Pictures: Kofi Annan and Louise Arbour

Why are the UN and the ICTR Sealing the Documentation on RPF crimes?

AfroAmerica Network, May 11, 2010.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is withholding and has sealed documents showing that RPF soldiers, operatives, and agents committed  large scale massacres, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Rwanda in 1994. Most of these crimes were subsequently attributed to the EX-FAR and the Interahamwe militias.

The shocking information was leaked to AfroAmerica Network by sources within ICTR Chief Prosecution and the Rwandan prosecution office in Arusha, last week.

The extensive documentation is archived in eight  volumes, with the following reference numbers:

1. Volume I :      R0004548-R0004718
   

2. Volume II:       R0004719-R004886
   

3. Volume III:     R0004887-R0005057
   

4. Volume IV:     R0005058-R0005210
   

5. Volume V:      R0005211-R0005376
   

6. Volume VI:     R0005377-R0005539
   

7. Volume VII :   R0005540-R0005705
   

8. Volume VIII :   R0005706-R0005889
   

However,  under the persistent pressure from the prosecution, the  ICTR judges remain determined to seal these testimonies,  and keep them out the public eyes.

In several trials at the ICTR, especially the trials involving the military and the leaders of Interahamwe militias, several testimonies pointed to massacres committed by RPF officers, under the specific orders from General Paul Kagame, then the overall military commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) rebels.  The UN High Commission for Refugees reporter, Robert Gersony, in what is known as the Gersony Report, documented some of the massacres, but the Gersony Report was sealed by the UN Secretary General Koffi Annan, who was the UN Assistant Secretary General in charge of Peacekeeping missions in 1994.  The UN even denied the existence of the report. Its existence and Gersony’s findings remain controversial, as Gersony, under professional obligations, has never publicly discussed his findings.  In 2006, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas P. Odom, a US military attache in Rwanda in 1994,  disputed the existence of 'Gersony Report' and its purported findings in the article ,"Guerrillas From the Mist: A Defense Attaché Watches the Rwandan Patriotic Front Transform from Insurgent to Counter Insurgent", published in  Small Wars Journal,  Volume 5, July 2006, pp. 6–7. Lt. Colonel Thomas P. Odom, whose paper clearly shows an obvious favorable bias, and frequently an apologetic tone towards the RPF, admits that “unit commanders--some of whom were probably Tutsi hard-liners--did loose control of their units or even direct their units to commit murders against Hutu civilians.  I observed and reported on the resultant investigations.”

The  ICTR Chief Prosecutor, Louise Arbor never sought to prosecute the RPF crimes. When her successor Ms. Carla Del Ponte tried, she was fired by Koffi Annan.

The crimes by RPF in 1994 are a hot potato. Touching any legal case involving them would be opening a case of worms and uncovering skeletons in the closets of many people involved in the Rwandan tragedy. Several testimonies have pointed to the complexity of the Rwandan tragedy and the embarrassment the truth many bring to many reputable institutions and public figures.

For example, in the so called Military II trial, opened against the top ex-FAR military officers, witnesses form RPF military indicated than Kagame personally ordered his troops to wipe out all the tens of thousand ethnic hutu civilians who had sought refuge in the Gitarama and Byumba stadiums. Also, a video showing the UN officers of the MINUAR under the command of  the Canadian General Romeo Dallaire arming the militias Interahamwe, believing to be RPF operatives who had infiltrated the Hutu militias, was  presented along with a letter from Paul Kagame  praising the Ugandan President Museveni and his American, British and Belgian friends for their help in taking Kigali and reminding them of their agreement to help him invade Zaire (the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and overthrow the Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko .

Other exhibits and testimonies presented during the trial included the following:

1. *UN armored cars attacking FAR forces. The ex-FAR Huye battalion allegedly destroyed two of these UN armored vehicles;
   

2. *The massacres of thousands of Hutu ethnics at the Amahoro Stadium under the indifferent watch of General Romeo Dallaire;
   

3. *Canadian air force C130 Hercules supplying arms and munitions to RPF in the Kigali areas, under the cover  of  the "humanitarian"  Operation Scotch;
   

4. *the presence of Canadian special forces, the JTF2, within the RPF ranks in operations against the government forces, FAR.
   

It is believed that the documents sealed by the ICTR may shed a light on these testimonies. If it appears that the testimonies and exhibits are reliables, then the whole story of the Great Lakes may be rewritten.

Meanwhile,  the US Department of Justice Reward for Justice program has renewed the campaign to hunt down a key Hutu ex-FAR fugitive, Major Mpiranya. Major Mpiranya, who was the head of the Presidential Guard is accused of having ordered the assassination of Ms. Agathes Uwiringiyimana, a hutu Prime Minister during in 1994, viewed as close to the Rwandan Patriotic Front rebels. The RPF rebels honored her with a state funeral after they took power.   

©Copyright, AfroAmerica Network May 2010