RWANDAN ALIANCE FOR THE RENAISSANCE OF THE NATION
ARENA-ISANGANO RY’ABANYARWANDA
DECLARATION
004/2001:
Judicial process of the four Rwandans accused of
genocide in Belgium
ARENA has closely followed the trial in a Belgian court of
four Rwandan nationals accused of having taken part in the Tutsi genocide in
1994. The trail has ended in a
conviction of all four Friday, June 8th 2001.
ARENA takes this opportunity to congratulate the Belgian legal
authorities on the exemplary manor in which these proceedings were conducted and
to call on all other countries that host genocide suspects to follow the Belgian
example.
ARENA also takes this opportunity to call on the
international community to increase its support and cooperation with the
International Tribunal for Rwanda in providing it with the needed means to carry
out its mandate to bring to justice the main perpetrators of the Tutsi genocide
and other crimes against humanity committed in Rwanda and its neighboring
countries.
ARENA strongly believes that justice is the corner stone of
a real and meaningful reconciliation among Rwandans and of the reconstruction of
their nation. We call on the Kagame
government to reform the Rwandan judicial system and impart it with the freedom
necessary to carry out its mandate to dispense justice to the Rwandan people.
Currently, Rwanda has over one hundred thousand people in
jails awaiting trial, some since 1994. While
we will not cease to condemn the Tutsi genocide and other crimes against
humanity, we must caution the Kagame regime that unless justice is carried out
in a clear, methodical, and legally fair way, it will serve only to deepen the
ethnic divide among our people.
ARENA is convinced that the current lacking state of the Rwandan judicial clearly reflects the government’s lack of vision and political will. One can not overstate the importance of justice in building governing institutions that people can trust and thereby allowing the complete transformation of the current Rwanda into a lawful democratic nation.
It is said that justice delayed is justice denied.
This is evident in Rwanda for both the accused genocide perpetrators and
the victims. We, therefore, ask the
Rwandan government to expedite the genocide trials and to stop interfering in
the judicial process for political gains.
ARENA invites all Rwandans to join its efforts in the
struggle to install democracy, justice, and freedom in our country.
Done in Paris, June 13th, 2001.
For the Coordination,
Joseph Ngarambe