Survivors and Post-Genocide Justice in Rwanda
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SURVIVORS AND POST-GENOCIDE JUSTICE IN RWANDA Their Experiences, Perspectives and Hopes Published by African Rights and REDRESS November 2008 REDRESS African Rights 87 Vauxhall Walk P.O. Box 3836 London, SE11 5HJ Kigali, Rwanda United Kingdom Tel: +250 503679 Tel: +44 (0)20 7793 1777 [email protected] Fax +44(0)20 7793 1719 www.afrights.org www.redress.org “Justice was a political initiative born out of a concern to put an end to the culture of impunity. But the struggle against impunity was not going to bring back our loved ones who had died. It is a principle that determines the future without changing anything about the past.” Etienne, a lawyer in Kigali. “We will always strive to have the courage to testify, despite the serious consequences that entails.” Prudence, a hospital worker in Butare. “The survivors who continue to fight for justice do so for our loved ones who are not with us anymore, to honour their memory and to show them that we have not abandoned them.” Agnès, a farmer in Ruhengeri. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS MAP OF RWANDA ........................................................................................................ iv ACRONYMS AND GLOSSARY .................................................................................... v PREFACE........................................................................................................................ vii INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS ............................................................................................ 4 1. THE COURAGE IT TAKES TO TESTIFY : The Killing and Harassment of Survivors and Witnesses............................................. 6 2. FORMAL JUSTICE................................................................................................... 20 3. GACACA..................................................................................................................... 26 4. THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR RWANDA.................. 55 5. INVESTIGATIONS AND PROSECUTIONS ABROAD....................................... 72 6. A LACK OF ATTENTION : Rape And Sexual Violence ............................................................................................. 86 7. CIVIL REPARATIONS AND COMMUNITY SERVICE................................... 100 8. THE ROLE OF THE CHURCHES IN DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE........................................................................................................................ 109 9. REMORSE, FORGIVENESS & RECONCILIATION What is the Relationship with Justice? ....................................................................... 118 RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................................................. 129 To the Government of Rwanda ................................................................................... 129 To Rwandan Police and Prosecution Authorities ...................................................... 130 To the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda................................................ 131 To Governments and Authorities of Third Countries Where Suspects are Residing ......................................................................................................................................... 131 iii MAP OF RWANDA iv ACRONYMS AND GLOSSARY AVEGA Association of the Widows of the Genocide of April 1994 CDR Committee for the Defence of the Republic DRC Democratic Republic of the Congo FAR Rwandese Armed Forces FARG Fund to Assist Survivors of the Genocide ICTR International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ICTY International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia IPJ Judicial Police Inspector MDR Democratic Republican Movement MRND National Republican Movement for Development (1975-1991) and National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (1991- 1994) PL Liberal Party PSD Social Democratic Party RPA Rwandese Patriotic Army RPF Rwandese Patriotic Front PSD Social Democratic Party TIG Community Service Parquet Office of the Prosecutor Inyangamugayo A judge of the gacaca jurisdiction Intègre Another term for a gacaca judge Terms for Administrative Units and Their Corresponding Administrators Rwanda’s local administrative structure was changed between 2001-2006. However, in this book we have used the geographical locations, the names of administrative units and their corresponding administrators as they existed in 1994. Préfet (Governor), the head of a préfecture; Deputy-préfet (Sous-préfet). A deputy-préfet was either in charge of certain responsibilities within the office of the préfecture, or was the head of a group of communes grouped together in a sous-préfecture; Bourgmestre (Mayor), the head of a commune; Councillor, the head of a sector; Responsable , in charge of a cellule. v “Refugee”: The term is used in the testimonies for people who fled their homes because of fear or violence, though they had not crossed an international border according to the standard definition under international law. Inkotanyi is used to refer to the RPF by both its allies and opponents. The term means “fierce fighter” in Kinyarwanda. Inyenzi means “cockroach” in Kinyarwanda. After the killings and expulsions of Tutsis in 1959-1963, a group of exiles called inyenzi tried to stage a comeback and were defeated. The term was used to refer to the RPF during the Government of President Juvénal Habyarimana, but during the genocide it was shorthand for all Tutsis. vi PREFACE For the past year, African Rights and REDRESS have collaborated on an initiative that examines, from many different angles, justice in the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda. Our work has primarily focused on encouraging investigators and prosecutors to respond effectively to the numerous genocide suspects that remain at large in Europe, and engaging survivors located in Rwanda and abroad in these foreign trials by analysing crime patterns, collating evidence and helping to put survivors in contact with investigators. We have also sought to provide a safe space in which survivors’ concerns about justice can be articulated, heard and taken into consideration by justice officials and policy makers. In November 2007, about 50 genocide survivors in rural villages in Gitarama and in Kigali participated in three workshops. All were individuals affected either by criminal cases that are ongoing in Europe, or situations where the individuals they hold responsible for the massacres in which their relatives died, or for attacking them personally, are currently residing in Europe. The workshops were designed to help them learn about some of the current efforts taking place overseas to bring genocide suspects to justice and to enable them to understand the possibilities for genocide justice abroad and the constraints on foreign investigators and prosecutors. In addition, the workshops sought to create opportunities to discuss how their concerns about justice in Rwanda and internationally could be better known and taken into account. Survivors and Genocide Justice in Rwanda: Their Experiences, Perspectives and Hopes emerged out of these workshops, for what they revealed, or rather confirmed, was that “justice” for most survivors is of paramount importance in their lives. Indeed, the yearning and search for justice, in so many ways, defines what a survivor is. Their experiences and perceptions of justice are complex, and depend on a variety of factors both directly related and extraneous to their justice experiences. Their encounters with foreign investigators and courts could not be divorced from their views on justice more broadly, nor could they be separated from their engagement, or disengagement, from conventional and gacaca courts in Rwanda, nor their views on the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Over the following eight months, a team of researchers based in Rwanda carried out individual interviews with survivors throughout the country. Approximately 97 survivors from a variety of backgrounds in all the provinces of Rwanda were interviewed, and these interviews were complemented by further meetings with survivors based in Belgium, France, The Netherlands and Norway, as well as discussions with Rwandan government officials, civil society groups and other stakeholders. Interviews with the majority of survivors were conducted in Kinyarwanda, and to a lesser degree in French, and the testimonies were later translated into English. vii The interviews sought to obtain first hand accounts of how survivors actually interacted with justice, what these interactions meant to them and how, and to what extent, their lives were affected by the justice process. The research was based on objective indicators as well as the subjective views of survivors. Researchers sought information on the different challenges survivors faced vis-à-vis justice processes as well as their general sentiments and concerns regarding justice more broadly in the post-genocide context. They were encouraged to speak openly by offering them anonymity, and as a result, pseudonyms have been used throughout the report to protect identities. Neither the research nor this report purports to be an exhaustive catalogue of survivors’ views about post-genocide justice processes, which would in any case be an impossible undertaking. Though the experiences, opinions and hopes which have been highlighted by the survivors we interviewed