UN-backed court fails to prove Rwanda genocide planned: analysts

UN-backed court fails to prove Rwanda genocide planned: analysts

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NAIROBI (AFP) — The acquittal of Rwanda's ex-army colonel Theoneste Bagosora by the UN war crimes tribunal of conspiracy to commit genocide marks the court's failure to prove the massacre was planned, analysts said Friday.
Bagosora, jailed for life by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Thursday, had been accused by prosecutors of being the "brains" behind the 1994 genocide when some 800,000 people were killed in a 100-day spree.
The former Rwandan defence ministry chief of staff was sentenced alongside two co-defendants of "genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes," but acquitted of conspiring to commit genocide before April 7, 1994.
Nonetheless, the court upheld that Bagosora, 67, was the Rwanda's de facto army chief after the April 6, 1994 downing of a plane carrying then president Juvenal Habyarimana, an act believed to have triggered the genocide.
To date no suspect has ever been convicted by the Tanzania-based ICTR on conspiracy accusation despite charging nearly all the suspects with the crime.
"This means that nobody organised the genocide, that it would be a crime without a perpetrator and without premeditation," said Filip Reyntjens, a lecturer at Belgium's Anvers university and an expert prosecution witness in Bagosora's case.
"Thus the genocide was spontaneous. This is very worrying," Reyntjens told AFP.
For Andre Guichaoua, also an expert ICTR witness, "to dare say with humility that there is no sufficient evidence in Bagosora's case to prove conspiracy is a ruling with huge consequences, moreso politically."
However, the court ruled that some of the accused had a role in the formation of militia, distribution of arms and compiling lists of those suspected to be close to then Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels or those opposed to the government of the day.
But it did not establish whether the activities were aimed at killing Tusti civilians with the aim of committing genocide, according to court documents.
ICTR chief prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow charged that Bagosora and three other ex-army officers, one of whom was cleared of all charges, were involved in a conspiracy that began in late 1990 when hundreds of Tutsis were arrested after an attack by the RPF.
The conspiracy became more explicit the following year when the accused, part of a 10-member panel formed by Habyarimana, worked towards the "definition of the enemy", Jallow argued.
The panel met to explore ways of "defeating the enemy militarily, politically and through the media," with the enemy being the Tutsis.
"ICTR's failure is not wholesome. A senior figure was tried and convicted on Thursday. But even then, despite all the resources at its desposal, the ICTR has not decoded the planning of the genocide. This is sad," Reyntjens said.
There is a "lack of will by the tribunal ... which did not accomplish its task to the end," said Guichaoua.
"To me Bagosora was delegated to, he was not in control," Guichaoua explained.
"This means that the ICTR does not want to go up to the top ... but not wanting to know who assassinated Juvenal Habyarimana or pursue the crimes of senior RPF leaders, the court is thus morally handicapped," he added.
The tribunal, formed in late 1994 to try masterminds of the massacre, has also been faulted for failing to pursue alleged genocide perpetrators within the RPF which took power in 1994.