Callixte Mbarushimana One Day Before the French Justice?
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Callixte Mbarushimana one day before the French justice? Colum Lynch May 4, 2019 Exclusive : Callixte Mbarushi- murderers accountable. mana, the Alleged War Criminal In a March 25 letter to the U.N. in the U.N.’s Midst chief, Petrie threw new light on a scan- Twenty-five years after the Tutsi dal that has largely remained within genocide, will the U.N. at last pur- the U.N. walls, alleging that U.N. of- sue Callixte MBARUSHIMANA, one ficials failed to pursue one of their ofits own former officials ? By Colum own employees in the aftermath of the LYNCH slaughter and even kept him on the Callixte Mbarushimana during payroll for years. a hearing at The Hague’s Inter- As the genocide of Tutsis by Hu- national Criminal Court on Sept. tus began in April 1994, and the U.N. 15, 2011. FOREIGN POLICY withdrew most of its force of 2,500, ILLUSTRATION/JERRY LAM- Mbarushimana, then a computer tech- PEN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES nician with the U.N. Development Pro- Charles Petrie, a retired senior offi- gram (UNDP) in Rwanda, declared cial at the United Nations, has devoted himself the agency’s officer-in-chief. He a fair chunk of the past quarter century seized control of UNDP’s assets, in- of his life to a single crusade : secu- cluding Motorola radio handsets, and ring the prosecution of a former U.N. more than 25 U.N. vehicles, making employee, Callixte Mbarushimana, for them available to the Rwandan mili- allegedly overseeing the murder of 32 tary, which used them to hunt down people, including three other U.N. wor- Tutsi victims who were suspected of kers, in Rwanda during that country’s serving as a kind of fifth column for 1994 genocide. the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patrio- So far, the endeavor has been an tic Army, according to an indictment unmitigated bust. But in an effort prepared by a prosecutor for the Inter- to breathe new life into the case on national Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda the 25th anniversary of the genocide, (ICTR). He also pointed the military Petrie has prodded U.N. Secretary- to the homes of several U.N. em- General António Guterres to support ployees who were later killed, said the a long-standing attempt by Rwandan indictment, which charged Mbarushi- survivors in France to hold Mbarushi- mana with overseeing the murder of 32 mana and other alleged Rwandan mass people in all. 1 2 He later eluded prosecution by the shares the blame for Mbarushimana’s U.N. war crimes tribunal for Rwanda flight from justice, charging that it and dodged extradition to Rwanda failed to conduct a proper investiga- from Kosovo, where he continued to tion into the killings a quarter cen- work for the U.N. He has been ar- tury ago and subsequently suppres- rested on war crimes charges in Ger- sed a critical internal review com- many and France, only to be released. missioned by Mbarushimana’s then- Last year, a French judge, Emmanuelle employer, the UNDP, of the U.N.’s mi- Ducos, concluded that she had insuffi- shandling of the case. When a French cient evidence to proceed with a trial. judge requested a copy of the UNDP Her successor, Stéphanie Tacheau, will review back in 2011, the U.N.’s top soon weigh whether there is enough lawyer at the time denied in writing evidence to drop the case altogether. that such a document existed, accor- Drawings from Charles Petrie’s ding to a copy of the lawyer’s letter book The Triumph of Evil : Florence to the French judge, which was viewed Ngirumpatse, a U.N. personnel officer by Foreign Policy. “Surprisingly, when who was slaughtered in her home along asked for a copy of the internal investi- with 10 others ; the Interahamwe at gation that was undertaken by UNDP work ; and Day 40 at the United Na- in November-December 2004, the Of- tions. By that point, close to half a mil- fice of Legal Affairs denied that such lion people had been killed while the a report existed,” Petrie wrote to Gu- Security Council continued to delibe- terres. rate what to call the horrors. SPIKE The French investigation into Mba- ZEPHANIAH STEPHENSON ILLUS- rushimana was triggered by a 2008 TRATIONS complaint by a group of survivors Mbarushimana declined to com- known as the Collective of Civil Par- ment through his lawyer, Laurence Ga- ties for Rwanda, or CPCR, which first rapin, who said the French investi- initiated legal efforts to prosecute al- gation is proceeding in secret. “As leged Rwandan mass murderers living a lawyer, I am also obliged by this in France back in 2001. The case has secret,” she told Foreign Policy by been gradually unraveling as eyewit- email. “My client is waiting also for nesses who testified against Mbaru- the conclusions of investigations, and shimana before investigators with the until then, he does not wish to make ICTR more than 18 years ago have “re- any comment.” But Mbarushimana has tracted their testimonies, been killed previously denied any role in killing or disappeared,” Petrie wrote to Gu- U.N. employees or anyone else during terres. Petrie said he has contacted a the Rwandan genocide. key witness who is prepared to confirm The new appeal to the U.N. testimony to international investiga- secretary-general is part of a wi- tors. But she fears testifying at trial. der effort by Petrie (who has been “She knows that Callixte Mbarushi- trying to track down eyewitnesses from mana remains a key member of the Rwanda) and lawyers representing the FDLR, and fears for the safety of her survivors to collect more evidence of children,” Petrie wrote. The FDLR is Mbarushimana’s alleged crimes to per- the French acronym for a rebel Hutu suade Tacheau to pursue a trial. militia called the Democratic Forces In his letter, Petrie claims the U.N. for the Liberation of Rwanda..