An investigation is starting into France's alledge role in the Rwandan genocide. Survivors of the genocide claim to have witnessed French soldiers allowing Hutu extremists to enter Tutsi camps.
Meanwhile, AFP reports that German authorities learned a few
weeks after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001
that terror suspects were held and mistreated at a US base
in Bosnia
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6079428.stm
France probed on Rwanda genocide
An investigation into France's alleged role in the genocide in Rwanda is
due to begin.
France has been accused by government officials in Rwanda of being complicit
in the killing of 800,000 people.
A panel of respected Rwandans will hear claims that French soldiers stationed
in Rwanda allowed or even encouraged the killings of thousands of Tutsis.
France has denied playing any role in the 100-day frenzy of killing that
took place in 1994.
The panel is headed by former Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo.
It is to start to hear evidence in public from 25 survivors of the genocide
who claim to have witnessed French involvement.
"This is an important inquiry that should be witnessed by everyone interested
in this important episode of our history," Mr Mucyo was quoted as saying by the
AFP news agency.
French deployment
The panel will determine whether or not to refer the allegations to the
International Court of Justice.
Its findings are expected within six months.
The Rwandan government has alleged that France trained and armed some of
the Hutus who carried out the killing spree in which 800,000 Tutsis and
moderate Hutus died.
French soldiers were deployed in parts of Rwanda in the final weeks of the
genocide under a United Nations mandate to set up a protected zone.
But Rwanda says the soldiers allowed Hutu extremists to enter Tutsi camps.
A French military court is conducting a separate investigation into claims
that French soldiers played a part in the genocide.
Separately, some of Rwanda's most high-profile genocide cases have already
been tried by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), based
in the Tanzanian town of Arusha.
Twenty-five ringleaders have been convicted since 1997, but the Rwandan
government has expressed frustration at the slow legal process.
Germany had early warning of US prison abuse in Balkans: press
HAMBURG, Germany, Oct 24 (AFP) - German authorities learned a few
weeks after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001
that terror suspects were allegedly held and mistreated at a US base
in Bosnia, the news weekly Stern reported on Tuesday.
Two officers from the federal police (BKA) and a translator for
the German foreign intelligence service (BND) discovered during
a visit to the US military base in Tuzla, in northeastern Bosnia,
that suspects held there were beaten savagely, the magazine said
in an early extract from its latest edition.
Stern said the German investigators recorded what they saw in
an intelligence document, on which the magazine based its report.
It said that a 70-year-old terror suspect needed 20 stitches to his
scalp after he was repeatedly hit over the head with a rifle butt
while being held at "Eagle Base", as the US camp is called.
The soldier who had beaten him was "visibly proud" of his conduct,
the magazine quoted the report as saying.
It added that one of the German police officials compared what he had witnessed at the US base at Tuzla in late 2001 to Serbian war crimes committed during the Bosnian war.
Neither the BKA nor the BND would comment on the report on Tuesday.
The German government has been accused of colluding with US agents
in the detention of two German citizens, one of Lebanese and one
of Turkish origin.
They were both held in Afghanistan. They have been released and have since their return home claimed that they were visited by German officials while in US detention.
The government of Chancellor Angela Merkel has sternly criticised
the so-called rendition programme of terror suspects and has denied
that there were secret US prisons in Germany, which is home to almost
100 US military facilities.
Over 100 provincial Gacaca court judges on Thursday, August 10, completed a
course on conducting genocide trials in the second and third categories, held
at Huye District hall.
The workshop, an initiative of the National Gacaca Commission, had Gacaca
judges trained on laws and procedures regarding genocide trials in Gacaca
courts.
According to Néhémie Ntazika, a Gacaca Courts lawyer who trained the judges,
commonly known as "inyangamugayo", the training aimed at equipping the
latter with skills to better execute genocide trials during the Gacaca
proceedings.
"This training was aimed at providing Gacaca judges in cells with skills to
try genocide trials classified in third level because we want to start
genocide trials on the cell level. We will also have other Gacaca judges trained on
how to try genocide trials on second level in sectors," Ntazika, who is also
the envoy of the National Gacaca Commission in the province, said.
Suspected genocide criminals are classified in three categories. The first
category is made up of those who are considered by prosecution as the
masterminds of the 1994 Genocide and those who committed rape during the mayhem; the
second is made up of those who executed the Genocide by participating in
killing people; while the third category is composed by those who looted property
during the Genocide but did not kill.
Suspects classified in the third level are to be tried by the traditional
courts in the cells, while those in the second category will be tried by Gacaca
courts at the sector level. Suspects in the first category are to be judged
by contemporary courts.
According to Uwase Claudine, one of the participants, the training helped
them to know how to apply what is written in Gacaca statutes about genocide
trials.
"This training helped us to understand law books we read on genocide trials.
Like today, we did an exercise about trying a genocide case and we now know
very well what to do when we start trying genocide suspects," Uwase said.
_AllAfrica.com - The New Times (Kigali)_
(http://allafrica.com/stories/200608140545.html)
by Eugene Kwibuka in Southern Province
August 13, 2006
The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has sought Ireland's assistance in tracking down suspects who remain on the run in Europe and Africa and who are wanted in relation to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
At least 10 "most-wanted" genocide suspects are on the tribunal's list, including Felicien Kabuga, said to have been the main financier of the April-June 1994 killings, estimated by the Rwandan government to have claimed 937,000 lives. ICTR Prosecutor Hassan Jallow made the appeal on Tuesday in the northern Tanzania town of Arusha, the tribunal's headquarters, during a tour of the UN court by visiting Irish President Mary McAleese. The Irish leader promised to look into the request. [Full story: here ]