The UN should resist US pressure and hand General Karenzi over to justice (01.07.08)

Press release,

According to reliable sources, the USA may be putting intense pressure on the United Nations, in order to extend the mission of the controversial Rwandese Patriotic Army (now called Rwanda Defence Force) officer Gen Karenzi Karake, currently Deputy Commander of the hybrid UN-AU Darfour based peacekeeping force. The United Nations are reluctant to renew his contract, owing to the pending indictment issued early February 2008 by a Spanish magistrate against Karenzi Karake and 39 others RDF members. Karenzi Karake is also one of the 9 military officers indicted by a French magistrate for his role in the shooting down of President Habyarimana’s plane, an act that triggered the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The Spanish magistrate charged Gen. Karenzi for seven counts of indictment that constitute genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and terrorism. Karenzi is indicted for the killing of thousands of Hutu civilians by the Military Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) in Kigali and in the rest of the country between 1994 and 1997, when he was in charge of military intelligence, specifically for the terrorist assassination of opposition political leaders Emmanuel GAPYISI and Félicien GATABAZI.

Maj. General Karake is also responsible of the deaths of two Canadian citizens, Holy Cross Father Claude Simard and Father Guy Pinard. Holy Cross Father Claude Simard was murdered in October 1994 in the Rwandan village of Ruyenzi . Father Guy Pinard, a member of the Missionaries of Africa, was murdered in Kampanga as he celebrated mass on February 2, 1997. He was killed because he witnessed the murders of three Spanish workers from Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World). He had also discovered a mass grave of 80 bodies in the playground of the village school where he worked. Karenzi Karake wanted to silence him. The two killings took place after the 1994 genocide.

Gen. Karenzi is held responsible of the hunting and cleansing of Hutu civilians in Nyakinama and in Mukingo (north-west of Rwanda ). He ordered military operations against Hutu civilians in Ruhengeri as well as systematic massacres against expatriates. Karenzi is held accountable of the massacre of civilians in Ruhengeri, Gisenyi and Cyangugu between 1994 and 1997, including the killing of the three Spanish doctors from “Médecins du Monde”. He is responsible of the disappearance of several persons held in Kami prison and who were eventually taken to Nyungwe forest where they were killed and their bodies burnt to ashes. He is also singled out for his role in the assault against Congolese clergymen at Kalima (DRC). He is personally involved in the killing of thousands of Congolese during the invasion of DRC by RPA troops, especially those that occurred in Kisangani in 2000.

Although the USA are long time backers of the RPF government, their position in this issue is astonishing and an embarrassment to the hitherto professed unwavering policy of championing human rights and rule of law all over the world, especially in Africa. Indeed, the USA argue that removing Karenzi from his duty will jeopardise the Darfour mission, as Rwanda is the main troops contributor. If that was the sole issue at stake, the USA may have handed over to the Spanish judge, Col. GACINYA RUBAGUMYA, the Defence, Naval & Air military attaché of Rwanda in Washington who happens also to be on the list of RDF indicted officers. Besides, other Rwandans were removed from their UN duties on mere suspicions, without bordering about the consequences on the mission they were serving on. The UN should stand firm and ignore the US pressure.

The position of the RPF government is very revealing.  Indeed, the suggestion by its representative to the UN Joseph Nsengimana, to “choose between people who stopped genocide and the people who committed genocide”, portrays a well known RPF tactics of blackmailing whoever tries to throw light its role in the Rwandan genocide. Reducing the Rwandan population to “RPF liberators” on one hand and “Hutu genocidaires” on the other hand is part of the RPF sinister policy of criminalising all Hutu, in order to conceal its own deeds.

Despite the fact that the recent arrest and indictment by the RPF government of four RDF officers for the massacre of 13 clergymen in Gakurazo in 1994 is a mockery intended to prevent their trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha (Tanzania), it proves that the RPF leaders know that some of them are not as clean as they pretend, with regard to mass killings of unarmed civilians during the genocide. Besides, criminalizing all Hutus does not exonerate them from the crimes they committed against that section of the Rwandan society.

The Rwandese Patriotic Front, an amalgamation of mislead young Tutsis born and raised in exile between 1960 and 1990 and Tutsi counter-revolutionaries who tried to reverse the first step of Rwandan democratic revolution between 1959 and 1968 in order to bring forcibly Rwanda back to monarchy and sectarian rule, whose military wing is responsible of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and terrorism, both in Rwanda and in DR Congo, is not a movement that can help the UN to keep or restore peace in any present or future mission. 

The United Democratic Forces call upon the United Nations to resist US pressure and to defend its proclaimed principles of justice and neutrality. They UN should therefore not hamper efforts by Spanish justice, to bring to book people suspected of war crimes. Not doing so will ultimately send very bad signals to Rwandan people and all peace and justice loving people at large.

The United Democratic Forces recall that, according to Spanish law, Karenzi Karake is a fugitive and that as such, the UNAMID should arrest him and hand him over to the Spanish authorities. If his appointment in 2007 was a shame, the renewal of his contract today will completely discredit Ban-Ki Moon in particular and the UN in general and will be the very last UN negative signal sent to Rwandans of all venues.

Brussels, 01 July 2008

Dr. Jean Baptiste MBERABAHIZI
Secretary General and spokesperson
                  (Signed)