The Rwandan Genocide Trials Begin

At the end of May 1996, the Rwanda war crimes tribunal began legal proceedings against its first suspects -- more than two years after the genocide claimed the lives of more than one-half-million Rwandans, most of them from the Tutsi ethnic group. The first suspects appeared before the tribunal in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha.

The international community moved quickly after the Rwandan genocide to set up a tribunal to prosecute the instigators of the killing. But it took the court until late 1995 to issue its first indictments, and until May 1996 to actually open legal proceedings against any suspects.

Even then, when the first three indicted suspects were brought before the court to enter pleas, the judges promptly adjourned the cases against all three men until later in the year.

Despite this, tribunal officials themselves seemed pleased. A communique issued by the prosecutor's office called the first appearances of suspects a reward for "patience and hard work."

The statement went on to note the difficulties that have been faced by the legal staff, including what was termed "the chronic lack of human resources." It thanked those UN member states that have offered personnel and other resources to support the tribunal's work.

The communique said the court hopes to contribute to the search for truth and justice -- not only for the victims of the bloodshed but for all humankind, which, the statement said, was alarmed by the reign of terror and by the crimes committed against humanity in Rwanda in 1994.

The first three suspects brought before the tribunal were Georges Rutaganda, a top official of the Hutu extremist Interahamwe militia; Jean-Paul Akayesu, a former mayor; and Clement Kayishema, a former regional official. The three -- charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and murder -- had been detained in Zambia and recently moved to Arusha. They all pleaded not guilty.

The specific charges against the three recalled the horrors that took place in Rwanda two years ago. Mr. Kayishema, for example, was accused of ordering threatened Tutsi to take refuge in churches and sports stadiums, even though he knew they would be murdered there. The indictment went on to claim that in one stadium, Mr. Kayishema personally fired a shot into the air to signal the start of the slaughter.

Authorities of Rwanda's Tutsi-installed, post-genocide government -- critical in the past of the tribunal's slow pace -- had no immediate comment on the start of the legal proceedings. Radio Rwanda reported the initial appearances of suspects, but added that the real masterminds of the killing have yet to be caught and brought to justice.

Rwanda has started trying some of the estimated 70-thousand suspects it has detained. (see http://reporterregrets.blogspot.com/2007/06/first-accused-killers-stand-trial-in.html.) Suspects in Rwanda could face the death penalty. The maximum punishment the international tribunal can mete out is life imprisonment.

Footnote: By June of this year, The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda had completed 33 cases since beginning its work, with 28 convictions and five acquittals. The court has until the end of 2008 to complete the trials of 90 additional people it has indicted as the main instigators of the Rwandan genocide. Eighteen of these men are still on the run. The majority of the 72 who have been arrested are either in court or still awaiting the start of their trials. Of the three men first put on trial, Rutaganda was found guilty on one count of genocide, one count of crimes against humanity and one count of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment; Akayesu was found guilty of nine counts of genocide and crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment; Kayishema was convicted on four counts of genocide and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Rwanda's Children: Traumatized Beyond Belief

In March 1996, the United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, released a shocking study on the impact of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda on children. The study found unprecedented levels of exposure to traumatic events and said massive, long-term psychological treatment would be necessary.

Some of the UNICEF study's findings are so shocking that they almost defy belief. Fully 95 percent of Rwanda's children witnessed violence and killing during the 1994 massacres. Nearly 80 percent of the children lost immediate family members. More than one-third actually witnessed the murder of a close relative.

UNICEF’s representative in Rwanda, Dan Toole, detailed some of the study's other findings in a presentation to reporters in Nairobi.

“Ninety percent of the children believed they would die. This is something that marks children for life. If you really believe you are so threatened you are going to die, and fully 60 percent of the children were actually threatened themselves with being killed. Eighty-seven percent of the children saw dead bodies. Probably, many of you in this room, were you not reporters, you would not have seen dead bodies in your life. It is not something that is normal. It's an exposure that is very traumatic for young children.”

But the horror did not stop there. Mr. Toole says the vast majority of children had to hide to protect themselves -- often under gruesome circumstances.

“Eighty percent of children had to hide. 16 percent of children had to hide under dead bodies. Truly a traumatic experience to force yourself to bury yourself under dead bodies so that you're not then killed yourself.”

The study is based on interviews with over three-thousand children between eight and 19 years of age throughout Rwanda. Half were children living with families. The other half were orphans or children separated from their parents and now living in so-called unaccompanied children's centers.

Mr. Toole says the long-term consequences of childhood exposure to violence include various forms of stress, ranging from nightmares to fears that they will not survive to adulthood.

“The majority of children even a year after the genocide think of the killings, think of the violence they have seen even when they try not to. These are recurring memories that are disruptive to their normal development. Over two-thirds try to stay away from the events, the places, the reminders that bring them back those memories. It's a normal reaction. But when we see two-thirds of a population doing it, it's a very severe situation."

Because of the dimensions of the trauma, UNICEF says it is impossible to have individual counseling for every child. Instead, UNICEF has launched a massive program of training for social workers, teachers, health specialists and others. Mr. Toole says that to date, over six thousand people have undergone training in basic trauma identification and alleviation techniques.

The UNICEF Rwanda director says that through the training program, over 145-thousand children have so far been helped to face their frightening past and put on the road to recovery.

Still, one UNICEF official says there is a long way to go. The agency estimates there are literally tens of thousands more children who still need assistance to prevent long-term adverse consequences related to the atrocities they witnessed and endured.

The Story of Alexis and Sylvestre

There are many victims of the ethnic and political violence that tore apart Rwanda in 1994 -- but none perhaps so vulnerable as the country's children, many of whom survived the killing only to be separated from their families. The International Red Cross attempted to reunite these children with their closest living relatives. It was a difficult and painstaking process. But there were success stories, as I reported from the Rwandan capital, Kigali in mid-September 1995. This is one of my favorite stories, no doubt because of its contrast to all the death, destruction and depressing days I had experienced since the Rwandan genocide began.

It is sunset in Kigali. Outside the battered brick walls of the Red Cross hospital, in a small dusty parking lot, a group of about a dozen or so Rwandans waits expectantly. They are waiting for vehicles that set out from Bukavu in neighboring Zaire at dawn with a cargo more precious to them than a shipment of gold. It is a human cargo -- children they have not seen for more than a year.

As the vans pull in, anxieties and doubts give way to joy -- and the happiness of the moment is no better expressed than by a small 13-year-old boy named Sylvestre who is among those waiting. He rushes to embrace his 10-year-old brother Alexis. He has not seen him since last April, when Rwanda's bloody descent into madness and murder began.

The two boys hold each other and dance around, spinning, crying, twirling, laughing. They do not want to let go of one another. It is a moment neither thought would ever happen.

As many as 100 thousand Rwandan children were separated from their families during the genocidal tumult that rocked the tiny central African country a year and a half ago. The International Committee of the Red Cross began a tracing program even before the fighting ended, knowing there would be a problem as a result of the dislocations triggered by the slaughter.

It has now become the largest tracing operation the Red Cross has run since the end of the Second World War. Its budget this year exceeds five million dollars.

Information about missing family members has taken a technological leap forward since 1945. Data about Rwanda's unaccompanied children and their families is now entered into a sophisticated computer.

But the actual tracing is still done the hard way -- by posting names on bulletin boards or broadcasting them over the radio. It is also carried out by Red Cross workers dispatched on motorbikes into the remote countryside to track down clues about missing persons. The hunts often lead to an exchange of Red Cross messages -- some with good news, others with bad.

Red Cross spokeswoman Sophie Bonefeld reads from one -- a message from parents in Rwanda to a 16-year-old daughter recently discovered living in a refugee camp in Goma, Zaire.

“To my little girl that I love a lot, I'm writing you to tell you that we miss you a lot and to inform you that your parents and your brother are very nostalgic and miss you a lot. Your message and your photo that we just received made us miss you a lot and we hope that you are doing well...please stay close to the Red Cross which will take good care of you. It's a family who will aid you a lot and we give you our biggest salutations and we hope that you will be protected, my dear child. We are yours forever.”

Sylvestre and Alexis are among the success stories of this painstaking process, one that often takes months before reunions like theirs take place. The two boys have each other now. But that is just about all. Their parents were among the half million or so who died in last year's ethnic violence. Their three other brothers were killed as well.

Alexis was visiting an aunt in Gikongoro when the killing began. They fled to a church for sanctuary. But that church, like so many others in Rwanda, soon became a killing field itself when extremists attacked. The aunt died. A neighbor eventually took the boy to Bukavu.

For his part, Sylvestre fared no better. He tells his story with the help of an interpreter.

“Sylvestre also ran away with his parents and they went to hide in a church...his parents were killed there. He was also injured.”

Eventually, Sylvestre was taken by nuns to an orphanage in neighboring Burundi. He returned to Rwanda late last year with several other children thought to be orphans but later discovered an older cousin in Kigali who had survived. He has been living with the cousin since then.

Alexis says he is very happy to be back with his brother once again. But he says he was told before leaving Bukavu for Kigali that he would be put in prison if he returned. He laughs about that now but the Red Cross takes very seriously the misinformation put out in the camps by extremists trying to hamper repatriation efforts.

Aid workers take photographs of reunions like these to send back to the camps to show they really happen.

The two boys walk off arm in arm. Sylvestre has given Alexis his sweater and promises the barefoot younger boy he will also get him some shoes.

A Red Cross worker who watches them go smiles and sighs. She says it is just a drop in the ocean. But it helps.

Government Shake-up: Ethnic Purge or A Blow for More Efficiency?

When UN officials and foreign diplomats first heard about Rwanda's government shake-up in August 1995, they initially viewed it with alarm. The dismissal of Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu, an ethnic Hutu, and the departure of three other key Hutu ministers led to an initial expectation that the changes amounted to a purge and that the ethnic Tutsi in Rwanda's leadership were consolidating power. But I reported from Kigali in September of that year that a new view was emerging.

After a series of interviews this week, that initial skeptical reaction appears to have shifted 180 degrees. Top UN officials and diplomats appear favorably impressed by the new government, which preserves the same ethnic and political balance as the old one. These officials are joining Rwandan defenders of the realignment in asserting the move may have simply been intended to produce a more efficient administration.

The UN Special Envoy to Rwanda, Shaharyar Khan, is among those who appear to see hope in the shake-up.

“The changes haven't rocked the boat as much as people outside seemed to think that they would...the basic attitude of moderation, cooperation with the international community has not changed...and that is encouraging..."

Mr. Khan acknowledges the ministers who left their posts were important personalities -- men such as Prime Minister Twagiramungu, Justice Minister Alphonse-Marie Nkubito and Interior Minister Seth Sendashonga. But the UN official also is among those who suggest they were not team players.

“You don't have important heavyweights, as those that have left the cabinet obviously were, pulling in slightly different directions. And so you may well find a more efficient and cohesive unit. In terms of management, it may be easier, smoother.”

There are still critics of the shake-up who say the lesson of the change is that the country's Tutsi leaders will not really share power. These critics charge that those ethnic Hutu still in the government have little real influence and that the ministers who left had been increasingly marginalized -- especially after clashing with powerful Vice President and Defense Minister Paul Kagame about alleged reprisal attacks on the Hutu majority by Tutsi soldiers.

But even some of these critics acknowledge the old ministers had been causing problems. One senior UN official says former Prime Minister Twagiramungu had been acting more like the leader of the opposition than the leader of the government in recent months.

Former Justice Minister Nkubito was regarded by some diplomats as a disappointment and had even come under criticism from visiting legal experts for his inability to manage the rebuilding of the country's courts, police and prison system.

In contrast, the new Prime Minister, Pierre-Celestin Rwigema, is seen as a major achiever. Mr. Rwigema previously served as Minister of Primary and Secondary Education. Senior Rwandan officials note how he managed to revive most of the country's schools despite the devastation of the education system during last year's genocide.

One diplomat says that on the whole, the new government projects an image of confidence. And while a careful assessment of its performance will need more time, in this diplomat's words, we may well all be smiling a couple of months from now.

The Refugee Flow Drops to a Trickle: Why?

UN and Rwandan officials were trying in September 1995 to encourage the one million mainly-Hutu refugees crammed into squalid camps in Zaire to return home to Rwanda. But with a December 31st deadline looming for their return, the refugee flow across the border dropped to a mere trickle. I reported from the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

UN and Rwandan authorities say the more than 12-thousand refugees forcibly expelled from Zaire last month have been resettled smoothly. Only a tiny number of returnees have been detained for suspected involvement in last year's genocide. The vast majority have returned to their homes without incident, resuming normal lives.

At the same time, though, these officials acknowledge the flow of refugees has slowed to a mere trickle since the Zairian-forced expulsions stopped and the United Nations promised to resume its voluntary repatriation program.

That is a major problem, given the new UN/Zairian agreement setting a December 31st (1995) deadline for moving the one-million or so mainly Hutu refugees still in camps in Zaire back to Rwanda.

Even UN officials admit that goal is simply physically impossible. But diplomatic sources say the United Nations is holding out hope that Zairian authorities will not stick to the end of the year date if an effective repatriation program is underway.

The question now is how to get such a program started. Many observers continue to blame Hutu extremists loyal to Rwanda's ousted government for interfering with refugees who may want to return home. They say these extremists use violence and other forms of intimidation to dissuade would-be returnees.

But the UN Special Representative to Rwanda, Shaharyar Khan, says he believes the problem is much more fundamental, a problem rooted in the minds of the refugees.

“They (refugees) don't want to make a choice. They there (in the camps) aren't pushed to make a choice. You see, on the one hand, there is doubt about what might happen to them when they come back. On the other hand, they feel that by living there, it's better than facing those doubts because you're betting food, water, you've got basic elements of livelihood. You've got maternity wards. You've got hospitals. You've even got shops and nightclubs I believe. So, they need a push or a strong pull.”

Mr. Khan says the strong pull is the element that is currently lacking. But he outlines a new plan which he hopes will encourage a mass refugee return.

“The refugees should be informed on what the situation is on the ground here (in Rwanda). An information campaign. Number two, that intimidation of any kind should be prevented. And thirdly, that the people who wish to go back should feel secure in doing so both in Zaire as well as in Rwanda.”

But diplomatic sources say there is nothing really new in such a plan. It consists of elements that have been discussed for more than a year. These sources, critical of the United Nations, charge deliberations over the plan's implementation remain tangled in a bureaucratic web of competing agencies looking hungrily for new sources of money and for a perpetuation of their presence in the region.

One diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, notes that the mandate of the UN mission in Rwanda expires in early December. This source, noting how UN officials are now saying their role is more important than ever in providing assurances to returning refugees, believes the United Nations, by stalling on repatriation, may be simply maneuvering for an extension of its mandate into the new year.

Given assessments like that, there is little wonder that even senior UN officials admit that Rwanda's government would be happier without a continued UN presence, even though authorities in Kigali genuinely want the refugees back and remain largely dependent on UN humanitarian assistance to help returnees resettle.

Rwanda’s Ousted Prime Minister Leaves The Country

Former Rwandan Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu left Kigali for Brussels, Belgium in late August 1995 -- two weeks after loosing his post in a government shake-up. I was in Kigali at the time and spoke with Mr. Twagiramungu just hours before his departure.

The former Prime Minister appeared pensive as he waited in his well-guarded Kigali house to be taken to the airport after getting the approval of Rwandan authorities to leave. Mr. Twagiramungu was flying to Brussels, where he said he intended to spend time with his wife and four children who he said he has not seen since April.

In a brief and informal pre-departure interview with me and journalists from three other news organizations, Mr. Twagiramungu said he was leaving at what he called a difficult moment. Although he said he remained hopeful about Rwanda's future, he said the country's leaders will have to show more political will to bring about the twin goals of reconciliation and internal security. In his estimation, that political will is currently lacking and he said he is very sorry about it.

Mr. Twagiramungu said he does intend to return to Rwanda after what he said would be just a short stay abroad. But as to what he will do in the future, he is not certain. He remains head of the Democratic Republican Movement, or MDR, political party, but acknowledged there is no real party activity in the country. He said he is also not ready to enter business. But after five years in politics, he said he is ready for a break.

In earlier interviews, the former Prime Minister, an ethnic Hutu, said he had resigned in a dispute over continuing security problems inside Rwanda, including alleged reprisal attacks by members of the Tutsi-dominated military against members of the ethnic Hutu minority.

However, government officials said he was fired for alleged incompetence.

Some UN officials and diplomats in Kigali said Mr. Twagiramungu had in recent months been acting more like the leader of an opposition than as leader of a government. These sources said there is a growing feeling that the new government may prove to be more efficient in tackling the country's many problems.

Following Mr. Twagiramungu's departure from the cabinet, four other ministers left their posts, including the ministers of justice, interior, and information.

Voluntary Repatriations of Rwandan Refugees Resume

The United Nations, in late August 1995, restarted its program of voluntary repatriations of Rwandan refugees. The resumption came after relief workers won Zaire's agreement to halt its controversial and much-protested program of forced military expulsions. Again, I reported from Goma, site of the largest camps in eastern Zaire.

The UN's voluntary repatriation program appeared to get off to a slow start despite what aid workers described as a high demand among refugees to return home to Rwanda.

A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said about 220 Rwandans were voluntarily repatriated from the Goma area on the first day of the resumed program. Another three-thousand stepped forward from camps in Bukavu to the south for repatriation.

But the spokesman said a lack of vehicles and other resources prevented relief workers from moving them back to Rwanda immediately.

Further to the south, meanwhile, near Uvira along the Burundian border, thousands of refugees who fled into the countryside to escape Zairian troops during the forced expulsions of the past week began returning to their camps.

Zaire, frustrated at the slow pace of repatriation, began forcibly deporting refugees last weekend. In five days they expelled about 15-thousand refugees, most of them Rwandan but also including some Burundians.

After sharp international protests, Zaire agreed to suspend the expulsions and the United Nations agreed to restart its voluntary repatriation program.
UN officials now believe tens of thousands of refugees are ready to go back to Rwanda -- in part because Hutu extremist elements linked to last year's genocide fled the camps when Zairian soldiers moved in, fearing reprisals if they were forced across the border.

But disturbed relief workers in the Goma area said they had received credible reports the extremists were once again filtering back into the camps. They expressed fear the extremists might again attempt to use violence and other forms of intimidation to dissuade refugees from considering a return

Zaire Halts Its Forced Expulsions of Rwandan Refugees

[Thanks again for your patience (and allowing me a much-needed break). I intend now to return to the cycle of post-genocide Rwanda stories. Back in July, after a diversion to report on the allegations of Iraqi interest in uranium from Africa, we discussed the Kibeho incident and the 1995 ceremonies marking the first anniversary of the genocide. We turn again now to the problems posed by refugees in Zaire (Congo).]

In August 1995, Zairean troops, fed up with the activities of Hutu extremist leaders, forcibly expelled hundreds of Rwandan refugees from camps in eastern Zaire back across the border. In the face of international protests, Zaire suspended the forced expulsions of Rwandan refugees later that month. Delighted UN officials they were poised to resume their own voluntary repatriation program amid fresh indications that tens-of-thousands of refugees were ready to return to Rwanda. I traveled again to Goma, site of the largest refugee camps.

Early in the day there were clear signs something had happened to the Zairian military's forced expulsion operation. Although refugees were lining up in camps to board trucks for the nearby border in anticipation of the daily arrival of Zairian vehicles, none showed up and Zairian troops stayed out of the camps.

At the border itself, aid workers were standing by to process the usual flow of hundreds of returnees and to offer them water, but no refugees arrived.

Reporters were later led to believe there might be a joint UN/Zairian announcement formally terminating the expulsion program and reviving the UN’s voluntary operation.

But, UN spokesman Chris Bowers said no official announcement was likely until next week when the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, travels to Kinshasa.

Mr. Bowers said the United Nations was, however, delighted and, in his words, exceedingly relieved the expulsions had come to a halt after about 15-thousand refugees had been forced across the border during the past five-days. He said if UN officials are given assurances the military operation is ended, the United Nations would immediately resume its voluntary repatriation program. The spokesman said it could get under way very quickly and, with current vehicle resources, begin moving about five-thousand refugees a day, every day.

Mr. Bowers said the UN refugee agency had received fresh communications from refugees in eastern Zaire they want to go home under UN auspices. Other aid workers estimated several hundred-thousand of the more than one-million Rwandans in camps are ready to return.

Mr. Bowers attributed the change in mood among the refugees to the absence of extremist Hutu leaders, who fled the camps in recent days as the Zairian military moved in. The extremists, linked to last year's ethnic and political massacres in Rwanda, had been accused in the past of using violence and other forms of intimidation to prevent many refugees from freely expressing their desires to go home.

Despite the UN's insistence on a formal Zairian statement suspending the forced expulsions, Mr. Bowers rejected suggestions current refugee-return momentum could be lost. He dismissed as minimal the possible risk of extremist leaders re-entering the camps and interfering with the repatriation process. The spokesman also remained adamant in condemning the Zairian forced expulsion operation -- though many relief officials privately credited Zaire's effort with jumpstarting what they said had been an otherwise insignificant refugee-return program.