Mugesera deportation buoys Rwanda justice system

The deportation of Leon Mugesera from Canada to Rwanda on Tuesday, January 24, and the expected transfer to Kigali of Pastor Jean Uwinkindi from the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, are a vote of confidence for the Rwandan judicial system, long seen as being incapable of conducting fair and impartial trials of people suspected of participating in and masterminding the 1994 genocide.

The two handovers, coming on the back of French Judge Marc Trévidic’s report exonerating the ruling RPF of complicity in the assassination of former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, are expected to be followed by fresh demands from Kigali for countries like France, Canada, and Belgium, where known genocide suspects live freely, to extradite them to Kigali.

“Each case is dealt with on its own merit, as a general rule. However, the recent trend where we have won deportation from the US and Canada and also extraditions from European countries and a referral from ICTR means it is no longer necessary to continue prosecuting Rwandan fugitives abroad.

This transitional arrangement, which we have supported for years, must now cease and bring cases home to Rwanda,” Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga told The EastAfrican.

When Trévidic, and his colleague Nathalie Poux released their report early this month, Rwanda’s Foreign Minister, Louise Mushikiwabo, stated that Rwanda would concentrate on nation building and let France bring the suspects to justice.

But, Minister of Justice and Attorney General Tharcisse Karugarama told The EastAfrican Rwanda will never stop pursuing justice against genocide suspects.

“We made an appeal to all countries where genocide fugitives live that they should be extradited to Rwanda.

This principle is shared by all countries we requested co-operation from,” Mr Karugarama said. “If they can’t extradite them, let them try them in their own countries,” he added.

Mugesera’s deportation, said Mr Karugarama, “is a strong message to genocide fugitives that they won’t live in comfort forever. The long arm of the law will get them eventually.”

Mugesera’s hate speech

Mugesera, a former professor at the National University of Rwanda and vice president of the ruling MRND party, is accused of having called for the extermination of the Tutsis one and half years before the genocide.

Speaking in Kabaya, Gisenyi, in 1992, Mugesera is alleged to have said, in reference to the first massacres of Tutsis in 1959, “The mistake we made in 1959 was to let you live,” adding, in a speech parts of which can be found on online video sharing site YouTube, “I am telling you… that your home is in Ethiopia, that we will send you by the Nyabarongo River so you can get there quickly.” Nyabarongo is part of the headwaters of the Nile.

His speech embarrassed the government of the time and marked him for arrest, forcing him to flee to Canada, where he acquired residence in Québec in 1993.

Yet no sooner had Mugesera settled down in his new country than its Citizenship and Immigration Department initiated deportation proceedings against him, acting on his hate speech and a warrant for his arrest issued by the Rwandan government. For the next 16 years, Mugesera fought in court in vain to have his deportation rescinded.