Rwanda Tribunal Must Prosecute RPF War Crimes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rwanda Tribunal Must Prosecute RPF War Crimes

June 1, 2009

More than 70 scholars and human rights advocates issued a joint letter today calling on the United Nations Secretary General, the US President, and the UK Prime Minister to ensure that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) fulfils its mandate by prosecuting soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) who committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in Rwanda in 1994.

On June 4, 2009, the ICTR Prosecutor is due to address the United Nations Security Council about the Tribunal’s completion strategy. This represents the last chance for the Prosecutor to announce RPF indictments before the end of year deadline for completing all trials.

The ICTR is to be commended for vigorously prosecuting numerous perpetrators of the 1994 genocide. Yet, despite the UN’s insistence on impartial justice for all international crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994, the ICTR has failed to indict a single RPF soldier for killing civilians during that period. Such one-sided justice stands in sharp contrast to the impartial justice achieved by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which have resolutely prosecuted all sides of those conflicts.

Unless the Prosecutor acts swiftly to announce indictments, the ICTR will squander not only its last chance to provide accountability for those serious crimes, but also its legitimacy. This would cause the Tribunal to be dismissed as “victor’s justice,” set a dangerous precedent for future international prosecutions, and undermine efforts at achieving peace, security, and reconciliation in Rwanda and the Great Lakes region as a whole.

Media Contacts

Professor Victor Peskin, Arizona State University, USA
Author, International Justice in Rwanda and the Balkans: Virtual Trials and the Struggle for State Cooperation
US Cell: (001) 510-847-4743
Email: Victor.Peskin@asu.edu

Professor Nigel Eltringham, University of Sussex, UK
Author, Accounting for Horror: Post-Genocide Debates in Rwanda
UK Cell: (44) 07976841230
Email: n.p.eltringham@sussex.ac.uk
-----------------------------------