Statement on the UK High Court Judgement
against the extradition of genocide suspects to Rwanda
by:
Action Group for Peace and Justice in Rwanda
A Community Interest Company
PO Box 49993, London SE5 5DJ
Email: agpjr6@yahoo.co.uk
Web: www.agpjr.org
PRESS RELEASE 4/AGPJR/April 2009
London 11 April 2009
Action Group for Peace and justice in Rwanda (AGPJR) has welcomed the judgement of the High Court of 8 April 2009 which dismissed the request of the Rwandan Government to extradite Messrs Vincent Brown, Charles Munyaneza, Emmanuel Nteziryayo and Celestin Ugirashebuja to Rwanda on allegations that they were involved in the genocide of Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994.
The judges of the High Court, after consideration of the argument and evidences from the defence lawyers of the defendants and statements from the prosecutors representing the Rwandan Government and the UK Home Office, concluded that the accused would not have a fair trial if they were returned to Rwanda. The judges ruled that “if they were extradited to face trial in the High Court of Rwanda, the appellants would suffer a real risk of a flagrant denial of justice by reason of their likely inability to adduce the evidence of supporting witnesses.” In addition, the judges found that the persistent interference of the Government of Rwanda in the judiciary does “not promise well for the judiciary’s impartiality and independence.”
This ruling is a clear example of the independence of the UK judiciary system. One should remember that the appeal at the High Court came after Mr Anthony Evans, a District judge at the City of Westminster Magistrates Court, had recommended, in June 2008, the extradition of the defendants to Rwanda, despite the overwhelming evidence which clearly showed that the accused would be denied a fair trial if they were tried in Rwanda. After reviewing this case in August 2008, the Home Secretary ordered their extradition to Rwanda and based her decision on the only willingness of the Rwandan government to comply with the obligations in the Memorandum of Understanding between Rwanda and the United Kingdom. The latter was forged just before the arrest of the defendants in December 2006.
AGPJR condemns the genocide and other acts of genocide committed against the Rwandan people in and around 1994. Those and ONLY those who were involved in those horrendous crimes, whether they are Hutus or Tutsis, should face trial. Unfortunately, the post-genocide Rwandan justice system seems to have been put in place as retaliation instrument with a strong Hutu bias. It is there to administer punishment to only Hutus without proving beyond doubt that they were involved in the Rwandan genocide. After 15 years since the Rwandan genocide, more than a hundred thousand people are still kept in prison. Most of them are without charges and have been denied justice.
Those who tell the truth about the genocide or come to the defence of the genocide suspects are all labelled by the Rwandan government as ‘genocidaires’, revisionists, ‘negationists’ or supporters of a genocide ideology, whether they are Rwandans or foreigners. What is more troubling is that these vague concepts have been incorporated in the Rwandan law and are used to track down or undermine those who do not share the views of the current Rwandan government.
The UK High Court has extensively documented that there is no prospect of a fair trial for the defendants in Rwanda. During the hearing process of this extradition case it appeared that most of the written accounts presented by the prosecution witnesses in support of the Rwandan government request were fabricated and often contradictory or exaggerated to fit the purpose sought by the Rwandan government that these defendants were highly ranked and were politically involved in the planning and the execution of the genocide.
Rwanda needs an independent and impartial justice which can address the long lasting problem of impunity and promote peace and reconciliation among the Rwandan population. There is an urgent need for a judicial system with an objective to search for the whole truth surrounding the Rwandan tragedy and find those responsible, irrespective of their ethnic background.
AGPJR believes that a proper administration of an independent and impartial justice, where the presumption of innocence and the absolute right to challenge, without fear, the prosecution witnesses are guaranteed, can open up the horizons of a durable peace in Rwanda.
AGPJR also remains optimistic that the truth about the Rwandan genocide will be revealed and that justice will prevail.
Dr Alexis Ndibwami
Secretary
The dictator Kagame at UN
Dictators like Kagame who have changed their national constitutions to remain indefinitely on power should not be involved in UN high level and global activities including chairing UN meetings
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Thousands of Hutu murdered by Kagame inside Rwanda, e.g. Kibeho massacres
Kagame killed 200,000 Hutus from all regions of the country, the elderly and children who were left by their relatives, the disabled were burned alive. Other thousands of people were killed in several camps of displaced persons including Kibeho camp. All these war crimes remain unpunished.The British news reporters were accompanying Kagame’s fighters on day-by-day basis and witnessed these massacres, but they never reported on this.
25,000 Hutu bodies floated down River Akagera into Lake Victoria in Uganda.
The British irrational, extremist, partisan,biased, one-sided media and politicians have disregarded Kagame war crimes e.g. the Kibeho camp massacres, massacres of innocents Hutu refugees in DR. Congo. The British media have been supporting Kagame since he invaded Rwanda by organising the propaganda against the French over the Rwandan genocide, suppressing the truth about the genocide and promoting the impunity of Kagame and his cronies in the African Great Lakes Region. For the British, Rwanda does not need democracy, Rwanda is the African Israel; and Kagame and his guerilla fighters are heroes.The extremist British news reporters including Fergal Keane, Chris Simpson, Chris McGreal, Mark Doyle, etc. continue to hate the Hutus communities and to polarise the Rwandan society.
Kagame political ambitions triggered the genocide.
Kagame’s guerrilla war was aimed at accessing to power at any cost. He rejected all attempts and advice that could stop his military adventures including the cease-fire, political negotiations and cohabitation, and UN peacekeeping interventions. He ignored all warnings that could have helped him to manage the war without tragic consequences. Either you supported Kagame’ s wars and you are now his friend, or you were against his wars and you are his enemy. Therefore, Kagame as the Rwandan strong man now, you have to apologise to him for having been against his war and condemned his war crimes, or accept to be labelled as having been involved in the genocide. All key Kagame’s fighters who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity are the ones who hold key positions in Rwandan army and government for the last 15 years. They continue to be supported and advised by the British including Tony Blair, Andrew Mitchell MP, and the British army senior officials.
Aid that kills: The British Budget Support financed Museveni and Kagame’s wars in Rwanda and DRC.
Genocide propaganda and fabrications are used by the so-called British scholars, news reporters and investigative journalists to promote their CVs and to get income out of the genocide through the selling of their books, providing testimonies against the French, access to consultancy contracts from the UN and Kagame, and participation in conferences and lectures in Rwanda, UK and internationally about genocide. Genocide propaganda has become a lucrative business for Kagame and the British. Anyone who condemned or did not support Kagame’s war is now in jail in Rwanda under the gacaca courts system suuported by British tax payer's money, or his/she is on arrest warrant if he/she managed to flee the Kagame’s regime. Others have fled the country and are still fleeing now. Many others Rwandans are being persecuted in their own country. Kagame is waiting indefinitely for the apologies from other players who warn him or who wanted to help to ensure that political negotiations take place between Kagame and the former government he was fighting against. Britain continues to supply foreign aid to Kagame and his cronies with media reports highlighting economic successes of Rwanda. Such reports are flawed and are aimed at misleading the British public to justify the use of British taxpayers’ money. Kagame and his cronies continue to milk British taxpayers’ money under the British budget support. This started from 1986 through the British budget support to Uganda until now.
Dictator Kagame: No remorse for his unwise actions and ambitions that led to the Rwandan genocide.
No apologies yet to the Rwandan people. The assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana by Kagame was the only gateway for Kagame to access power in Rwanda. The British media, politicians, and the so-called British scholars took the role of obstructing the search for the truth and justice; and of denying this assassination on behalf of General Kagame. General Paul Kagame has been obliging the whole world to apologise for his mistakes and war crimes. The UK’s way to apologise has been pumping massive aid into Rwanda's crony government and parliement; and supporting Kagame though media campaigns.
Fanatical, partisan, suspicious, childish and fawning relations between UK and Kagame
Kagame receives the British massive aid through the budget support, British excessive consultancy, sector wide programmes, the Tutsi-dominated parliament, British and Tutsi-owned NGOs; for political, economic and English language expansion to Rwanda. The British aid to Rwanda is not for all Rwandans. It is for Kagame himself and his Tutsi cronies.
Paul Kagame' actvities as former rebel
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