Rwandese Republic
Head of state: Major-General Paul Kagame
Head of government: Bernard Makuza
Capital: Kigali
Population: 7.9 million
Official languages: Kinyarwanda, French, English
Death penalty: retentionist
2001 treaty ratifications/signatures: African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child
Killings of unarmed civilians, "disappearances", arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions and torture or ill-treatment of detainees were reported. Tens of thousands of Rwandese sought refuge in neighbouring countries. At least 120 people were sentenced to death for crimes committed during the 1994 genocide, some after unfair trials; no executions took place. An estimated 110,000 people continued to be detained, 95 per cent of them accused of taking part in the 1994 genocide. Many were held for prolonged periods without charge or trial in conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Trials of genocide suspects continued at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Tanzania. In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwandese military and allied forces were responsible for the deaths of civilians; torture, including rape; "disappearances"; and the systematic harassment of human rights defenders. Most perpetrators of human rights violations continued to benefit from impunity.
Background
Rwandese troops thwarted incursions by armed opposition groups from the DRC into northwestern Rwanda between May and July, and there were skirmishes in southwestern Rwanda between September and December. Relations with neighbouring Uganda deteriorated and in March the Ugandan authorities declared Rwanda a "hostile nation". Both governments accused the other of harbouring, mobilizing and training "anti-government dissidents".
Local elections were held in March. Although there were no reports of malpractice, members of the National Electoral Commission, which vetted candidates, were nominated by government officials and campaigning by political parties was not allowed. As a result, 45 per cent of the electoral contests had a single candidate and 81 per cent of those elected were incumbents previously appointed by the government.
Dozens of former government officials and officers in the armed forces were harassed and forced into exile for criticizing the government over its human rights record, restrictions on political opposition and corruption.
The government established a Judicial and Constitutional Commission with the task of drafting a new constitution by 2003. The commission began to educate and consult with Rwandese during the constitution drafting process.
"Villagization" schemes, under which over one million rural Rwandese had been resettled in new "villages" between 1997 and 2000, came to a virtual stop with the withdrawal of international funding. The schemes had in many cases resulted in hardship, insecurity and increased communal violence.
Over 20,000 refugees returned to Rwanda, approximately the same number as in 2000. Most came from the DRC, the rest from Tanzania. By the end of the year, Rwanda was close to adopting refugee legislation that established procedures for determining refugee status in accordance with international standards.
Killings of civilians
The killing of civilians declined with a reduction in the number of incursions by armed opposition groups. Armed groups based in the DRC looted civilian property, wounding and killing at least five of their victims in the process, and government installations, particularly medical centres, in the northwest. At least 15 civilians who threatened to alert the Rwandese authorities were also killed. Unlike previous years, counter-insurgency operations by Rwandese forces suppressed the attacks without indiscriminately attacking the civilian population. Nonetheless, at least a dozen people were killed in crossfire between government forces and armed opposition groups. Rwandese forces also killed non-combatants, such as porters, who accompanied armed opposition groups.
Elements of the Local Defence Forces (LDF), a citizen's militia organized and armed by the government, and the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA), sometimes with the complicity of local government authorities, also killed civilians.
- In June, members of the LDF killed a 58-year-old woman in Gasiza district, Gisenyi province, after robbing her. Although arrested, they were released within a few days by the local authorities.
A number of "disappearances" were reported. Many of the "disappeared" were former or serving military officers, government officials and prominent members of civil society. No independent investigations of these reports were carried out.
- On 7 April, retired Major Alex Ruzindana, a demobilized army officer, "disappeared" while driving to Cyangugu with a serving army officer who subsequently returned to Kigali and informed Major Ruzindana's family that he had fled to Uganda. Senior government and military officials were alleged to have been involved in planning the "disappearance" and it was widely believed that Major Ruzindana had been killed because of his suspected opposition to the government.
The rights of individuals to be informed of the reason for their arrest, to be issued a provisional arrest warrant and to have the benefit of a pre-trial detention hearing were restored in July when a law suspending portions of the Code of Criminal Procedure expired. Another result was that the detention of tens of thousands of individuals on suspicion of involvement in the 1994 genocide was effectively rendered illegal. The Public Prosecutor's Office continued the process begun in October 2000 of bringing such detainees before their local communities in order to gather testimony for prosecution before gacaca tribunals (see below).
Several people suspected of criticizing the government, or being associated with critics of the government, were detained without charge or trial. Some individuals were reportedly held for refusing to testify against genocide suspects.
- Six people – including Emmanuel Mudenge, Alfred Bandora and Kalim Tushabe, who worked for provincial public prosecution offices – were arrested in April and unlawfully detained for a month before being released without charge. They appeared to have been detained because of suspected links with Rwandese dissidents in Uganda.
Many detainees were beaten following arrest, particularly those in district detention centres. Most were detained in desperately overcrowded and insanitary conditions, amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Several detainees and prisoners died as a result. Men, women and children were usually held in the same facilities. Women and child detainees were subjected to violence and Sexual abuse. Rwandese prisons housed 10 times as many prisoners as they were designed to hold.
There were several allegations of rape by LDF or RPA forces, which were not known to have been investigated by the authorities.
- On 18 June, an LDF member reportedly raped a young widow in Mutura district, Gisenyi province. He was arrested but subsequently released. On 29 June he and others from the LDF allegedly raped at gunpoint and killed a 14-year-old girl in the same district. No one was detained.
Approximately 1,300 people were tried in connection with the 1994 genocide during the year, about half the number tried in 2000. By the end of 2001, the Specialized Chambers established in August 1996 had tried less than six per cent of those detained for genocide-related offences. In many cases, trials did not meet international standards of fairness. At least 120 defendants were sentenced to death. There were no judicial executions.
The reduction in the number of trials in part resulted from reduced funding and the lack of judicial independence.
- The Public Prosecutor's Office in Butare refused to release eight people acquitted in December 2000, including Zacharie Banyangiriki, a former parliamentarian, on the grounds that "new facts" had come to light. The State Prosecutor ignored protests by the district Appeals Court and the Supreme Court of Rwanda. Zacharie Banyangiriki died in prison in November. His seven co-accused were still in prison at the end of the year. No ruling had been given on their appeal by the end of 2001.
In March, the government, faced with a judicial backlog, promulgated a law establishing a community-based system of justice known as gacaca, which from 2002 would begin trying lesser charges related to the 1994 genocide. In October, 260,000 gacaca tribunal lay magistrates were elected by popular vote. No trials had taken place by the end of 2001.
Concerns that gacaca is seriously flawed and that most aspects of the tribunals fall short of international standards of fairness remained unaddressed. There is no provision for legal counsel for the accused. There are serious questions regarding the legal competence, partiality and independence of the elected judges, and fears that pressure groups would subvert the communal debate supposed to determine the innocence or guilt of genocide suspects.
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Trials of leading genocide suspects continued at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania. Fifty-two suspects were detained awaiting trial at the end of 2001. One defendant was acquitted and released in June. Seven on-going trials involving 17 defendants, three of which had begun in 2000, had not been completed by the end of 2001. The ICTR Appeals Court rejected appeals by three prisoners in June. One appeal was pending at the end of the year. In December, six people convicted of genocide were transferred to Mali to serve their sentences.
Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Senegal, Mali, Tanzania and Kenya arrested 10 suspects and transferred seven of them for trial before the ICTR (see Belgium entry). The authorities in Italy refused to implement an international warrant issued by the ICTR in July for the arrest of a Roman Catholic priest alleged to have participated in the genocide, on the grounds that under Italy's domestic legislation there was no legal basis to proceed with the arrest (see Italy entry).
In March, the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services pointed to a number of abuses, foremost among them a fee-splitting arrangement between defence lawyers and their clients. In May, the Chief Prosecutor dismissed seven senior attorneys, citing "professional incompetence". Two defence team investigators were indicted for genocide-related crimes in May and December, and the contracts of three were terminated in July and August for suspected involvement in the genocide.
In early 2001, the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF)-led government agreed to cooperate with the ICTR's investigation into crimes against humanity allegedly committed by members of the RPF in 1994.
International justice
Foreign states tried a number of Rwandese accused of genocide under their national jurisdictions.
- In April, a Canadian court discharged one defendant who had been charged in 1996 with "inciting violence and ethnic hatred" in Rwanda in the early 1990s.
- In April, a Swiss military court of appeal confirmed a 14-year prison sentence passed in May 2000 on a Rwandese local government official for war crimes.
- Four people were convicted in Belgium in June and sentenced to prison terms of between 12 and 20 years. Two Roman Catholic nuns, a university professor and a businessman were convicted of war crimes.
Leaders of political parties came under increasing pressure.
- Theobald Rwaka, Vice-President of the Parti Démocratique Chrétien, Christian Democratic Party, lost his ministerial post in March and fled the country in April following accusations of treason.
- Former President Pasteur Bizimungu was placed under house arrest in May after launching the Parti Démocratique pour le Renouveau, Democratic Party for Renewal. Journalists who interviewed him were interrogated, threatened by the military authorities, and forced to surrender tape recordings. After restrictions on him were lifted in June, he was harassed and assaulted by unidentified assailants.
The RPA and the Rwandese-backed Congolese armed opposition group, Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie-Goma (RCD-Goma), Congolese Rally for Democracy-Goma, controlled large areas of the eastern DRC, in opposition to the DRC government and armed political groups which included Rwandese insurgents. All the forces involved were responsible for unlawful killings of unarmed civilians; acts of torture, including rape; "disappearances"; and other serious human rights abuses. Both RCD-Goma and the forces opposing them used child soldiers, many of them forcibly recruited. Torture and ill-treatment regularly occurred in RPA detention facilities and military camps. Human rights defenders and civil society activists were subjected to harassment, detention and ill-treatment. (See Democratic Republic of the Congo entry.)
Intergovernmental organizations
In April, the UN Commission on Human Rights ended the mandate of the Special Representative for Rwanda.
The UN Expert Panel on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the DRC released its report in April. The report detailed widespread looting by the RPA and the role played by RPA commanders, businessmen and government structures in the systematic exploitation of DRC resources.
AI country reports/visits
Report
- Democratic Republic of the Congo: Rwandese-controlled east – devastating human toll (AI Index: AFR 62/011/2001)
AI delegates visited Rwanda in May and June.
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