Rwanda Respects UN Tribunal Acquitting Genocide Suspect

The Rwandan government said on Thursday it respects the judgment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) acquitting a 1994 genocide suspect of all charges, informed sources said.

Trial Chamber One of the ICTR earlier on Thursday announced its decision to acquit former Rwandan mayor Ignace Bagilishema of all seven charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, saying that the Prosecutor had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

This is the first time the ICTR based in northern Tanzanian town of Arusha has acquitted a genocide suspect.

"We respect the finding of the Chamber," Rwanda's special representative to the Tribunal Martin Ngoga was quoted by the sources in Arusha as saying. "This is a verdict and we respect it. "

However, Ngoga pointed out that Rwanda understands that the prosecution has expressed the need to appeal, adding that it will be another opportunity for all parties involved to utilize appropriately.

"It will lead us to a position where, we shall say, justice has been pursued to finality," he added.

The ICTR judges ordered Bagilishema's immediate release, but Prosecutor Charles Philips said an appeal would be launched.

Bagilishema, 46, married with six children, was arrested on February 20, 1999 in South Africa and later transferred to the UN Detention Facility (UNDF) in Arusha for trial that started on October 27, 1999.

He was mayor of Mabanza commune in the western Rwandan prefecture of Kibuye during the 1994 genocide, in which ethnic Hutu extremists massacred around 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in just three months.

Bagilishema was charged for his alleged role in massacres of Tutsis in Mabanza and neighboring communes, but he pleaded not guilty, briefing the court that he had always tried to protect persecuted Tutsis.

The ICTR, created on November 8, 1994 by the United Nations Security Council resolution 955, has the mandate to try persons suspected to be responsible for genocide and other serious violations of the international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda between January 1 and December 31, 1994.

It also has the mandate to try Rwandan citizens responsible for such violations committed in the territory of neighboring states during the 100-day massacre which claimed more than 800,000 civilians mostly the ethnic Tutsis.






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