FONDATION HIRONDELLE - HIRONDELLE NEWS AGENCY IN ARUSHA INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR RWANDA ______________________________________________ ICTR/BRUGUIERE

PUBLICATION OF BRUGUIERE'S INVESTIGATION SHAKES UP THE ICTR

Arusha, November 21 2006 (FH) - The lawyers pleading at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) have taken a lively interest in the release in France of the investigation of French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière concerning the attack against the plane of President Juvénal Habyarimana. They consider that the conclusions of the judge's report reinforce their position.

The Tribunal has made no official comment by Tuesday evening. The arrest warrants solicited against the nine close friends of the Rwandan President haven't been confirmed either.

« We knew », said Mrs. Chantal Hounkpatin who represents Mathieu Ngirumpatse. According to her, the fact that France "which is taken in the Rwandan turmoil" is asking for Kagame to be subpoenaed before the ICTR is « reassuring and comforting ».

This subpoena that France may ask the United Nations - the ICTR's regulating body - to issue could be decided for only if prosecutor's office of this Tribunal issues an indictment against Kagame, which is very unlikely. The last indictments were signed in 2005 in preparation for the closing of the Tribunal in 2008.

The members of the prosecution, questioned several times about this attack in the course of trials at the ICTR, always answered that they lacked a warrant authorizing them to investigate on this event. The attack killed 12 persons among whom the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi. The ICTR's mandate concerns the genocide, the war crimes and the crimes against humanity committed in 1994. The lawyers retorted that this attack sparked the genocide and was a « constitutive element » of it.

During a press conference held earlier this afternoon, the defense attorneys' association (ADAD) resumed the conclusions of Judge Bruguière's report and asked for the Rwandan President to be prosecuted for war crimes. According to the ADAD, the proofs the ICTR has of his involvement in the attack have been refused by the prosecutor in charge at the time, Louise Harbour.

« Carla del Ponte (the Swiss prosecutor who succeeded to Louise Harbour) had said that she was waiting for the results of the investigation, we are now waiting for the prosecutor » Mr. Raphael Constant, Theoneste Bagosora's lawyer, commented before joining his smiling client.

Defense attorneys filed several requests asking the Tribunal to demand communication of this investigation even before it was closed last week. Some of these have been rejected but many attorneys intend to file more of such requests. The president of the ADAD, Peter Erlinder, considers that the evidences establishing that the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) played a part in the 1994 massacres and did nothing to prevent them from being perpetrated are self-speaking.

A member of the prosecutor's office declared anonymously that the attack against the plane of President Habyarimana was not the most « interesting » element in the indictments the prosecution may issue against the Rwandan winners. « What interests us most is what happened afterwards, in April, May and June ». Investigations on war crimes were conducted by members of the RPF at the time but Kigali always put pressure on the Tribunal to make the investigations abort. Regularly interrogated on the topic, the prosecutor never fails to answer that he is currently appraising the evidences.

Since it was created twelve years ago, the ICTR has judged 31 persons, ministers, militaries, churchmen, all of them close to the former regime and members of the Hutu community.

PB /MG

© Hirondelle News Agency

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