RWANDAN GENOCIDE TRIBUNAL GREETED SKEPTICALLY
Mr.Death-By-Diversity...
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Rwandans Wonder Whether Genocide Tribunal Will Bring Justice
Wed 09/25/96 03:40:00 am
By Chris Tomlinson Associated Press Writer TABA, Rwanda (AP) - As aninternational tribunal prepares to try leaders of Rwanda's genocide, someRwandans worry that justice will not be done - in part, because the U.N.court, in neighboring Tanzania, is too far from home.
The first person to face the tribunal is Jean-Paul Akayesu, a Hutu and theformer mayor of this village. Akayseu is accused of organizing the slaughterof hundreds of Tutsi villagers in Taba, and many here think he should bebrought back for trial.
``If Akayesu is brought here, it would be a very good lesson for those whoheard what he said during the genocide, to see him punished with their owneyes,'' said Judith Mukagatari, a Tutsi who survived only because her husbandwas a Hutu.
Mukagatari still remembers Akayesu's speech urging Hutus to kill Tutsis,and watching him patrol the streets with civilian militias, killing anyTutsis they found. Taba is 20 miles west of the capital, Kigali.
Similar scenes were played out all over Rwanda in April 1994 when Hutu extremistsbegan systematically slaughtering Tutsis. When the massacres ended in July,and Tutsi-led rebels seized power, more than 500,000 people were dead.
World leaders responded by forming the International Criminal Tribunal toprosecute those responsible for organizing the genocide. The tribunal ishear preliminary motions on Akayesu's case Thursday in Arusha, Tanzania.
Many in Rwanda, however, have questioned the tribunal's usefulness and methods.And Rwandan officials are among the pessimists.
``According to the situation which we have now, we do not have much hopefor this international tribunal,'' said Prime Minister Pierre-Celestin Rwigema.
Not all genocide suspects will appear before the tribunal; some will betried in Rwandan courts. There is no clear rule on which suspects will betried where.
In the tribunal, suspects convicted of perpetrating the genocide do notface a death sentence but will spend the rest of their lives in a Europeanprison.
In Rwandan courts, those convicted of organizing the genocide will facethe death penalty, and those found guilty of following orders will spend10 years in Rwanda's prisons, some of the world's most crowded.
But while suspects would face stiffer sentences in Rwanda, tribunal officialsinsist that only an internationally recognized court conducted in a neutrallocation can result in fair trials - trials that are not seen as some formof victor's justice.
The tribunal hopes to try hundreds of people, mostly former government officials.So far, 21 have been indicted but only 10 are in custody.
Human rights groups and tribunal officials often say that the key to peacein Rwanda is ending the cycle of impunity that has allowed killers to gounpunished for decades. For this reason, the tribunal has been criticizedfor not making arrangements for the trials to be broadcast on Rwandan radioor television so Rwandans can see the judicial process and learn from it.
Many Rwandans do not understand how leaders of the genocide can live freelyin other countries, or why $1 million a day is spent on refugee camps wheremany perpetrators of the genocide live with their families and receive freefood, firewood and clean water.
``Most of the people who were instrumental in organizing and carrying outthe genocide are living openly in countries like Kenya and in countrieslike Zaire,'' said Deputy Justice Minister Gerard Gahima. ``There reallyis no reason they cannot be brought to justice.''
Mukagatari said she once believed in the tribunal. But now she fears itwill fail to convict Akayesu and others. She is also convinced that theHutu militants will be back.
Even now, Tutsi survivors are attacked by Hutus based in Zaire. Mukagatariand other Tutsi survivors want extremists living in the refugee camps inZaire to be arrested and for the killing to stop once and for all.
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