Hague To Begin Trial In Rwanda Genocide

The year 1994 shall always etched in the history for the gruesome Rwanda Genocide that killed about 8,00,000 people in a matter of just over 100 days. What propelled a fight between the Hutus and the Tutsis, both ethnic groups, can be understood by their long drawn history of  political animosity that culminated for the first time in the Hutus overthrowing the Tutsis in 1959. 

The Tutsis migrated to the neighbouring countries as exiles after this and a major political strife resurfaced only in 1990 when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), composed majorly of the Tutsis invaded Rwanda again. The Arusha Accords signed between the Rwandan government and the RPF and mediated by the Organization of African Unity brought a temporary end to the three year old civil war in Rwanda. 

However, soon following this, the then President Juvenal Habyarimana and the President of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira who belonged to the Hutus were shot down on the night of April 6, 1994 while they were on a plane. 

The Hutu extremists rampantly went on an anti-Tutu propaganda blaming the RPF and fortified a genocide- campaign. This  affected the moderate Hutus, Twas as well and finally killed them. A series of agressive reasoning couldn't bring the massacre to a stand still, and involved worst kind of human torture, including a shocking number of rapes that touched around 500000.

Significance of the  Rwanda genocide in 2022

One of the master planner of the genocide was Félicien Kabuga, a chief financier of the Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, and tea who is being held under trial for incitement to commit genocide, genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity, etc. at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in Hague, Netherlands.  

Proceedings against him started for the first time in 1997 at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 1997. He had connections with the extreme militia individuals, Interahamwe whom he helped in training, supplying arms among other things and thus he had been an active participant in the massacre of the Tutsi community. His radio also broadcasted instigations to rape the Tutsi women and formed a very strong and opinionated stand against the Tutsis that fanned the fire that was already kindled.

He was one of the most wanted fugitives when he was caught in Paris in 2020 and he entered  a non-guilty plea through his counsels, repeatedly claiming the charges against him to be untrue. His range of activities also included openly advertising to kill the counterparts and motivating other to do the same, showing them the areas where they could hide, etc.

The RPF members who ruled over the country hardly faced any repercussions and they seemed to have taken control over the administrative and judicial means of running the country and hence have not been questioned  by these International Criminal Justice forums, nullifying the age-old principles of social justice. The chances could be that the RPF could unleash a revenge psychology that might cause further massacre.

Kabuga had tried for more than 20 years to hide away from public gaze and from police, but finally the UN wing has shown its proactiveness to make Kabuga liable for his sins and find a route to all others who were involved in the killing of innocent people due to racial intolerance. In spite of the fact that his counsel prayed for discontinuation of the trial on the ground of his frailing physical and mental health at such an old age, the court firmly gave a decision for short hearings, especially when he did not appear in person or from his detention centre through virtual mode. 

This will go down in history as one of the rarest examples that justice delayed doesn't necessarily means that it is denied. Sometimes the right time is too far, but that shall always come in the end. The mass media is also a means of mass destruction if used for its vices like in the case of Rwanda Genocide and holds the power to incite an entire generation against people with different ideological, religious, moral and racial backgrounds and must be used with utmost caution.