ICTR-TPIR: International Justice or Judicially-Constructed Victors' Impunity?

(http://www.france-rwanda.info/article-the-united-nations-ad-hoc-tribunal-for-rwanda-ictr-tpir-international-justice-or-judicially-constructed-victors-impunity-68913793.html) Mercredi 9 mars 2011 The United Nations Ad Hoc Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR-TPIR): International Justice or Judicially-Constructed Victors' Impunity? News Advisory  March 7, 2011  Contact:   International Humanitarian Law Institute www.rwandadocumentsproject.net Director, Prof. Peter Erlinder c/o Wm. Mitchell College of Law (est. 1890) St. Paul, Mn.  USA 55105 651-290-6384 St. Paul, MN. USA --  The Director of the International Humanitarian Law Institute, Prof. Peter Erlinder, announced the publication of a book-length research work by DePaul University Law School Journal for Social Justice today: The United Nations Ad Hoc Tribunal for Rwanda: International Justice or Judicially-Constructed Victors' Impunity.  Based on previously un-published UN and US government documents, in the nature of Pentagon Papers or Wiki-Leaks exposures, the heavily footnoted narrative is based on documents only in evidence at the UN Tribunal for Rwanda, and published on the IHLI website:www.rwandadocumentsproject.net.  The documents explain how the current RPF government became the dominant military power in the country more than a year before the Rwandan Genocide with outside assistance from Uganda, UK and the Pentagon.  The documents include ICTR evidence that the U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda personally warned Kagame in late 1993 that mass killings would result if the RPF broke the February 1993 ceasefire, because of the example of the mass violence that erupted in Burundi in October 1993, when the first Hutu president was assassinated by RPF allies. The documents also include sworn ICTR testimony of former RPF officers and  members who testified that Paul Kagame ordered the assassination of the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi on April 6, 1994 that touched off the mass violence predicted by the US Ambassacor.  Affidavits from a former FBI agent and the Chief ICTR investigators are also duplicated in the document.  The documents also show that UN Gen. Dallaire reported that "there was no coup" after the assassinations;  Kagame repeatedly refused ceasefire requests to stop the killings; and according to Dallaire, Kagame would not use superior military force to stop the civilian killings touched off by the massacres because "he was winning the war." According to ILHI Director Prof. Peter Erlinder, Lead Defense Counsel in the Military-1 case at the UN Tribunal for Rwanda and who was released from a Rwandan prison on medical grounds only after an international campaign in the summer of 2010: "These UN documents are the reason Kagame had me arrested. I have never denied that tens of thousands of Tutsi were killed in ways that fit the definition of "genocide," but ICTR evidence shows that the RPF were the militarily superior aggressors and took advantage of the predicted civilian massacres as part of their war plan.  Had the RPF not been made militarily dominant by outside support, and the two presidents not been assassinated in the RPF assault for power, the ICTR evidence suggests that the Rwandan genocide would ever have occurred." Click here to dowload the document (http://ddata.over-blog.com/xxxyyy/2/23/08/90/JUSTICE-INTERNATIONALE/ERLINDER/P.-Erlinder_DePaulLawReviewArticle.F2010-3-.pdf)

"Remaking Rwanda": essential contribution to the study of transitional justice and post-conflict recovery May 9, 2011 by Alana Tiemessen Leave a Comment "Remaking Rwanda: State Building and Human Rights After Mass Violence," an edited volume by Scott Straus and Lars Waldorf, has recently been published by the University of Wisconsin Press. The book is dedicated to the memory of Alison des Forges, the former senior advisor to Human Rights Watch's Africa Division and renowned Rwanda expert. The editors set out to accomplish three objectives: fill the gap on scholarly literature on post-genocide Rwanda challenge the prevailing positive reviews of Rwanda's recovery (emanating primarily from donors and media) highlight Rwanda's importance for post-conflict recovery (in the theoretical framework of James Scott's "Seeking Like a State.") In their introductory chapter, the editors state that "in challenging what has been the prevailing view of post-genocide Rwanda and complicating existing theories of post-conflict reconstruction, this volume intends to contribute – in whatever way outsiders can – to a robust social and political system that will avoid the terrible violence of Rwanda's past." The volume includes contributions from notable veteran and new scholars whose research on Rwanda is nuanced, provocative, and above reproach. Not surprisingly, the book and its authors have come under attack by proxy spokespersons of the Government of Rwanda. But the hyperbolic response of the RPF regime merely underscores the credibility of the authors' claims. Namely, the claims that that the RPF has used the created a veneer with the internationally lauded benchmarks of democracy, macro economic progress, and rule of law to entrench and centralize its power through "deft authoritarianism" – and thus paradoxically suppressing dissent, deepening inequality, and furthering a culture of impunity. Some have challenged that "only Rwandans can remake Rwanda." No one denies that Rwandans, from elites to peasants, should have agency in their country's political discourse. But as Straus remarks to the Chronicle of Higher Ed, "it is left to outsiders to make critical comments if the domestic political space is largely closed." There are several chapters in the volume that address transitional justice and reconciliation issues – ranging from crimes committed in the Congo, Gacaca, ICTR, memorials, ingando, and the laws on "genocide ideology." I'll provide a thorough review of these chapters in a future post, but for now here are the authors and titles: Lars Waldorf. "Instrumentalizing Genocide: The RPF's Campaign against 'Genocide Ideology." Jason Stearns and Federico Borello. "Bad Karma: Accountability for Rwandan Crimes in the Congo." Victor Peskin. "Victor's Justice Revisited: Rwandan Patriotic Front Crimes and the Prosecutorial Endgame at the ICTR." Don Webster. "The Uneasy Relationship between the ICTR and Gacaca." Max Rettig. "The Sovu Trials: The Impact of Genocide Justice on One Community." Carina Tertsakian. "'All Rwandans Are Afraid of Being Arrested One Day': Prisoners Past, Present, and Future." Jens Meierhenrich. "Topographies of Remembering and Forgetting: The Transformation of Lieux de Memoire in Rwanda." Susan Thomson. "Reeducation for Reconciliation: Participant Observations on Ingando." (http://globaltj.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/remaking-rwanda-essential-contribution-to-the-study-of-transitional-justice-and-post-conflict-recovery/) __._,_.___