RWANDAN ALIANCE FOR THE RENAISSANCE OF THE NATION
ARENA-ISANGANO RY’ABANYARWANDA
P O BOX 3958 MERRIFIELD, VA 221163958, USA
FAX: 703 208 0589
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