Arrest highlights clergy's role in Rwanda genocide

[moobu2]

(CNN) -- Against the chilling scale of the Rwandan genocide, the events that unfolded on May 7, 1994, at the Kibeho College of Arts appear as a blip of horror.
Eighty Tutsi students perished at the hands of their teachers, fellow students and security forces. They died that day, according to the Rwandan government, because of the groundwork laid by one man: Emmanuel Uwayezu.
That he was an educator and a priest made the act that much more inhuman to his accusers.

He took refuge in his Catholicism and practiced as a priest in Italy, undetected for a dozen years, until October, when he was arrested by Interpol. His fate remains unknown -- it's unclear whether the Rwandan government will successfully extradite him for trial.
If it does, Uwayezu, 47, could still walk out of jail a free man, like Hormisdas Nsengimana, another Catholic priest accused of murder, extermination and crimes against humanity, but against whom an international tribunal could not find enough evidence.

<snip>

When Kibeho's season of horror unfolded in 1994, Uwayezu had been headmaster at the Groupe Scolaire Marie Mercie school for two years.
Over 100 days, an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed, the United Nations and Interpol have said. Millions more were raped and disfigured, and nearly an entire generation of children was orphaned.
The Rwandan government alleges that Uwayezu sowed the seeds for ethnic hatred at the school by blaming the nation's troubles on the "inyenzi," a term meaning cockroach, used by Hutu extremists to describe Tutsis. The government says the priest then alerted security forces, trapped the students and organized their killing at the nearby College of Arts on May 7, 1994.

<snip>

For the people of Kibeho, Uwayezu was very important," she said. "It's extremely disturbing -- the role of teachers. It's a country where people have such respect for authority, and teachers and priests commanded enormous authority."
So far, four Catholic priests have been indicted by the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Human rights activists say the small number of indictments do not accurately represent the church's role in the genocide.
By failing to issue swift condemnation, the church opened the door for slaughter in the name of God, according to the global group Human Rights Watch.
"Some clergy who might have been able to save lives refused to even try to do so," the group said in a report on the genocide.
Uwayezu fled Rwanda and began a new life in Italy in 1997. He became known as Don Emmanuel, working as a vicar in Empoli, a town near Florence.


LINK

[struggle4progress]

1. UN Court for Rwanda Genocide Acquits Former Priest (Update1)

By Sarah McGregor

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- A United Nations court trying people accused of organizing Rwanda’s 1994 genocide acquitted former Catholic priest Hormisdas Nsengimana on charges of genocide, murder and crimes against humanity.

Three judges hearing the case concluded there was insufficient evidence and no legal basis to convict Nsengimana, the Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda said today in an e-mailed statement.

Nsengimana was ordered to be released immediately from a detention facility in Arusha, Tanzania, it said. He was arrested in Cameroon in March 2002 for allegedly planning with ethnic Hutu militia-men to carry out targeted attacks in the southern Rwandan region of Nyanza ...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aEqrST4_40Ew

[struggle4progress]

2. Rwandan banker guilty of genocide murders

December 01 2009 at 12:48AM

Brussels - A Brussels court on Monday found a Rwandan banker guilty of an indeterminate number of murders, attempted murders and rapes committed during the 1994 genocide in his country, the Belga news agency reported.

Ephrem Nkezabera, 57, who is being treated for liver cancer, was not present in court as the guilty verdict was handed down or at any time during the trial.

His sentence, which could be life imprisonment, will be handed down on Tuesday, following the jury trial ...

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=136&art_id=nw20091130221342848C559858

[struggle4progress]

3. Rwandan doctor targeted in French genocide complaint

(AFP) – 12 hours ago

ROUEN, France — A Rwandan doctor working in northern France has been accused in a complaint filed in a French court of ordering the massacre of Tutsis during the 1994 genocide, a victims' group said Monday.

Charles Twagira, who works at a hospital in the northern city of Rouen and has recently received French citizenship, is accused on counts of "genocide, complicity in genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity."

The complaint was filed on Friday by the CPCR victims' rights association with a court in Rouen, which is expected to transfer the request for a full investigation to a Paris tribunal.

News of the latest complaint came a day after France and Rwanda decided to restore diplomatic ties after a three-year break ...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h1ZdhOy6qjI2rMu4SaAtvJr4tmVA

[moobu2]

4. Rwandan Genocide: Two Nuns Found Guilty

Back in 1994, the world witness one of the most horrific massacres of our age only second to the Jewish holocaust during World War Two. About one million or more people, the vast majority consisting of ethnic Tutsis, were massacred by rival ethnic Hutus. Rwanda is mainly a Roman Catholic country, and the involvement of priests and nuns in the genocide began to take form as news began to surface, reporting that several local church societies were involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, killing Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Last April, it had been reported two Rwandan nuns known as "Sisters" Gertrude who is a Hutu, and a mother superior of the Benedictine convent at Sova, Rwanda, and Marie Kisito, were found guilty in a Belgian court for participating in the massive genocide. The 12 panel jury spends hours deliberating into the early hours of Friday morning, June 8, 2001, before they came to their conclusion that both nuns were guilty. This was the first time Belgium used this particular law which was passed 7 years ago. It allows the government to try cases of alleged human rights violations even if they were committed abroad.

Now let's look closer at the crimes in particular, which were committed by both Nuns. Nun Gertrude turned away thousands of ethnic Tutsis who were fleeing from the genocide. Instead of sheltering these poor people which could have saved their lives, Nun Gertrude called Hutu soldiers who then stoned, hacked, and burned to death over 5,000 men, women, and children. Nun Marie was found guilty of supplying Hutu soldiers with the petrol they needed to start a fire and burn 700 people to death, who were hiding in a garage on the grounds of the convent.

The Tutsi-dominated government eventually took control of the whole country, prompting the two nuns to leave. They fled to Belgium, and there they were caught and then put on trial. What is amazing, is the fact that among Nun Gertrude's accusers where fellow nuns, who blamed her for the deaths of over 30 of their family members who had been hidden in the convent until she called in the Hutu authorities. The prosecutor pointed out, the convent became a deadly trap (The Southern Cross, June 20, 2001).

Nun Gertrude was sentenced to only 15 years in prison for her acts against her fellow man and God, while nun Marie got only 12 years. Both nuns were given the opportunity to speak in court before jury deliberations on their behalf, but Nun Gertrude said, she had nothing to say, and Marie told the jurors that she was innocent of any wrong doing, the whole thing was a "lie" she said.

Two days after the trial, the Vatican issued a statement about the nuns who were found guilty of genocide. The statement contained a very skeptical position towards the nuns guilt, and yet at the same time, the Vatican tries to distance itself from them. Not surprisingly, there are no statements from the Vatican indicating the nuns will be excommunicated, furthering their position that the nuns did nothing wrong, despite overwhelming evidence that included eyewitness accounts by their fellow nuns.

This trial is only the tip of the iceberg. The truth is, the Hutu Priests and Nuns, were actively involved in one of the most horrific sinful acts of our time, the massacre of the ethnic Tutsis. Even now, Italy refuses to hand over a Popish priest named Athanase Seromba who fled Rwanda and is now living in Italy, because of being sought for trial for his alleged crimes, he committed during the 1994, ethnic massacre in Rwanda.

Link

+

[struggle4progress]

6. That site wouldn't be my first choice as a source for accurate analysis:

Proclaiming all of God's word in a very comprehensive and systematic way which includes providing many Christian articles on a wide range of topics, such as defending the King James Version, Creation Science, Christian living, theology, prophecy, and exposing sinful entertainment like Hollywood, while also explaining in light of the Scriptures and a careful and practical analysis of the UFO phenomena, various cults, and of course the dogmatic teachings of evolution which tries to pose itself as the only true science rather than what it really is; complex storytelling at odds with God's Word! ... http://thebibleistheotherside.org/index.htm

Of course, it is true that Kisito and her Superior were convicted in Belgium

[DeSwiss]

5. Fucking Bloody Murdering Priest.

K&R

[struggle4progress]

7. There's a 2005 Pulitzer winning series on the genocide:

... At its most fundamental, the genocide was an act of monumental betrayal, organized by the government in the service of the ideology of Hutu Power, which insisted there wasn't enough room in this small central African country for the Tutsi. The majority of the population proved to be willing executioners, and priest turned against parishioner, teacher against pupil, doctor against patient and, often, husband against wife. "The challenge of the genocide is not simply the killing, but that husband killed wife and father killed son, and the whole moral foundation of the country was destroyed," says Domitira Mukantaganda, vice president of Rwanda's supreme court, who also oversees a grassroots quasi-judicial process designed to promote reconciliation more than the mere imposition of justice ... http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6916

... "Some good Hutu friends we used to go to church with took four of my children and pretended they were theirs," she says. But the other two children stayed with their mother because "they looked too Tutsi" to pass -- tall, thin, with the aquiline features of Somalis or the Fulani of West Africa ... http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6918

... The massacre at Sovu monastery has recast the lives of many of its nuns who survived the genocide. The trauma cut some loose from their religious moorings and sent them to seek the less exalted experiences of the secular life. Yet others profess even more fervor for their faith, seeing it as the price to pay for having been spared. Nine of the original 36 nuns were killed during the genocide. Six remain, and the rest quit the order ... Many other priests risked everything to save lives, and more than 200 of them were believed murdered along with their parishioners. One particularly courageous priest, Father Boniface Senyenzi, who was Hutu, stood steadfast with the thousands who sought refuge in the Roman Catholic Church in the lakeside city of Kibuye. He was killed, along with 11,400 people in the church. But many more became foot soldiers in the extermination campaign or passively accepted its inevitability. Among the most notorious was Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, the first priest to be convicted of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, which is trying a few of the leaders ... Today the church co-exists warily with the government of President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi whose rebel Rwandan Patriotic Force halted the genocide by defeating the army of the old regime. Several priests have been found guilty of complicity in the genocide, and dozens remain in jail, along with some 100,000 genocide suspects. The most senior cleric charged so far, a bishop, was found not guilty ... http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6919

To get as far away as possible from her former life as a nun, Bernadette Kayitesi got married five years ago and had a son. The wedding, she noted, was at a registry, not a church. She even changed her first name from Marie-Bernard -- "that was my nun name" -- to leave no doubt in her own mind that this was anything but a fresh start ... Their home gives every appearance of a life restarted. It is sparsely furnished, but spacious and neatly kept. The only decorations on the walls are images of Jesus, suffering the children to come to him. This new life, Kayitesi says, suits her just fine. "Compared with what others suffer, I am doing very well," she says. "I have not lost everything." For this reason, she says, she clings to some faith that Christianity transcends its earthly representatives, that God remains good despite everything that happened. So she goes to church on Sunday, with Gasangwa and their little boy, close enough to her religion but, perhaps, not enough to be singed again ... http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6920

... But she reserves something akin to pure hatred for her former best friend and the godmother to her youngest child, Olive Mukarugagi, under whose protection Delphine Umutesi, 7, was placed, only to be handed over to the killers. "She is the one who killed my youngest child," Mukabazanira declares, sitting stiff-backed in her temporary home in this southern town. "Ever since the war ended, I have never been at peace, because I always see people who killed my relatives, my family, roaming around. Many were close friends before the genocide. I was the teacher of their children. But no one lifted a finger to help us" ... http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6921

Valerie Bemeriki would like the world to know that, all in all, she was only doing her duty. Hers was one of the most recognized and most effective voices on the so-called Hate Radio, known by its French acronym RTML, which helped mobilize Rwanda's Hutu majority to genocide 10 years ago. That voice, by turns shrill, seductive and authoritative, goaded and encouraged the country's Hutu, sometimes helpfully suggesting the names and hiding places of members of the minority Tutsi and their Hutu sympathizers who had yet to be murdered. To make it easier for her listeners to see their victims as less than human, she made up vulgar stories about the inyenzi, or cockroaches, as Tutsi were called. She even accused them of cannibalism. "They mutilate the body and remove certain organs, such as the heart, liver and stomach; they eat human flesh, the inyenzi," she declared in one broadcast, transcripts of which are now in the possession of Rwandan authorities as well as the United Nations tribunal trying the ringleaders of the genocide ... http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6922

... It is a situation scarcely imaginable anywhere, as if most Jewish survivors were compelled to remain in Germany immediately after the Holocaust, living cheek by jowl with their erstwhile neighbors ... By freeing tens of thousands of genocide suspects from prison, the government of President Paul Kagame is attempting a precarious balancing act between justice and reconciliation. Those who receive lenient treatment -- foot soldiers, not kingpins -- are required to confess their crimes and seek forgiveness from their victims. In time, officials say, people would re-establish ties that were rent by the genocide, and the country could slowly leave its bloody legacy behind. Lending a hand in this project, in part to atone for its own catastrophic failure to protect the innocent, is the Roman Catholic Church, by far the most powerful institution in the country after the government. The church, like the government, is betting that it is still possible for lion and lamb to lie together in this mountain country, and has been encouraging ordinary people who participated in the genocide to ask forgiveness from survivors, and for survivors to grant it. "Those who sinned against others and against God have to repent," says the head of Rwanda's Catholics, Archbishop Thaddée Ntihinyurwa, who touts a broad new effort by the church to re-engage its strayed flock. "The church, after 2,000 years of preaching, now has started having a conversation with the people" ... http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6923

[moobu2]

8. "People came to mass each day to pray, then they went out to kill"

When the genocide finally occurred, church personnel and institutions were, not surprisingly, intimately involved. Just hours after President Habyarimana's death in a mysterious plane crash on April 6, 1994 (probably the work of his own presidential guard), elite troops spread out into Kigali with lists of people to kill -- opposition politicians, leaders of the civil society, and prominent Tutsi. Over the next few weeks, the violence expanded throughout the country, as the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) and the Interahamwe militia targeted the entire Tutsi population, men, women, and children. Orders traveled through a pre-established network, and a pattern of attack occurred with frightening consistency from one community to the next: The local militia attacked Tutsi families, burning their homes, killing some Tutsi, and driving out the rest. Local politicians then encouraged Tutsi to gather in a central location, usually a church, ostensibly for their security. Once the Tutsi population of the community was assembled, the militia moved in, often with the support of troops, and systematically massacred the gathered Tutsi. In many communities, a handful of moderate Hutu were killed early in the violence as a warning to other Hutu. After the large scale massacre was complete, the entire male population of the community was organized into security patrols that acted as death squads, searching homes where sympathetic Hutu had hidden their Tutsi friends and family and setting up barricades where Tutsi trying to flee could be stopped; anyone wanting to pass the barricade had to show an identity card that indicated their ethnicity.

The church was implicated in the genocide in numerous ways. People who sought sanctuary in church buildings were instead slaughtered there. According to some estimates, more people were killed in church buildings than anywhere else.(30) At one parish where I researched, the communal mayor reports that 17,000 bodies were unearthed from one set of latrines alongside the church. Numerous Tutsi priests, pastors, brothers, and nuns were killed, often by their own parishioners, sometimes by their fellow clergy. While the failure of the population to respect the principle of sanctuary cannot be blamed on the churches, the failure of the church leadership to condemn massacres on church property and attacks on church personnel in the years preceding the genocide clearly undermined the principle of sanctuary in Rwanda.

In some parishes Hutu clergy attempted to protect those gathered within their church, but in many others, clergy assisted the killers. One Tutsi woman who was a teacher at the Catholic grade school in Kaduha in Gikongoro prefecture told me:

The priest, Nyandwe, came to my house. My husband was not there. Nyandwe asked my children, "Where is she?" They said that I was sick. He came into the house, entering even into my bedroom. He said, "Come! I will hide you, because there is an attack." ... He said "I'll take you to the CND ." He grabbed me by the arm and took me by force. He dragged me out into the street and we started to go by foot toward the church. But arriving on the path, I saw a huge crowd. There were many people, wearing banana leaves, carrying machetes. I broke free from him and ran. I went to hide in the home of a friend. He wanted to turn me over to the crowd that was preparing to attack the church. It was he who prevented people from leaving the church.(31)

In a number of communities where I conducted research, people testified that pastors and priests and other church employees participated in the violence that occurred. Church personnel were apparently involved in meetings held in mid-April in which the organizers of the genocide told mayors in the southern prefectures of Butare, Gikongoro, and Gitarama, many of whom had resisted the genocide and protected their Tutsi citizens, that they would be removed if they did not support the genocide. It was immediately after these meetings that the massacres began in these areas. There are numerous examples of clergy who turned people over to be killed. In one incident in May, the Catholic archbishop himself turned over to a death squad a number of nuns and priests gathered at the cathedral at Kabgayi.(32) In several cases I investigated, clergy participated in death squads. In some cases, clergy helped to locate parishioners who were in hiding.(33)

In response to the massacres, the church hierarchies remained mostly silent. Catholic and Protestant leaders signed a joint letter in May that called for an end to massacres yet failed to condemn them or to characterize the violence as genocide.(34) Church leaders otherwise refused to speak out, portraying the genocide as a justified defensive action within the context of a civil war. When the government collapsed in advance of an RPF victory, most church leaders fled with the government into exile in Zaire. Even today, many of these former church officials now in exile deny that a genocide occurred.

The result of the participation by clergy and the silence of the official church is clear. Many Christians clearly believed that in participating in the massacre of Tutsi, they were doing the will of the church. In a number of cases, people apparently paused in the process of carrying out massacres to pray at the church altar. In Ngoma parish, a Tutsi priest who was hidden during the war in the sanctuary by his fellow Hutu priests told me, "People came and demanded that my fellow priest reopen the church and hold mass. People came to mass each day to pray, then they went out to kill."(35)

LinKKK

[struggle4progress]

10. "Both Catholic and Protestant churches in Rwanda are multi-ethnic, and the genocide in Rwanda

occurred within religious groups. In most communities members of a church parish killed their fellow parishioners and even, in a number of cases, their own pastor or priest" - from the link in the prior post

[peacetalksforall]

9. This paragraph is deeply troubling in light of what is going on in our country. The power of a

voice of malice on radio (or tv).

"Valerie Bemeriki would like the world to know that, all in all, she was only doing her duty. Hers was one of the most recognized and most effective voices on the so-called Hate Radio, known by its French acronym RTML, which helped mobilize Rwanda's Hutu majority to genocide 10 years ago. That voice, by turns shrill, seductive and authoritative, goaded and encouraged the country's Hutu, sometimes helpfully suggesting the names and hiding places of members of the minority Tutsi and their Hutu sympathizers who had yet to be murdered. To make it easier for her listeners to see their victims as less than human, she made up vulgar stories about the inyenzi, or cockroaches, as Tutsi were called. She even accused them of cannibalism. "They mutilate the body and remove certain organs, such as the heart, liver and stomach; they eat human flesh, the inyenzi," she declared in one broadcast, transcripts of which are now in the possession of Rwandan authorities as well as the United Nations tribunal trying the ringleaders of the genocide ... http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6922 "

[struggle4progress]

11. The International Response to the Rwandan Genocide – a Failure of Humanity

“Are all humans human or are some humans more human than others?” General Dallaire began his speech by posing this provocative, haunting question ... Turning to Rwanda, Dallaire recalled the simple fact that in 1994, “Rwanda did not count.” According to the developed world, specifically the nations of the UN Security Council, there was no strategic value or resources there, not even a radar station. Why did no one come to Rwanda, he asked, when it was clear that genocide was in the works? Because of the fear of casualties on the part of the developed world. Because, as Dallaire plainly says, “Our lives are more important than theirs" ... Another theme that Dallaire developed was the challenge of “ambiguity” in many of today’s conflicts. He cites his mission in Rwanda as a good example of this: “To assist in the establishment of an atmosphere of security.” Dallaire asks, what does this mean? ... He asserts that the international community needs a whole new conceptual base for politics, diplomacy, and humanitarianism, to deal with today’s complex situations. http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?event_id=68205&fuseaction=topics.event_summary&topic_id=1417

[struggle4progress]

13. "In this notorious “genocide fax” (originally published in The New Yorker), Gen. Dallaire warns

UN peacekeeping officials — Maj. Gen. Maurice Baril, the military adviser to Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and Kofi Annan, who at the time was Under Secretary General for PKO (peacekeeping operations) and is now UN Secretary General — of the existence of arms caches, a plot to assassinate Belgian UN peacekeepers and Rwandan members of parliament, and the existence of lists of Tutsis to be killed. Dallaire informs New York of his intention to raid the caches, but foreshadowing later developments, Annan and DPKO official Iqbal Riza refuse the request, citing UNAMIR’s limited mandate. Instead, they order Dallaire to apprise the president of Rwanda of the informant’s allegations, despite the fact that the arms caches and assassination plan are the work of those close to the president ... http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB53/index.html

[struggle4progress]

12. The US and the Genocide in Rwanda 1994: Evidence of Inaction

On April 6, 1994, Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana’s personal plane, a gift from French president Francois Mitterand, was shot down as it returned to Rwanda, killing Habyarimana, Burundian president Cyprien Ntarymira, and members of their entourages ... Within an hour of the plane crash, the Presidential Guard, elements of the Rwandan armed forces (FAR) and extremist militia (Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi) set up roadblocks and barricades and began the organized slaughter, starting in the capital Kigali, of nearly one million Rwandans in 100 days time. Their first targets were those most likely to resist the plan of genocide: the opposition Prime Minister, the president of the constitutional court, priests, leaders of the Liberal Party and Social Democratic Party, the Information Minister, and tellingly, the negotiator of the Arusha Accord. Those who hesitated to join the campaign, such as the governor of a southern province, were quickly removed from positions of influence or killed ... As the killing intensified, the international community deserted Rwanda. Western nations landed troops in Rwanda or Burundi in the first week to evacuate their citizens, did so, and left ... Despite overwhelming evidence of genocide and knowledge as to its perpetrators, United States officials decided against taking a leading role in confronting the slaughter in Rwanda. Rather, US officials confined themselves to public statements, diplomatic demarches, initiatives for a ceasefire, and attempts to contact both the interim government perpetrating the killing and the RPF. The US did use its influence, however, at the United Nations, but did so to discourage a robust UN response ... http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB53/index.html

[struggle4progress]

14. Lessons from the Rwanda Experience

Published by: Steering Committee of the Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance to Rwanda
March 1996
... Study 3 Humanitarian Aid and Effects ...
Chapter 3. Assessment of Performance: Security, Physical Protection and Military Support
1. The critical failure: not preventing the genocide

At the outset it needs to be clearly stated that the failure of the international community to either prevent the genocide or do more to limit its spread was by far the most significant failing of the whole response. Whilst the genocide and subsequent violence resulted in the loss of 500-800,000 lives, this study indicates that the numbers who died from non-violent causes was of a much lower order of magnitude: in the region of 100,000 deaths may be attributed to disease outbreaks and conditions such as severe dehydration that may be considered to have been either preventable or at least more controllable ... Moreover, had the genocide and the FAR/RPF conflict been prevented or at least mitigated, much of the subsequent population displacements and relief efforts, which cost at least $1.2 billion during 1994, would not have been required.

Study II has examined the lead-up to the start of the genocide in considerable detail. At risk of oversimplifying the conclusions from Study II, it appears that the genocide could have been prevented or at least mitigated had key members of the UN (above all the Permanent five) and the Secretariat engaged themselves more effectively in preventing the start and spread of the genocide ...

http://www.reliefweb.int/library/nordic/book3/pb022f.html
http://www.reliefweb.int/library/nordic/index.html

[struggle4progress]

15. US demands Kenya deliver Rwanda genocide suspect

Mon Nov 16, 2009 4:28pm GMT
By David Clarke

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The United States wants Kenya to hand over a Rwanda genocide suspect it believes the east African nation has been harbouring for years, President Barack Obama's war crimes envoy said on Monday.

Stephen Rapp, U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, said the fact Kenya had not delivered the suspect to the Rwanda war crimes tribunal was part and parcel of the impunity prevalent in east Africa's biggest economy.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) said last year Kenya was failing to act against Felicien Kabuga -- despite evidence of his entry into the country, application for residency, visa approval and opening of a bank account ...

A Hutu businessman, Kabuga is accused of funding the militias that butchered some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over a span of 100 days in 1994 ...

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE5AF0RU20091116

[struggle4progress]

16. Rwanda: Canada Charges Another Genocide Suspect

Edmund Kagire
25 November 2009

Kigali — A court in Canada has formally proffered genocide charges on Jacques Mungwarere, a genocide suspect arrested in Canada earlier this month.

Mungwarere who was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) after a tip-off by a citizen on November 6, becomes the second genocide suspect to be charged on Canadian soil.

His appearance in courts comes barely a month after a similar court slapped a life sentence on another genocide suspect Desire Munyaneza, for his role in the Genocide against the Tutsi.

Mungwarere, a former school teacher who has been hiding in the North American country, was arrested in his home in Windsor, Ontario, following cooperation between the RCMP and Rwanda's Genocide Fugitve Tracking Unit (GFTU) ...

http://allafrica.com/stories/200911250006.html

[struggle4progress]

17. U.N. worker accused of genocide in Rwanda (2004)

Formal charges were dropped, but questions remain

By Lisa Myers & the NBC investigative unit
NBC News
updated 7:44 p.m. ET, Thurs., Dec . 2, 2004

... Today, Mbarushimana remains a free man, living in Paris. But there are troubling questions about his conduct in Rwanda a decade ago and the actions of the United Nations.

"They killed on his orders," says Tony Greig, an investigator with the International Criminal Tribunal. "They manned road blocks, they killed people, they got rewarded with cows and beer."

Greig says eyewitnesses directly linked Mbarushimana to more than 30 murders, including killings of fellow U.N. workers ...

Among those Mbarushimana is accused of killing is a woman and other fellow U.N. employees ...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6637384&&CM=EmailThis&CE=1

[struggle4progress]

18. It seems clear that all sectors of society participated in the Rwandan genocide and that

various church-people were not exempt from this wave of murderous hatred. It is also clear that, both internationally and within Rwanda, almost everyone inexcusably failed to make any effective timely move to stop the genocide

Unfortunately, this appears not to be an unusual situation, as one sees from the ongoing crisis in the Sudan, for example

Useful conversations would include: How can we prevent such events or at least cut them short when they begin? and How can we help communities recover from such events?

[conscious evolution]

19. It's nice to know some war criminals are being held accountable

Of course,if they were rich white people the Tribunals would never have been opened.