hutu extremists began killing Tutsi, backed by the army and police.

The government of President Paul Kagame, whose rebel group stopped the genocide and whose party has ruled the East African country since 1994, has tried to bridge ethnic divisions using legal means and other measures. Although critics accuse the authoritarian Kagame of crushing all dissent, he is also praised by many for presiding over relative peace and stability.

The government imposed a tough penal code to punish genocide and outlaw the ideology behind it, and Kagame has fostered a culture of obedience among the country’s 14 million people. Rwandan ID cards no longer identify a person by ethnicity and lessons about the genocide are part of the curriculum in schools.

Hundreds of community projects, backed by the government or civic groups, focus on uniting Rwandans and, every April, the nation joins hands in somber commemorations of the genocide anniversary.

Today, serious crimes fueled by ethnic hatred are rare in this small country where Hutu, Tutsi and Twa live side by side — but signs persist of what authorities say is a genocidal ideology, citing concealing information about undiscovered mass graves as an example.

Then there are incidents of villagers asking mass-grave investigators if they are searching for valuable minerals or dumping dog carcasses at memorial sites, according to Naphtal Ahishakiye, executive secretary of Ibuka, the genocide survivors’ group based in Kigali.

“It’s like saying, ‘What we lost during the genocide are dogs,’” Ahishakiye said.

There are still those who resist coming forward to say what they witnessed, he said. “We still need to improve, to teach, to approach people, up to (when) they become able to tell us what happened.”

As more mass graves are discovered, Tutsi survivors “start to doubt” the good intentions of their Hutu neighbors, he said. Their pleas for information about relatives lost in the killings go unanswered.

In the village of Ngoma, where shacks roofed with corrugated sheets dot lush farmland, diggers come across decaying shoes and pieces of torn clothing among skulls and bones. The survivors are traumatized all over again.

“I have tried very hard to forget,” said Beata Mujawayezu, her voice catching as she recalled the killing of her 12-year-old sister at a roadblock on April 25, 1994.

The girl pleaded for her life with militiamen, going down on her knees in front of a gang leader whom she addressed as “my father.” She was hacked with a machete.

“She was a lovely girl,” Mujawayezu said of her sister as she watched the digging at a mass grave site on a recent afternoon in her Tutsi-dominated neighborhood. “One day, hopefully, we will get to know where she was buried.”

Augustine Nsengiyumva, another survivor in Ngoma, said the new mass grave discoveries have left him disappointed in his Hutu neighbors, whom he had grown to trust.

“Imagine sleeping on top of genocide victims,” he said, referring to cases where human remains are found under people’s homes. “These are things I really don’t understand.”

Young people are less troubled by the past. Some Rwandans see this as a chance for reconciliation in a country where every other citizen is under the age of 30.

In the semi-rural area of Gahanga, just outside of Kigali, farmer Patrick Hakizimana says he sees a ray of hope in his children that someday Rwanda will have ethnic harmony.

A Hutu and an army corporal during the genocide, Hakizimana was imprisoned from 1996 to 2007 for his alleged role in the killings. He said he has learnt his lesson and is now trying to win the respect of others in his neighborhood.

“There are people who still have hatred against Tutsi,” he said. “The genocide was prepared for a long time.”

It will take a long time for people to leave that hatred behind, he said.

Muhumuza reported from Kigali, Rwanda.

President Macron Says France And Its Allies ‘Could Have Stopped’ The 1994 Rwanda Genocide

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks next to the visitor's book at the genocide memorial site at the capital Kigali, Rwanda, Thursday, May 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Muhuzi Olivier, File)

BY SYLVIE CORBET

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that France and its allies could have stopped the 1994 Rwanda genocide but lacked the will to do so, a strong declaration ahead of the African country’s 30th anniversary of the slaughter that left over 800,000 people dead.

Macron’s office said in a statement that the French president will release a video on social media on Sunday as Rwanda marks the solemn commemoration of the genocide.

In the video, Macron says that “France, which could have stopped the genocide with its Western and African allies, lacked the will to do so.”

In 2021 during a visit to the central African country, Macron acknowledged France’s “responsibility” in the genocide that left over 800,000 people dead, mainly ethnic Tutsis and the Hutus who tried to protect them.

He stopped short of an apology, but Rwandan President Paul Kagame signaled that a page had been turned in France-Rwanda ties, following a series of French efforts to repair ties between the two countries.

The Rwandan government has long accused France of “enabling” the genocide.

Since he was first elected in 2017, Macron notably commissioned a report about France’s role before and during the genocide and decided to open the country’s archives from this period to the public.

In Sunday’s video, Macron will recall that when the genocide started, “the international community had the means to know and to take actions” based on the knowledge about genocides that had been revealed by survivors of the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust, his office said.

Macron will reaffirm that “France stands by Rwanda and the Rwandan people, in memory of the one million children, women and men martyred because they were born Tutsi,” according to his office.

Macron’s office said France will be represented by Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné at the commemoration of the genocide scheduled on Sunday in Kigali, the French president himself being held back in France by World War II commemorations that day.

n recent years, France has also increased efforts to arrest genocide suspects and send them to trial.

A Rwandan doctor was sentenced in December by a Paris court to 24 years in prison in what was the sixth case related to the Rwandan genocide that came to court in France, all of them in the past decade.

Mass Graves Are Still Being Found, Almost 30 Years After Rwanda’s Genocide, Official Says

Remains of victims are retrived from a site, in Huye District, Southern Rwanda Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. (AP Photo)

 BY IGNATIUS SSUUNA

KIGALI, RWANDA (AP) — A Rwandan official said Thursday that the remains of 119 people believed to be victims of the 1994 genocide have been discovered in the country’s south, as authorities continue to find mass graves nearly three decades after the killings.

The remains of more victims continue to be found because perpetrators of the genocide tried their best to hide possibly incriminating information, Naphtal Ahishakiye, executive secretary of the genocide survivors’ organization Ibuka, told The Associated Press.

In October, authorities first found six bodies under a house that was being built in Huye district. They have since found more bodies there after investigating further, he said.

“Those who committed the genocide,” Ahishakiye said, they fear that once the crimes are revealed, “the law will catch up with them.”

In April, Rwanda will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed by Hutu extremists.

Louise Uwimana, a genocide survivor and resident of Huye district, said she was saddened to learn that her neighbors had concealed information about mass graves at a time when the government is encouraging reconciliation.

When genocide perpetrators conceal information, she said, “I question this thing called reconciliation.”

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

UK Top Court Says A Plan To Send Migrants To Rwanda Is Illegal. The Government Still Wants To Do It

Protesters stand outside the Supreme Court in London, Wednesday, November 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

BY JILL LAWLESS

LONDON (AP) — The British government said Wednesday it will still try to send some migrants on a one-way trip to Rwanda, despite the U.K. Supreme Court ruling that the contentious plan is unlawful because asylum-seekers would not be safe in the African country.

In a major blow to one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ‘s key policies, the country’s top court ruled that asylum-seekers sent to Rwanda would be “at real risk of ill-treatment” because they could be returned to the conflict-wracked home countries they’d fled.

Sunak, who has pledged to stop migrants reaching Britain in small boats across the English Channel, said the ruling “was not the outcome we wanted” but vowed to press on with the plan and send the first deportation flights to Rwanda by next spring.

He said the court had “confirmed that the principle of removing asylum-seekers to a safe third country is lawful,” even as it ruled Rwanda unsafe.

Sunak said the government would seal a legally binding treaty with Rwanda that would address the court’s concerns, and would then pass a law declaring Rwanda a safe country.

Sunak suggested that if legal challenges to the plan continued, he was prepared to consider leaving international human rights treaties — a move that would draw strong opposition and international criticism.

Britain and Rwanda signed a deal in April 2022 to send migrants who arrive in the U.K. as stowaways or in boats to the East African country, where their asylum claims would be processed and, if successful, they would stay.

Britain’s government argues that the policy will deter people from risking their lives crossing one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and would break the business model of people-smuggling gangs. No one has yet been sent to the country as the plan was challenged in the courts.

Opposition politicians, refugee groups and human rights organizations say the plan is unethical and unworkable. Charity ActionAid U.K. called the Supreme Court ruling a vindication of “British values of compassion and dignity.” Amnesty International said the government should “draw a line under a disgraceful chapter in the U.K.’s political history.”

Announcing the unanimous decision, President of the Supreme Court Robert Reed said Rwanda had a history of misunderstanding its obligations toward refugees and of “refoulement” — sending claimants back to the country they had sought protection from.

The judges concluded “there is a real risk that asylum claims will not be determined properly, and that asylum-seekers will in consequence be at risk of being returned directly or indirectly to their country of origin.”

“In that event, genuine refugees will face a real risk of ill-treatment,” they said.

The U.K. government has argued that while Rwanda was the site of a genocide that killed more than 800,000 people in 1994, the country has since built a reputation for stability and economic progress.

Critics say that stability comes at the cost of political repression. The court’s judgment noted human rights breaches including political killings that had led U.K. police “to warn Rwandan nationals living in Britain of credible plans to kill them on the part of that state.” They said Rwanda has a 100% rejection record for asylum-seekers from war-torn countries including Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan.

The Rwandan government insisted the country is a safe place for refugees.

“Given Rwanda’s welcoming policy and our record of caring for refugees, the political judgments made today were unjustified,” it said in a statement.

Rwandan opposition leader Frank Habineza, however, said Britain shouldn’t try to offshore its migration obligations to the small African country.

“The U.K. should keep the migrants or send them to another European country, not to a poor country like Rwanda. I really think it’s not right (for) a country like the U.K. to run away from their obligations,” Habineza told the AP in Kigali.

Much of Europe and the U.S. is struggling with how best to cope with migrants seeking refuge from war, violence, oppression and a warming planet that has brought devastating drought and floods.

Though Britain receives fewer asylum applications than countries such as Italy, France or Germany, thousands of migrants from around the world travel to northern France each year in hopes of crossing the English Channel.

More than 27,300 have done that this year, a decline on the 46,000 who made the journey in all of 2022. The government says that shows its tough approach is working, though others cite factors including the weather.

The Rwanda plan has cost the British government at least 140 million pounds ($175 million) in payments to Rwanda before a single plane has taken off. The first deportation flight was stopped at the last minute in June 2022, when the European Court of Human Rights intervened.

The case went to the High Court and the Court of Appeal, which ruled that the plan was unlawful because Rwanda is not a “safe third country.” The government unsuccessfully challenged that decision at the Supreme Court.

Sunak took comfort from the court’s ruling that “the structural changes and capacity-building needed” to make Rwanda safe “may be delivered in the future.” The U.K. government says its legally binding treaty will compel Rwanda not to send any migrants deported from the U.K back to their home countries.

The prime minister is under pressure from the right wing of the governing Conservative Party to take even more dramatic action to “stop the boats.” Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who was fired by Sunak on Monday, has said the U.K. should leave the European Convention on Human Rights if the Rwanda plan was blocked.

Sunak said at a news conference he was prepared to “revisit those international relationships to remove the obstacles in our way.”

“I will not allow a foreign court to block these flights,” he said.

Legal experts said leaving or ignoring international treaties would be an extreme move. Joelle Grogan, a senior researcher at the U.K. in a Changing Europe think tank, said leaving the European Convention would make Britain “an outlier in terms of its standards and its reputation for human rights protection.”

“The only reason in which you would leave the ECHR is if you wanted to start sending asylum-seekers to unsafe countries where they face threats to their life,” she said.

Associated Press writer Ignatius Ssuuna in Kigali, Rwanda contributed to this report.

A Suspect In The 1994 Rwanda Genocide Goes On Trial In Paris After A Decadeslong Investigation

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Family photographs of some those who died hang on display in an exhibition at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center in the capital Kigali, Rwanda, Friday, April 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis/File)

PARIS (AP) — A Rwandan doctor who has been living in France for decades goes on trial Tuesday in Paris over his alleged role in the 1994 genocide in his home country.

Sosthene Munyemana, 68, faces charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and complicity in such crimes. He has denied wrongdoing. If convicted, he faces a life sentence.

The trial comes nearly three decades after the genocide in which more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus who tried to protect them were killed between April and July 1994.

Munyemana arrived in September 1994 in France, where he has been living and working as a doctor until he recently retired.

He has been investigated for decades. Over 60 witnesses are expected to testify at his trial. Members of the Rwandan community in France first filed a complaint against Munyemana in 1995.

Munyemana was a 38-year-old gynecologist in the district of Burate at the time of the genocide. He is accused of co-signing in April 1994 “a motion of support for the interim government” that supervised the genocide and of participating in a local committee and meetings that organized roundups of Tutsi civilians.

He is also accused of detaining Tutsi civilians “without care, hygiene and food” in the office of the local administration that was “under his authority at the time,” and of relaying “instructions from the authorities to the local militia and residents leading to the roundup of the Tutsis,” among other things.

This is the sixth case related to the Rwandan genocide that is coming to court in Paris. The trial is scheduled to run until Dec. 19.

Many suspected perpetrators left Rwanda during and after the genocide, some settling in Europe. Some never faced justice. On Tuesday, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda said it had confirmed the death of Aloys Ndimbati, a fugitive indicted by the tribunal.

Ndimbati, the leader of a rural community at the time of the genocide, was accused of organizing and directing massacres of Tutsis. He faced seven counts of genocide, among other crimes. Ndimbati died by around the end of June 1997 in Rwanda, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement: “The exact circumstances of his death have not been determined owing to the confusion and absence of order at the time.”

“While the survivors and victims of Ndimbati’s crimes will not see him prosecuted and punished, this result may help bring some closure in the knowledge that Ndimbati is not at large and he is unable to cause further harm to the Rwandan people,” the statement said.

Only two fugitives indicted by the tribunal remain at large, it said.

In recent years, France has increased efforts to arrest and send to trial genocide suspects.

Last year, Laurent Bucyibaruta was sentenced by a Paris court to 20 years in prison for complicity to commit genocide and crimes against humanity, making him the highest-ranking Rwandan to be convicted in France on such charges. He appealed.

Earlier this year, United Nations judges declared an 88-year-old Rwandan genocide suspect, Félicien Kabuga, unfit to continue standing trial because he has dementia and said they would establish a procedure to hear evidence without the possibility of convicting him. Kabuga was arrested near Paris in May 2020 after years on the run.

The mass killings of Rwanda’s Tutsi population were ignited on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying then-President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in Kigali, the capital, killing the leader who, like most Rwandans, was a Hutu. Tutsis were blamed for downing the plane, and although they denied it, bands of Hutu extremists began killing them, including children, with support from the army, police and militias.

Rwanda Announces Visa-Free Travel For All Africans As Continent Opens Up To Free Movement Of People

FILE — President of Rwanda Paul Kagame walks along Downing Street to a meeting with Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in London, Thursday, May 4, 2023. Rwanda announced Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023 visa-free entry for all Africans, becoming the latest nation on the continent to announce such a measure aimed at boosting free movement of people and trade to rival Europe’s Schengen zone. President Paul Kagame made the announcement in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, where he pitched the potential of Africa as “a unified tourism destination” for a continent that still relies on 60% of its tourists from outside Africa, according to data from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda-File)

BY EMMANUEL IGUNZA

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — Rwanda announced Thursday that it will allow Africans to travel visa-free to the country, becoming the latest nation on the continent to announce such a measure aimed at boosting free movement of people and trade to rival Europe’s Schengen zone.

President Paul Kagame made the announcement in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, where he pitched the potential of Africa as “a unified tourism destination” for a continent that still relies on 60% of its tourists from outside Africa, according to data from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

“Any African, can get on a plane to Rwanda whenever they wish and they will not pay a thing to enter our country” said Kagame during the 23rd Global Summit of the World Travel and Tourism Council.

“We should not lose sight of our own continental market,” he said. “Africans are the future of global tourism as our middle class continues to grow at a fast pace in the decades to come.”

Once implemented, Rwanda will become the fourth African country to remove travel restrictions for Africans. Other countries that have waived visas to African nationals are Gambia, Benin and Seychelles.

Kenya’s President William Ruto announced Monday plans to allow all Africans to travel to the East African nation visa-free by December 31.

“Visa restrictions amongst ourselves is working against us. When people cannot travel, business people cannot travel, entrepreneurs cannot travel we all become net losers” said Ruto at an international summit in Congo Brazzaville.

The African Union in 2016 launched an African passport with much fanfare, saying it would rival the European Union model in “unleashing the potential of the continent.” However, only diplomats and AU officials have been issued the travel document so far.

The African Passport and free movement of people is “aimed at removing restrictions on Africans ability to travel, work and live within their own continent,” The AU says on its website.

AU also launched the the African Continental Free Trade Area, a continent-wide free trade area estimated to be worth $3.4 trillion, which aims to create a single unified market for the continent’s 1.3 billion people and to boost economic development.

Follow AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

RWANDA: Five Key Highlights From Ombudsman’s Annual Report

BY PATRICK NZABONIMPA

On October 18, the Ombudsman presented the activity report of her office for the financial year 2022-2023 to a joint Upper and Lower House sitting.

Overall, the report covers various events related to dealing with injustice and fighting corruption, in line with the office’s mandate.

The following are five key highlights from the report:

Over 2,800 cases of corruption and injustice received

While presenting the report to legislators, Ombudsman Madeleine Nirere said that her office received 2,835 cases of corruption and injustice in the financial year 2022/2023, either through written petitions or through anti-corruption and injustice outreach programme.

Of these cases, 2,306 were solved, while 488 were still being handled by various concerned institutions, and 41 by the Ombudsman.

2. Land related disputes account for majority of cases

According to the Ombudsman, five categories led in terms of complaints related to corruption and injustice that were lodged by residents.

They include land related complaints which accounted for 1,018 cases, or almost 40 per cent of the total. They were followed by disatisfaction with court case jugdments, where residents filed 442 complaints.

Non-executed court decisions came in third place with 396 complaints, grievances related to expropriation followed with 345 cases, while those concerning other properties (excluding land) amounted to 228, coming in the fith position.

3. Review of court cases over injustice grounds

Ombudsmana said that people who were not satisfied with court judgments filed 484 cases seeking their review for justice purposes – through retrial by the Supreme Court.

Lawsuits represented more than half of the cases as they were 294, followed by criminal cases and commercial cases with 77, and 57 complaints, respectively.

Nirere indicated that her office requested retrial of only 11 cases – represernting 2.3 per cent of the total – while 460 or 95 per cent were not considered for retrial because no injustice was detected in their judgements.

Meanwhile, she pointed out that 13 cases – accounting for 2.7 per cent of the total – were solved through mediation – without necessitating another legal action.

“Mediation has proven to yield good results as it helps to address disputes amicably, without causing damages including costs that would be incurred once people resort to courts for trial,” she told Senators and MPs during the abovementioned plenary sitting.

4. Over 99 per cent of public officials declared their assets

In line with transparency in sources of finance, 17,687 people declared their assets to the Ombudsman, representing 99.95 per cent of 17,695 people who were concerned by such on obligation.

“Only 8 people, or 0.05 per cent, did not declare their assets be handed a penalty of suspension from work for one month without salary as provided for by the law,” Nirere said.

5. Implementation of Ombudsman’s recommendation

In monitoring how public entities and programmes implemented 90 recommendations of the Office of the Ombudsman – made in 2021-2022 – for improved operations, an assessment by the office indicated that they were implemented at 63.3 per cent rate.

According to Nirere, 28.8 per cent of the recommendations were still under implementation, while 8.9 per cent were not yet implemented.

She pointed out that every concerned public entity explained reasons for non-implementation of the recommendations in question, and that the office will continue making a follow up to ensure they are executed.

-------------------THE NEW TIMES

Rwanda’s President Says He’ll Run For A Fourth Term And Doesn’t Care What The West Thinks about it

FILE — President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame walks along Downing Street to a meeting with Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in London, Thursday, May 4, 2023. Rwanda’s president says he will run for a fourth term next year and declares that “what the West thinks is not my problem.” President Paul Kagame made the announcement in an interview with the French-language publication Jeune Afrique published on Tuesday, Sept. 19. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, file)

BY IGNATIUS SSUUNA AND CARA ANNA

KIGALI, RWANDA (AP) — Rwanda’s president declared he will run for a fourth term next year, saying that “what the West thinks is not my problem,” after the United States and others criticized the earlier lifting of term limits to extend his rule.

President Paul Kagame made the announcement in an interview with the French-language publication Jeune Afrique published Tuesday.

The 65-year-old Kagame has been president since 2000 and was declared the winner of the previous election in 2017 with more than 98% of the vote. He has been the de facto leader since Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

Next year’s election will be the first in which people born during Kagame’s presidency and knowing no other leader will be old enough to vote.

Kagame is one of a number of African leaders who have prolonged their rule by pursuing changes to term limits. In 2015, Rwandans in a referendum voted to lift a two-term limit. Kagame could stay in power until 2034 if he wins a five-year term next year and then another.

When asked what he thought the West would think of him running again, he replied, “I’m sorry for the West, but what the West thinks is not my problem.”

Kagame was re-elected as chair of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front party earlier this year for another five-year term. The U.S.-based watchdog Freedom House described Rwanda as “not free” in its latest report and said the party has been “banning and repressing any opposition group that could mount a serious challenge to its leadership.”

Political analyst Gonzaga Muganwa, a former executive secretary of the Rwanda Journalists Association, said Kagame’s control over the party is total and that “all the legal political parties in the country are subservient to his authority.”

Rwandans expect Kagame to be in power “until at least 2034 unless a major upheaval happens,” Muganwa said. “In the leadup to the polls, his biggest challenge is managing the cost-of-living crisis as food inflation is wiping away any rise in incomes” since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kagame and his government have received praise for stabilizing the country and developing public health and the economy since the genocide in which more than 800,000 people were killed. But human rights groups and other critics have long accused the government of harshly targeting opponents, including with extrajudicial killings even far outside the country’s borders.

The government has rejected such allegations. But earlier this year, under diplomatic pressure, Rwanda released Paul Rusesabagina, who had inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda,” after tricking onto a plane to the country and convicting him of terror offenses in a widely criticized trial.

The other candidate who has declared he will run for president next year is lawmaker Frank Habineza with the Green Democratic party, who received 0.45% of the votes in 2017.

Habineza told The Associated Press his party was not surprised by Kagame’s announcement and will continue to fight for democracy.

“As we speak now, there is a high level of poverty and people have no food and youth have no jobs. This is what bothers Rwandans,” he said.

Some Kagame supporters believe he needs more time. William Harerimana, a 53-year-old businessman, said “we need to be patient a bit more and under him, the country will register more economic growth and benefit all Rwandans.”

Anna reported from Nairobi, Kenya.

Rwanda Genocide Survivors Criticize UN Court’s Call To Permanently Halt Elderly Suspect’s Trial

FILE - Rwandan refugee children plead with Zairean soldiers to allow them across a bridge separating Rwanda and Zaire, which is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, where their mothers had crossed moments earlier before the soldiers closed the border, Aug. 20, 1994. Appeals judges on Monday, Aug. 7, 2023 threw out a decision by a United Nations court to set up a procedure to hear evidence against an elderly Rwandan genocide suspect who was declared unfit to face trial. (AP Photo/Jean-Marc Bouju, file)

BY IGNATIUS SSUUNA

KIGALI, RWANDA (AP) — Survivors of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide criticized Tuesday a call by appeals judges at a United Nations court to indefinitely halt the trial of an alleged financer and supporter of the massacre due to the suspect’s ill health.

The ruling Monday sends the matter back to the court’s trial chamber with instructions to impose a stay on proceedings. That likely means that Félicien Kabuga, who is nearly 90, will never be prosecuted. His trial, which started last year at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, was halted in June because his dementia left him unable to participate in proceedings.

Appeals judges at the court also rejected a proposal to set up an alternative procedure that would have allowed evidence to be heard but without the possibility of a verdict.

The U.N. court’s chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, said the ruling “must be respected, even if the outcome is dissatisfying.”

Kabuga, who was arrested in France in 2020 after years as a fugitive from justice, is accused of encouraging and bankrolling the mass killing of Rwanda’s Tutsi minority. His trial came nearly three decades after the 100-day massacre left 800,000 dead.

Kabuga has pleaded not guilty to charges including genocide and persecution. He remains in custody at a U.N. detention unit in The Hague, but could be released as a result of Monday’s ruling.

“I think the world does not mean good for us. What mattered to us survivors following Kabuga’s arrest was at least justice,” said Francine Uwamariya, a genocide survivor, who says she lost her entire family at the hands of Kabuga’s henchmen.

“Look, the trial should have continued even without Kabuga. He was the planner and financer of the genocide. The court appears to be on the side of the killer, when it should be neutral,” Uwamariya said.

Uwamariya’s sentiment was echoed by Naphatal Ahishakiye, another genocide survivor and executive secretary of Ibuka, a Rwanda survivors’ organization, who said there was enough evidence to convict Kabuga.

“It’s extremely disturbing on the side of survivors, who will see Kabuga walking free. Justice should be felt by those wronged,” Ahishakiye said.

Ibuka has filed a case against Kabuga in Kigali, seeking court permission to sell off all of Kabuga’s properties to fund reparations and help survivors.

Brammertz expressed solidarity with victims and survivors of the genocide.

“They have maintained their faith in the justice process over the last three decades. I know that this outcome will be distressing and disheartening to them,” he said. “Having visited Rwanda recently, I heard very clearly how important it was that this trial be concluded.”

Brammertz said that his team of prosecutors would continue to help Rwanda and other countries seek accountability for genocide crimes and pointed to the arrest in May of another fugitive, Fulgence Kayishema, as an example that suspects can still face justice.

Kayishema was indicted by a U.N. court for allegedly organizing the slaughter of more than 2,000 ethnic Tutsi refugees — men, women and children — at a Catholic church on April 15, 1994, during the first days of the genocide. He is expected to be tried in Rwanda.

Brammertz said his office will significantly boost assistance to Rwanda’s Prosecutor General, “including through the provision of our evidence and developed expertise, to ensure more genocide fugitives stand trial for their alleged crimes.”

Associated Press writer Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed.

Rwanda Frees Paul Rusesabagina Of ‘Hotel Rwanda’ Fame

FILE - Paul Rusesabagina, who inspired the film "Hotel Rwanda" and is credited with saving more than 1,000 people by sheltering them at the hotel he managed during the genocide, attends a court hearing in Kigali, Rwanda, Friday Feb. 26, 2021. Rwanda's government has commuted the sentence of Paul Rusesabagina was convicted of terrorism offenses years later in a widely criticized trial. Government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo told The Associated Press on Friday, March 24, 2023, that the 25-year sentence was commuted by presidential order after a request for clemency. (AP Photo/Muhizi Olivier, File)

BY CARA ANNA AND IGNATIUS SSUUNA

KIGALI, RWANDA (AP) — Rwanda’s government has commuted the 25-year sentence of Paul Rusesabagina, who inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda” for saving hundreds of countrymen from genocide but was convicted of terrorism offenses years later in a widely criticized trial.

Government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo told The Associated Press on Friday that the presidential order was issued after a request for clemency on behalf of Rusesabagina, a 68-year-old U.S. resident and Belgian citizen. Senior U.S. officials said Rusesabagina arrived late Friday at the home of the Qatari ambassador in the Rwandan capital of Kigali and was expected to leave the country in the coming days.

U.S. President Joe Biden hailed the news, saying, “Paul’s family is eager to welcome him back to the United States, and I share their joy at today’s good news.” He thanked the governments of Rwanda and Qatar, as well as U.S. government officials who worked “to achieve today’s happy outcome.”

Nineteen others also had their sentences commuted. Under Rwandan law, commutation doesn’t “extinguish” the conviction, Makolo added.

“Rwanda notes the constructive role of the U.S. government in creating conditions for dialogue on this issue, as well as the facilitation provided by the state of Qatar,” she said. President Paul Kagame earlier this month said discussions were under way on resolving the issue.

Qatar foreign ministry spokesman Majid Al-Ansari said in a statement that “the procedure for (Rusesabagina’s) transfer to the state of Qatar is under way and he will then head to the United States of America. This issue was discussed during meetings that brought together Qatari and Rwandan officials at the highest levels.”

The senior American officials, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under U.S. government ground rules, declined to comment on Rusesabagina’s current health but said they had made medical and psychological care available.

The case had been described by the U.S. and others as unfair. Rusesabagina disappeared in 2020 during a visit to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and appeared days later in Rwanda in handcuffs. His family alleged he was kidnapped and taken to Rwanda against his will to stand trial.

He was convicted on eight charges including membership in a terrorist group, murder and abduction. But the circumstances surrounding his arrest, his limited access to an independent legal team and his reported worsening health drew international concern.

One senior U.S. official said the White House’s goal was to shift from Washington denouncing the case — and Kigali defending its legal system in response — toward a “constructive sequence to work our way mutually, collectively, out of the predicament we found ourselves in.”

As part of the effort, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, had multiple phone calls with an unnamed close adviser to Kagame, the official said.

Rusesabagina has asserted that his arrest was in response to his criticism of Kagame over alleged human rights abuses. Kagame’s government has repeatedly denied targeting dissenting voices with arrests and extrajudicial killings.

In a signed letter to Kagame dated Oct. 14 and posted on the justice ministry’s website, Rusesabagina wrote that “if I am granted a pardon and released, I understand fully that I will spend the remainder of my days in the United States in quiet reflection. I can assure you through this letter that I hold no personal or political ambitions otherwise. I will leave questions regarding Rwandan politics behind me.”

Rusesabagina was credited with sheltering more than 1,000 ethnic Tutsis at the hotel he managed during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide in which over 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus who tried to protect them were killed. He received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom for his efforts.

He became a public critic of Kagame and left Rwanda in 1996, first living in Belgium and then the U.S.

Human Rights Watch said he had been “forcibly disappeared” and taken to Rwanda. But the court there ruled he wasn’t kidnapped when he was tricked into boarding a chartered flight. Rwanda’s government asserted that Rusesabagina had been going to Burundi to coordinate with armed groups based there and in Congo.

Rusesabagina was accused of supporting the armed wing of his opposition political platform, the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change. The armed group claimed some responsibility for attacks in 2018 and 2019 in southern Rwanda in which nine Rwandans died.

Rusesabagina testified at trial that he helped to form the armed group to assist refugees but said he never supported violence — and sought to distance himself from its deadly attacks.

Rusesabagina also has said he was gagged and tortured before he was jailed, but Rwandan authorities denied that. His attorney, Felix Rudakemwa, asserted that Rusesabagina’s legal papers were confiscated by prison authorities.

After his sentence, Belgium’s then-foreign minister, Sophie Wilmes, said that “it must be concluded that Mr. Rusesabagina has not been given a fair and equitable trial.”

Last year, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Kagame in Rwanda and discussed the case. “We still have conviction that the trial wasn’t fair,” Blinken told journalists.

“It is a relief to know that Paul is rejoining his family, and the U.S. Government is grateful to the Rwandan Government for making this reunion possible,” Blinken said in a statement Friday, adding: “The United States believes in a Rwanda that is peaceful and prosperous. We reaffirm the principle of seeking political change in Rwanda and globally through peaceful means.”

As the news spread on Friday, Rusesabagina’s family in a statement said that “we are pleased to hear the news about Paul’s release. The family is hopeful to reunite with him soon.”

___

Anna reported from Nairobi, Kenya. Lujain Jo in Doha, Qatar, and Matt Lee and Nomaan Merchant in Washington contributed.

We Can Learn From Kagame's Ingenious Ideas

Paul Kagame

BY MARK OLOO

Rwanda’s government recently convened a special meeting to take stock of its achievements.

There were varied reactions, especially online, as the country’s Wanjikus and ‘hustlers’ got a chance to put long-serving President Paul Kagame’s regime on the carpet.

During the recent Umushyikirano (national dialogue) day, citizens questioned - without fear of reprisal - some of Kagame’s actions and inactions, and he startlingly gave forthright answers.

Kagame has remained a man for all seasons, admired for his wit and deeds. For the last 20 years, he has been keen on the legacy of making Rwanda great.

He often claims the West looks down upon Africa. In his ideal world, Kigali must be allowed its space.

The President knows best what works best for him and his country that has had a delicate past. He led his people into a powerful renaissance after the genocide of 1994 that followed deep-seated tribal and political antagonisms. Now, there’s no going back.

Listening to him during the national dialogue on February 28, many were left with the feeling that Kagame is no ordinary leader.

Call him a benevolent dictator or a strongman who has muzzled his critics in the opposition, the Rwanda Patriotic Front leader is a cut above the rest.

At the Umushyikirano, he chided officials who had slept on the job. Unity and reconciliation efforts also featured, with the event culminating in the signing of Imihigo – performance-based contracts for top office holders.

The president simply protected the common man’s interests by ensuring leaders and institutions performed.

Rwanda may not be a perfect democracy but at least its government works in unison. The county is in good books with the world. Graft is at its bare minimum, business is booming, investors are coming in droves, women are empowered, essential infrastructure and physical assets are sound and the levels of political noise tolerable.

Elsewhere in the continent, top government officials operate like headless chicken. It is all talk and no action. Senior officials have made political vengeance their portion. They abhor criticism. They have flatly refused to shut up and work. It’s a mad obsession with campaign rhetoric.

In some countries, you will find constitutional organs losing their grind. In Nigeria for instance, the country is on throes of political landmines following the recent sham election that left a bitter taste in the mouths of the more than 200 million citizens. It will take a miracle for Africa’s most populous nation to realise authentic progress. As if that’s not enough, many African states have become epitomes of mediocrity where critical appointments are made not on the basis of competence but relations, tribal or political ties. And when governments change, every high profile public servant is purged no matter their value.

Give it to him. Kagame has perfected public participation. The holloi polloi control key projects. In Kenya, citizens are tragically told they would be ascribed shares in government based on how they voted. Then the Fourth Estate is threatened for doing its work as top officials, be they the DPP or budget controller, blame their blunders on the previous leadership.

Cry the beloved continent. Some nations that had a great promise of becoming Africa’s ‘tigers’ are victims of recklessness. Last week, South Sudan’s Salva Kiir put a fragile peace deal into jeopardy by firing a key minister in controversial circumstances. At home, well-oiled offices for spouses of politicians have come ahead of important economic adjustments that would have eased the cost of living. Majority are struggling to put food on table. Meanwhile, tantrums are being thrown over the small matter of LGBTQ rights.

Like him or not, we’ve a lot to learn from Kagame. He speaks sense and never brings shame to high office. An unwavering leader with eyes set on the prize.

READ ORIGINAL NEWS STORY HERE

Trial Of Elderly Rwanda Genocide Suspect Opens At UN Court

BY MIKE CORDER

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - FILE - A bulldozer operated by a French soldier shovels bodies into a mass grave at the Kibumba camp near Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, then known as Zaire, on July 31, 1994. A frail 87-year-old Rwandan, Félicien Kabuga, accused of encouraging and bankrolling the 1994 genocide in his home country goes on trial Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022, at a United Nations tribunal, nearly three decades after the 100-day massacre that left 800,000 dead. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS (AP) — A frail 87-year-old Rwandan accused of encouraging and bankrolling the country’s 1994 genocide boycotted the opening of his trial at a United Nations tribunal Thursday, nearly three decades after the 100-day massacre left 800,000 dead.

Félicien Kabuga is one of the last fugitives charged over the genocide to face justice. Even without him in court, the start of his trial marks a key day of reckoning for Rwandans who survived the killings or whose families were murdered.

Presiding Judge Iain Bonomy said the proceedings could start without Kabuga, who did not attend amid a dispute over his legal representation.

The court’s chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, said Kabuga’s no-show was “a strategic decision.” Brammertz said that throughout preparations for trial, “he had a lawyer, very competent lawyer representing him. So as far as we are concerned, the proceedings are absolutely guaranteed.”

The mass killing of Rwanda’s Tutsi minority was triggered on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in the capital, Kigali, killing the leader who, like the majority of Rwandans, was an ethnic Hutu. Kabuga’s daughter married Habyarimana’s son.

The Tutsi minority was blamed for downing the plane. Bands of Hutu extremists began slaughtering Tutsis and their perceived supporters, with help from the army, police, and militias.

Brammertz said the trial is significant after a long wait for justice. Some 50 witnesses will testify for the prosecution, including many in Rwanda and some serving prison sentences, he said.

“This trial will also be an opportunity to remind the world again of the grave dangers of genocide ideology and hate speech,” he said in a statement. “Kabuga had a central role in provoking hatred of Tutsis, dehumanizing innocent civilians and paving the way for genocide.”

In his opening statement, prosecution lawyer Rashid Rashid described Kabuga as an enthusiastic supporter of the slaughter who armed, trained and encouraged murderous Hutu militias known as Interahamwe.

Rashid said the trial was opening nearly three decades after the genocide because of Kabuga’s determined efforts to evade capture.

In Rwanda, Naphtal Ahishakiye, the executive secretary of a genocide survivors’ group known as Ibuka, said ahead of Thursday’s hearing that it’s never too late for justice to be delivered.

“Even with money and protection, one cannot escape a genocide crime,” Ahishakiye said in Rwanda ahead of Thursday’s trial at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague.

Rashid described Kabunga as a wealthy businessman with close links to the Hutu political elite, who incited genocide through the RTLM broadcaster he helped fund and establish. In some cases, it provided locations of Tutsis so they could be hunted down and killed, he said.

Kabuga is also accused of having paid for weapons, including machetes, used by militias to slaughter Tutsis and their perceived supporters.

Kabuga “did not need to wield a rifle or a machete at a roadblock, rather he supplied weapons in bulk and facilitated training that prepared the Interahamwe to use them,” Rashid said.

“He did not need to pick up a microphone and call for extermination of Tutsi ... rather he founded, funded and served as president of Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), the radio station that broadcast genocidal propaganda across Rwanda.”

Rashid called the broadcaster a “mouthpiece for anti-Tutsi propaganda” and said Kabuga’s trial was about holding him accountable for his “substantial and intentional contribution to ... genocide.”

Kabuga is charged with genocide, incitement to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide as well as persecution, extermination and murder. He has pleaded not guilty. If convicted he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

After years of evading international efforts to track him down, Kabuga, who had a $5 million bounty on his head, was arrested near Paris in May 2020. He was transferred to The Hague to stand trial at the residual mechanism, a court that deals with remaining cases from the now-closed U.N. tribunals for Rwanda and the Balkan wars.

Kabuga’s lawyers argued unsuccessfully that he was not fit to stand trial. However, on the advice of doctors who examined Kabuga, the process will run for just two hours per day. The first evidence in the case is expected to be heard next week and will take months to complete.

Yolande Mukakasana, a genocide survivor and writer who lost her entire family in the genocide, said the case has come too late for many survivors who have died since the slaughter.

“Men and women of Kabuga’s age were found in bed and murdered. Shame (upon) his sympathizers who cite his old age as a reason not to (stand) trial,” she said.

Ignatius Ssuuna in Kigali, Rwanda, contributed.