Happy Independence Day.

To the Congolese people at home and in the Diaspora,


Debout Congolais

Unis par le sort
Unis dans l'effort pour l'indépendance
Dressons nos fronts
Longtemps courbés
Et pour de bon, prenons le plus bel élan, dans la paix
Ô Peuple ardent
Par le labeur
Nous bâtirons un pays plus beau qu'avant
Dans la paix
Citoyens,
Entonnez,
L'hymne sacré de votre solidarité
Fièrement
Saluez
L'emblème d'or de votre souveraineté
Congo
Don béni,
Congo
Des aïeux,
Congo
Ô Pays,
Congo
Bien aimé,
Congo
Nous peuplerons ton sol, et nous assurerons ta grandeur
Trente juin, Ô doux soleil
Trente juin, du trente juin
Jour sacré, sois le témoin
Jour sacré de l'immortel
Serment de liberté
Que nous léguons
A notre postérité
Pour toujours.

The Tragedy in Mugunga.

Civil Arguements Against Ntuyahaga in Brussels

Hirondelle News Agency

The former major Bernard Ntuyahaga, accused, notably, of having taken part in the killing of ten Belgian peacekeepers on 7 April 1994, is the "link of a chain" made up of "four musketeers", stated during his closing arguments Vincent Lurquin before the Crown Court of Brussels.

"There are four musketeers: including Théoneste Bagosora, François-Xavier Nzuwonemeye, Innocent Sagahutu and Bernard Ntuyahaga”, enumerated Lurquin. “Bernard Ntuyahaga was not a weak link in this chain", he added.

For the counsel of the civil parties, who represents in particular Faustin Twagiramungu, former Prime Minister appointed by the Arusha peace accords, the former senior officer of the Rwandan Armed Forces went to seek the peacekeepers "on order" at the Prime Minister’s residence, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, to disarm them. He then took them to the military camp of Kigali where they were lynched.

Among the charges against Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, presented as the "mastermind" of the genocide, before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), figures the order to assassinate Agathe Uwilingiyimana and the peacekeepers charged with her protection. Major François-Xavier Nzuwonemeye, former chief of the reconnaissance battalion based in the Kigali camp, and his deputy Captain Innocent Sagahutu would have taken part in the execution of these orders.

"He presents himself as someone without initiative and he would have embarked the UN peacekeepers by chance, without asking anything to anybody?” commented Mr. Lurquin by recalling that the defendant always denied to have received such directives. “Why tell us this tale? Perhaps because Bernard Ntuyahaga is precisely a true soldier, on whom one can count on, one of those who always say that they saw nothing and heard nothing"

"Right-hand man of the Habyarimana regime" according to Lurquin, the major, defended by Luc de Temmerman who was in the past the lawyer of Théoneste Bagosora, would thus have delivered an account allowing to dissimulate the fact that he received a mission. "If not, he should say to us who gave him this order", concluded Lurquin.

In his closing arguments of 30 May before the ICTR, Raphaël Constant stated that his client, Colonel Bagosora, did not have any connection to these murders.

Monday, Eric Gillet, counsel for the civil parties, reminded the jury that it would have been "more logical to have Bernard Ntuyahaga tried with Bagosora, Nzuwonemeye and Sagahutu" before the ICTR.

He explained that the withdrawal by the ICTR of its indictment against Ntuyahaga, in 1999, had been a "elevator referral": Belgium, which "wanted a trial to re-appropriate the traumatism" of the dead UNAMIR soldiers, had indeed contributed to constitute a case against Colonel Bagosora before the ICTR seized of the case on the basis of its primacy of jurisdiction.

Rwandans Flee Gacaca to Burundi

Hirondelle News Agency
28 June 07

At least 400 Rwandans fleeing the semi-traditional gacaca courts trying the majority of the persons allegedly involved in the 1994 genocide arrived this month in the Burundian province of Ngozi, the Burundian League of the human rights, Iteka, reports.

"Rwandans from the Gisagara district in the southern Province are fleeing the gacaca courts and have been gathering in Marangara commune in the province of Ngozi since 6 June 2007", says Iteka.

"Until 20 June 2007, the administration had already recorded 400 applicants for asylum. The majority of them are women and children ", indicates the League on its website.

"These asylum seekers are under difficult conditions because they have nothing to eat nor drink and do not have anything to shelter themselves from the cold", adds the association

Last year, several thousand people who had crossed the Rwanda-Burundi border for the same reasons were repatriated.

Inspired by Rwandan traditional justice, the gacacas (pronounced gatchatchas) are presided over by nonprofessional judges, appointed within the community based on the only criterion of integrity.

Some 800 000 Rwandans are suspected of having had a part in the 1994 genocide in which, according to Kigali, nearly a million people, primarily Tutsis, were killed.

These gacaca courts have the power to sentence someone to life imprisonment, according to a law passed in March 2007.

ICTR Send Envoy to Kigali for Discussions on the Arrest of Nshogoza.

Hirondelle News Agency
26 June 2007

The Registrar’s office of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) sent to Kigali a representative in order to inquire into the arrest, Saturday 16 June, of a member of the defense team of Father Emmanuel Rukundo, it was learned from an official source Monday in Arusha.

"We are taking steps to ascertain the full facts and deal with the situation", answered the Associate-Registrar to a request for information by the Hirondelle agency.

The charges weighing against Léonidas Nshogoza, who is an investigator in the team directed by French lawyer Aicha Conde, have not yet been officially specified. According to an official statement issued by her customer, Nshogoza would be accused of having tried to pressure a witness.

This arrest occurs as the Rukundo trial is set to restart at the beginning of July with the presentation of the defense evidence. The principal lawyer of Rukundo, Mrs. Conde, was in Rwanda when her investigator was arrested. She should meet the Attorney General of Rwanda, Mr. Martin Ngoga, it was learned from a close source to the case.

Father Rukundo, military chaplain in Ruhengeri (northern Rwanda) then in Kigali, was arrested on 12 July 2001. He is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity and pled not guilty.

ICTR Rep. Visits Ibuka.

Hirondelle News Agency
26 June 07

Presidents of Ibuka and of Avega-Agahozo, the two principal associations of Rwandan genocide survivors, are in Arusha for a three-day visit to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

Mrs. Bellancille Umlukobwa, of the association of genocide widows (AVEGA-AGAHOZO) and Mr. Theodore Simburudali, of the association for the defense of the interests of genocide survivors (IBUKA) should meet during their stay the ICTR Prosecutor, Mr. Aboubacar Jallow and the Associate-Registrar Mr. Eveerard O'Donnell.

Their visit will end Wednesday. They already met last week in New York the ICTR President, Mr. Dennys Byron at the time of the general assembly of the United Nations to which they assisted. The President had gone there to present the ICTR semi-annual report.

The two survivor leaders presented in New York a memorandum on the compensation for genocide. They should defend in Arusha a request for transfer of the archives of the ICTR.

This Tribunal must theoretically complete, by the end of the 2008, its first instance trials. Already the diplomatic representative of Rwanda expressed the wish that its archives be entrusted to him.

Fr. Wenceslas and Bucyibaruta Subject of ICTR Indictments.

Hirondelle News Agency
25 June 07

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) issued Thursday arrest warrants against Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka and against the former prefect of Gikongoro Laurent Bucyibaruta, exiled in France, it was learned Friday from a legal sources at the ICTR.

At the beginning of the week, transfer requests were filed in connection with these two men whose indictments have been under seal since 2005. The French legal authorities accepted, at the request of the Prosecutor of the ICTR, to try them. A Chamber of the ICTR, which will be designated by the President, must, however, give its consent.

These transfers are within the framework of the completion strategy of the ICTR, which must finish its first instance trials by 31 December 2008. Since its creation, the ICTR has tried 33 people, 28 are in the course of judgment, and 10 should be transferred or quickly tried.

Wenceslas Munyeshyeka, who was the vicar of the principal parish of Kigali, is accused of genocide, rape, murder and extermination. Laurent Bucyibaruta is accused of genocide, incitement, complicity to extermination, murder and rape constituting a crime against humanity.

They were both part, as well as two other exiled Rwandan accused, of the object of a legal instruction in France, grouped together in Paris and in the hands of an investigating judge.

Arrest Warrent Creates New Tensions Between France and Rwanda

Hirondelle News Agency
25 June 07

The transfer to the French courts of the indictment of Wenceslas Munyeshyeka, a Rwandan priest exiled in France since the genocide, is likely to rekindle tensions between Kigali and Paris.

Rwanda and France have already broken off their diplomatic relations since the end 2006, after the publication of the conclusions of the investigation of French Judge Jean Louis Bruguiere who accused President Paul Kagame and investigated nine of his close associates.

Since the announcement of the transfer request of Munyeshyeka last week, the Attorney General of Rwanda, Mr. Martin Ngoga declared that he was surprised that France was entrusted the responsibility to try a man who is exiled there. For the Rwandan ambassador at the ICTR, Aloys Mutabingwa, France does not have any "moral authority" "to try a case in which its own authorities (political and military) are co-defendants". It cannot, he adds, be judge and parti.

In Kigali, Munyeshyeka, more known under the name of Father Wenceslas, was a vicar at the parish of the Holy Family, in the center of the city, was convicted in absentia to a life sentence. Since 1995, he has been registered on the Rwandan list of people suspected of having taken part in the genocide.

A few months after his arrival in France, Munyeshyeka was the object of an investigation, but in 1996 the Court of Appeals of Nimes abandoned the proceedings estimating that French courts did not have jurisdiction. In January 1998, the Court of Cassation reconsidered this decision and ordered the resumption of the proceedings. The investigation gathered in Paris, as well as other instructions into the genocide, did not result in any legal document, interrogation or other.

Therefore, since July 2005, the ICTR, which profits from a primacy of proceedings, issued an indictment which remained under seal. Two other indictments had remained secret; one is for a fugitive of which the arrest and the judgment were entrusted to Rwanda and the other is for Laurent Bucyibaruta, former prefect of Gikongoro, also exiled in France and whose case is also the subject of a transfer request to France.

The two men, moreover, were the objects of arrest warrants issued by the ICTR. These transfers of accused expressly aimed by the ICTR are regulated by article 11 bis of its rules. It stipulates that the Chamber before returning its decision "must be convinced that the defendant will receive a fair trial" and does not risk the death penalty. Already a request in this direction was rejected because the country concerned did not have in its penal code express incrimination for genocide.