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

A Rwandan Doctor In France Faces 30 Years In Prison For Alleged Role In His Country’s 1994 Genocide

Sosthene Munyemana, a Rwandan doctor arrives at Paris court house, Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023 over his alleged role over the 1994 genocide in his own country...( AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

BY SYLVIE CORBET

PARIS (AP) — A French court is expected to rule Tuesday on charges against a Rwandan doctor for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide in his home country. Prosecutors have requested a sentence of 30 years in prison.

Sosthene Munyemana, 68, faces charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and complicity in such crimes. Munyemana, who moved to France months after the genocide and quickly raised suspicions among Rwandans living there, has denied wrongdoing.

Nearly three decades have passed since the genocide in which more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus who tried to protect them were killed.

Advocate General Sophie Havard, one of the prosecutors, called on the court to find Munyemana guilty so “crimes against humanity don’t remain crimes without a criminal, a genocide without a perpetrator.”

At the time, Munyemana was a 38-year-old gynecologist in Tumba in the southern university district of Butare.

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.

The motion of support, broadcast on Radio Rwanda, was a way of “backing future massacres” in the area, prosecutors argued.

Munyemana was a friend of Jean Kambanda, head of the interim government.

Munyemana acknowledged participating in local night patrols which were organized to track Tutsi people, but he said he did it to protect the local population. Witnesses saw him at checkpoints set up across the town where he supervised operations, according to prosecutors.

Munyemana is also accused of detaining several dozen Tutsi civilians 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.

Prosecutors said there is evidence of “intentional gathering meant to exterminate people” and that Munyemana “couldn’t ignore” they were to be killed.

Only one survivor has been found among those detained under Munyemana’s alleged supervision. Most victims, some injured but still alive, were buried in holes initially dug for feces. Many corpses still haven’t been found.

Munyemana has denied participating in the genocide and said he wasn’t aware of the preparations for the mass killing. He said he believed people locked in the office would be taken away to be protected from armed militias.

He arrived in September 1994 in France, where he has been living and working until he recently retired. Members of the Rwandan community in France first filed a complaint against Munyemana in 1995.

In recent years, as relations improved with a Rwandan government that has long accused France of “enabling” the genocide, France has increased efforts to arrest genocide suspects and send them to trial.

This is the sixth case related to the Rwandan genocide that is coming to court in Paris, all of them in the past decade. Like previous ones, the trial has been made difficult by time and distance. French police and judicial authorities acknowledged that almost no physical evidence was left.

The investigation included hearing over 200 witnesses and 12 trips to Rwanda as well as judicial cooperation with Canada, Austria, Norway and Switzerland. Dozens testified during the trial, some coming from Rwanda, others speaking via videoconference from Kigali, including from prison.

Amid those attending the trial every day was Dafroza Gauthier, a Rwandan who said she lost more than 80 members of her family in the mass killing. She and her husband, Alain, have dedicated their lives to seeking the prosecution of alleged perpetrators of the genocide, founding the Collective of Civil Plaintiffs for Rwanda in 2001.

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.

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 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

All Your Children, Scattered by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse review – invisible scars of Rwandan survivors

This searing debut novel lyrically follows the after-effects of the 1994 genocide through three generations

BY LUCY POPSCU

The 1994 genocide of the Tutsi people devastated Rwanda in just 100 days. Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse’s searing debut novel explores how its aftermath affected three generations of one family. Immaculata survives the massacres in Butare by hiding in the basement of her Hutu neighbour’s bookshop. Her son, Bosco, joins the exiled rebel army, while her daughter, Blanche, escapes to France, meets her husband and settles in Bordeaux with their child, Stokely.

The novel is narrated from the perspectives of Blanche, Immaculata and Stokely and is a poignant meditation on the violence that ruptured so many lives. The women’s experiences, their struggle to come to terms with trauma and survivor’s guilt, are emblematic of the nation’s attempts to heal.

Immaculata reflects on her childhood under Belgium’s protectorate and how at secondary school she was forbidden from speaking her mother tongue, Kinyarwanda. She ponders the ability of words to dehumanise – to “pierce brutally like a spear” – but finds refuge in books that nurture “kinship”. Blanche interrogates her identity: she is mixed race, light skinned and lives in Europe, but where does she truly belong? Speaking French can feel like “a decorative veneer… a public corset, ridiculous and pretentious”, whereas her mother tongue is “her backbone, the language in which she expressed her sorrows and kept her secrets”.

Stokely recognises the culpability of the colonial administration that had fuelled division in Rwanda by classifying people according to ethnicity. He reconciles himself to his mixed heritage, learns Kinyarwanda and helps the women find a way back to each other.

Mairesse’s lyrical prose, translated by Alison Anderson, is mesmerising. She crafts beautiful sentences to convey a feeling or mood: “I hanged myself on my tongue”, “silence is a shield”, a smile is “like a dove flying over a courtyard in the late morning sun”.

The title comes from the Catholic liturgy: “gather to yourself all your children scattered throughout the world”. Rwandan proverbs also resonate throughout. Mairesse’s deft entwining of cultural traditions is part of the novel’s power.

READ ORIGINAL ESSAY 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.

RWANDA: Victim Of Private Spyware Warns It Can Be Used Against US

Carine Kanimba speaks during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Commercial Cyber Surveillance, Wednesday, July 27, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kanimba and technology experts urged Congress to oppose the use of commercial spyware in the U.S. and discourage investment in spyware that has been used to hack the phones of dissidents, journalists, and even U.S. diplomats. John Scott-Railton, senior Researcher Citizen Lab, center, and Shane Huntley, Director, Google Threat Analysis Group, right, listen. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

BY NOMANN MERCHANT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Months after her father was lured back to Rwanda under false pretenses and jailed, Carine Kanimba discovered her own phone had been hacked using private spyware.

Kanimba is the youngest daughter of Paul Rusesabagina, who is credited with saving more than 1,200 lives during the 1994 Rwandan genocide in a story that inspired the movie “Hotel Rwanda.” An opponent of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Rusesabagina is now serving a 25-year prison sentence on charges that he has dismissed as politically motivated.

Researchers have alleged Pegasus was used to spy on Kanimba and her cousin as Rusesabagina’s family was advocating for his release from Rwanda, which received $160 million in foreign aid from the United States in the last budget year.

“Unless there are consequences for countries and their enablers which abuse this technology, none of us are safe,” she told the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday.

Kanimba and technology experts urged Congress to oppose the use of commercial spyware in the U.S. and discourage investment in spyware that has been used to hack the phones of dissidents, journalists, and even U.S. diplomats.

Pegasus infiltrates phones to control their camera and microphone and siphon off data without requiring the user to click on a malicious link. It is part of a burgeoning international market for states to acquire cyber tools that were once available only to the most technically advanced governments. Researchers at Google have identified at least 30 vendors selling “zero click” exploits or other spyware.

NSO Group says its software can’t be activated against phone numbers with a U.S. country code unless used by an American agency. But there are several documented reports of American officials and citizens having their data captured by Pegasus.

One committee member, Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., suggested that off-the-shelf spyware felt “like a very serious threat to our democracy and to democracies around the world.” Himes questioned whether spyware could be deployed from another country against American officials and he criticized companies that invest in it.

Among the investors in a private equity firm that held majority ownership of NSO Group were the Oregon state employee pension fund and the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation.

U.S. officials and many lawmakers in both parties are concerned about foreign interference in future elections and the prospect of Americans trying to overturn a lawful vote by force.

“Nobody, not Mike Pence, not Nancy Pelosi, not Kevin McCarthy ... are immune from having their most private deliberations watched,” Himes said. “And that may be just enough to interfere in our elections, just enough to end our democracy.”

U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies have long been in the market themselves for ways to hack into phones.

The Biden administration last year imposed export limits on NSO Group and three other firms. But the FBI has acknowledged buying a license for Pegasus for what it said was “product testing and evaluation only.” While spyware companies make huge profits in the Middle East and Europe, it is American business and investment that “legitimizes what they’re doing,” said John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at Citizen Lab, which has long studied how the programs work.

“Doing business with the U.S. government, getting acquired by a U.S. company or even doing business with an American police department is the golden price for many in the spyware industry,” he said. “As long as that remains as a possibility for problematic actors, they’re going to get support from investors.”

The committee is pushing U.S. spy agencies to “decisively act against counterintelligence threats posed by foreign commercial spyware,” according to the public version of its latest bill authorizing intelligence activities. The bill, which has not yet been voted on by the full House, proposes that the director of national intelligence “may prohibit” individual U.S. agencies from acquiring or using foreign commercial spyware.

But the bill would also allow any intelligence agency chief to seek a waiver from the director if the waiver “is in the national security interest of the United States.”

In a statement, NSO Group noted that the discussion over spyware “at times lacks balance (by) intentionally omitting their lifesaving benefits.”

“NSO reiterates that it thoroughly investigates any claim for illegal use of its technology by customers, and terminates contracts when illegal use is found,” the company said. “Nonetheless, it is critical to consider the benefits and alternatives to these critical technologies.”

Kanimba testified that she was alerted last year by a collective of journalists working with Citizen Lab and Amnesty International that there was reason to believe that she had been spied on. A subsequent forensic analysis of her phone revealed that she had been targeted by Pegasus spyware, she said.

She said the surveillance was triggered as she walked with her mother into a meeting with Belgium’s minister of foreign affairs – Rusesabagina holds Belgian citizenship and U.S. residency – and was active during calls with the State Department and with the office of the U.S. government’s special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.

Her family lives in San Antonio. Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro, a committee member who represents that city, noted that his office’s communications may have been captured by Rwanda because he was advocating for Rusesabagina’s release.

Rwanda denies using Pegasus. Its embassy in Washington said in a statement Thursday that its response “has not changed regardless of who raises them.”

“These are politically motivated allegations aimed at undermining Rwanda’s judicial system and sowing disinformation,” the embassy statement said.

Rusesabagina was sentenced for terrorism offenses related to his alleged links to the armed wing of his opposition political platform. Rusesabagina has denied supporting violence and called the verdict a “sham.”

___

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

Rwandans Remember 1994 Genocide With Somber Events

FILE - Family photographs of some of those who died hang on display in an exhibition at the Kigali Genocide Memorial centre in the capital Kigali, Rwanda on April 5, 2019. Rwanda on Thursday, April 7, 2022 commemorated the 28th anniversary of the country's descent into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

BY IGNATIUS SSUUNA

KIGALI, RWANDA (AP) — Rwandans have begun a solemn commemoration of the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu who tried to protect them were killed.

President Paul Kagame on Thursday laid a wreath at a memorial site where more than 250,000 people are buried in the capital, Kigali. The ceremony marked the beginning of a week of somber events.

Kagame said he opposes any attempts to rewrite the history of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. The killings were perpetrated by extremist Hutu over a period of 100 days.

Some rights groups have accused Kagame’s soldiers of carrying out some killings during and after the genocide in apparent revenge, but Rwandan authorities strongly deny this allegation.

Kagame said that his group had shown restraint in the face of genocide.

“Imagine people being hunted down day and night for who they are. Also imagine if those of us who were carrying arms, if we had allowed ourselves to pursue those who were killing our people indiscriminately,” he said. “First of all, we would be right to do so. But we didn’t. We spared them. Some of them are still living today, in their homes, villages. Others are in government and business.”

Kagame, who is widely credited with stopping the genocide, has become a polarizing figure over the years as his critics accuse him of leading an authoritarian government that crushes all dissent. But he is also praised by many for presiding over the relative political stability allowing Rwanda’s economy to grow.

The mass killing of the Tutsi was ignited on April 6 when a plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in Kigali, killing the leader who, like most Rwandans, was an ethnic Hutu.

The Tutsi 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 Now A Hot Cake In Tourism Post Covid-19 Pandemic

TAARIFA

Rwanda is one of the countries that have aggressively fought the spread of Covid-19 in the world.

About nine million people (60%) have at least received their first shot of the vaccine and about two million have already gotten their booster jab.

President Paul Kagame has personally played a meaningful role in engaging global leaders to seek permanent solutions to the pandemic.

He was able to secure vaccines not only for Rwandans, but also been at the forefront in advocating for equatable access of vaccines to developing countries, especially in Africa.

In a more serious effort, in September 2021, Rwanda Development Board (RDB) on behalf of the goverment of Rwanda, signed a collaboration agreement with the International Finance Cooperation (IFC) that will see developments in the vaccine manufacturing capacity and contribute to expanding vaccine production in Africa.

Subsequently, Rwanda signed an agreement with German pharmaceutical firm, BioNTech SE, to begin manufacturing vaccines and other drugs in Rwanda.

More so, these measures against the spread of the pandemic, have yielded tangible results, but the pandemic did not fail to dismantle the economy, particularly the tourism and hospitality sector that succumbed to complete wreckages.

However, RDB has been trying to make adjustments to see how the sector comes back on its knees, a sector that earned the economy about US$500 million in 2019.

Notably, as the pandemic pounded the sector, it inadvertently triggered the appreciation and exploitation of domestic tourism that had traditionally been undermined. A lesson has been learnt that investments and promotion of domestic tourism makes substantial contribution to revenue generation to players in the tourism and hospitality sector.

Moving forward, as the world increases measures against the pandemic, ‘Covid-19 survivors’ are beginning to look around the world for safer and organized destinations to run to, two years after multiple lockdowns and travel restrictions.

In fact, data from the Centre of Reservations in Rwanda indicate that there is an anticipated boom coming soon. This phenomenon is also being experienced at a time when Rwanda is a complete package of a destination than being an extension for East Africa as previously considered by some tourists.

And, the recent announcement by the Commonwealth Secretary-General, the Rt.Hon. Patricia Scotland that member countries agreed to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kigali in June 2022, despite it having been postponed twice due to COVID-19 pandemic, is a vote of confidence that Rwanda is now a safe country.

Taarifa has spoken to players in the tourism and hospitality sector. They see the light at the end of the tunnel. According to Paul Muvunyi, the Chairman and Representative of Abarcombie and Kent (A&K) in Rwanda and owner of 3B Group of Hotels, following the government efforts to revive the sector, “establishments are recording high number of bookings more than even before the pandemic, in 2019.

“We appreciate RDB’s support and efforts to continue promoting the country as a high-end touristic destination,” Muvunyi said. “We also appreciate the government’s continued efforts to control the spread of COVID-19.”

Meanwhile, in February 2021, RDB produced a physical and ecotourism masterplan near Akagera National Park. From the conceptualization and structural plan perspectives that Taarifa has seen, coming to the use of land, general zoning was elaborated into two major zones, one being the both Eastern part potential for ecotourism facilities development, while the remaining one is zoned as a core conservation zone.

Almost two hundred hectares have been designated. The demarcation is detailed and forward thinking. Some animals such as Zebras, Impalas, Bushbucs, Warthogs, Waterbucs and Klipspringers will be spared space in the zone.

Facilities that are being set up, such as Akagera Safari Camp will soon be opening doors to the general public. This area has modern infrastructure like roads, water, electricity and fast speed internet.

According to Clare Akamanzi, the CEO of RDB, a lot of progress has been registered over the past decade as Rwanda truly emerged as a leading destination for Investment, Innovation and Tourism.

This, she says, “has been as a result of key initiatives the Government has pursued to which RDB has contributed, notably; Visit Rwanda, Meet in Rwanda, Start in Rwanda and Made in Rwanda.”

By end of 2019, Akagera National Park was receiving over 50,000 visitors annually, up from about 10,000 in 2010 when RDB handed over the park to a South African based conservation group, African Parks Network (APN).

In 2011, the park received 20,657 visitors, which was a substantial 35% increase in the parks visitor numbers from 2010. In 2012, the park received 23,048 visitors, an increase of 12% from 2011 and an overall 24% increase then.

APN formally took over the management of the park in January 2010 and promised to deliver on biodiversity conservation, and sustainable natural resource utilisation.

Had it not been for the pandemic, Akagera would be making a lot more. Visits dropped from about 50,000 which generated US$2.5 million to 15,844 in 2020, a 68% decrease compared to 2019.

Meanwhile, in other parks, Nyungwe park revenues reached over US$ 21.1 million (Rwf 19 billion) in 2018, while more than 5,000 tourists visited Virunga National Park in 2019, generating nearly US$7.5 million, just to mention a few.

Now, while these numbers paint a promising future as the pandemic slows its stance, there is a lot that has to be done.

Specifically, in the area of policy adjustments to facilitate recovery of the sector and to attract both local and international investments.

Consider this, Akagera National Park has a maximum of 123 rooms of accommodation inside and outside the park combined. The largest is the Game Lodge with 68 rooms. This is a fundamental gap and needs a quick intervention. Local investors have tried to play their role.

Akagera Transit Lodge has 13 rooms just at the entrance of the park. Akagera Rhino Lodge, a unique eco-tourism experience overlooking the park has just 7 rooms and Akagera Safari Camp, a mixture of safari and modern actecture also overlooking the park and a rare view of Ihema Lake, will be opening soon with 35 rooms. There is definately an acute shortage of rooms.

In the meantime, these facilities also claim that they would be making more revenues from park tourists if RDB made adjustments. “If a tourist spends a night at our lodge, and needs to take a rest before taking a park tour in the morning to watch carnivores or take a boat ride to watch birds, they are required to buy another permit for a night tour because the park closes at 6pm and a tourist who does not have a room inside the park lodges has to exit,” says Longi Mfizi Nkaka, the proprietor of Transit Game Lodge (Vegas).

Yet, there is a rationale that is prohibitive for tourists.

Akagera has a unique ecological setting. It is a home to all sorts of biodiversity. It is the only National Park in the region with the Big 5 and other animals.

“A tourist should be allowed multiple entry within 24 hours because these animals have a different lifestyle, a tourist needs to allocate park tours in different times of the day,” says Nkaka.

Another concern is that Akagera Park has only one entrance. For tourists staying at hotels in a geographically different location to the main entrance, are forced to travel dozens of kilometres to the existing single entry (main entrance).

Example, tourists staying at Epic Hotel in Nyagatare, have to drive all along to Rwinkwavu. There is thus, need for creation of other entrances.

“The adjustments will make us a distinct and unique destination, but also increase revenues for hotels around the park. It could be Nyungwe or Akagera,” Nkaka says.

Akamanzi told Taarifa that she will look into the matter and act accordingly. “I need to investigate further,” she said.

Nevertheless, Rwanda, sooner than later, will be one of the few countries that will emerge as a winer post Covid-19.

But that’s not enough, both government and players in the sector must improve the quality of services in the entire value chain to cement the ambition of becoming a high-end destination. At the same time, government must revise its policies to maximize the contribution of tourism in economic development.