Rwandan Leader's Genocide Appeal Fails

October 19 2000 at 05:37PM

The Hague - An international tribunal upheld a life sentence for genocide on Thursday, against a former Rwandan prime minister for having "instigated, aided and abetted" the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994.

The ruling by the United Nations appellate court against Jean Kambanda validated the world's first conviction of a head of government for the crime of genocide. The Hague-based appeals chamber is the court of last resort for the Rwandan genocide and its verdict may not be appealed further.

Kambanda stood quietly flanked by United Nations guards in the bulletproof encased courtroom as the verdict was read out loud by French judge Claude Jorda, president of the five-member appellate panel.

Jorda said the court "unanimously rejects the eight grounds of appeal" and "affirms the sentence for the remainder of his life." Kambanda turns 45 on Thursday.

Kambanda "was capable of understanding the consequences of the crimes he confessed to," the judges ruled.

The panel had deliberated its decision since June, when hearings on the appeal were held. The Rwandan ambassador to The Hague watched the proceedings from the public gallery, but declined to comment on the outcome.

Kambanda, the most senior Rwandan official in United Nations custody, was the first head of government ever convicted by an international tribunal. He was found guilty on September 4 1998 on six counts of genocide and crimes against humanity for the murder and extermination of civilians.

Kambanda's eight grounds of appeal included claims that he was misrepresented in the trial and that judges failed to take account of mitigating circumstances such as his guilty plea on all six counts.

During the trial, Kambanda testified extensively against other alleged leaders of the bloodbath.

But last June, the appellant testified that his confession was made under duress at the advice of a court-appointed lawyer who allegedly misrepresented him. He said he had not personally committed any crimes.

"I signed (a plea) agreement which I did not believe in, and which I still do not believe in, in the hope that I would later have a good lawyer," Kambanda told the appeals court.

The 1998 trial and appeal hearings earlier this year were heard at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania.

The judgment, however, was handed down in The Hague by the five-judge appellate court that also serves the United Nations war crimes tribunal on the former Yugoslavia.

The Kambanda trial recounted horrific stories of slaughter, when Hutu civilians were handed weapons and told to hunt down and kill Tutsis.

More than 500 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by extremist Hutus during Rwanda's 1994 government-orchestrated genocide.

Established in 1994, the Rwanda tribunal has more than 40 suspects in custody but has completed trials of only a few of the accused. Another major genocide conviction was handed down in 1998 against village mayor Jean-Paul Akayesu, who has also appealed.

In the Kambanda trial ruling, the court said his crimes carried "an intrinsic gravity and their widespread, atrocious and systematic character is particularly shocking to the human conscience."

The judgment was the first genocide conviction ever handed down by an international court.

The crime of genocide, now considered the most serious under international law, was not yet legally defined at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after World War 2. - Sapa-AP

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/html/frame_news.php?art_id=qw971969820369B265&set_id=19&click_id=68


Top


| Badges of the Holocaust | Camp List | Holocaust Discussion Forum | Holocaust Memorium | Holocaust Timeline | Other Links |

Copyright©2003 Christian Churches of God