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From War to Genocide > Reissue

A very topical publication from now accessible in Paperback (Wisconsin University Press) : From War to Genocide. Criminal politics in Rwanda (1990-1994).

by Professor André Guichaoua
IEDES, The University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

Further progress on the difficult road towards truth and justice is required

In the wake of the war and the genocide, different agencies of the international community found themselves obligated to intervene to account for the situation amid the traumatic events caused by the horrific massacres and the powerlessness of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda. In this endeavor, the double requirement of truth and justice became paramount in explaining the causes and the chain of events that became the humanitarian disaster and allowed for prosecuting the perpetrators of the imprescriptible crimes of genocide, war and crimes against humanity that had been committed. Thus, in July 1994, when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (the movement of the armed rebellion of Tutsi refugees based in Uganda) came to power and with the establishment of the transitional institutions, allowed numerous international inquiries into the Rwandan Genocide to commence and gave substance to this imperative if reconstruction and reconciliation were to happen. A few months later, the creation of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda filled in for the annihilated national judiciary framework – to allow for its reconstruction.

An impressive but partial search for truth and justice

For more than fifteen years, alongside the reconstruction of the country, an impressive work on truth and justice has been accomplished in difficult circumstances at both national and international levels, of which this book provides an accurate account. However, the publication of countless reports and the deployment of judicial activism hardly calmed the Rwandese passions. After having removed from power the survivors of the domestic democratic opposition, the military of the RPF imposed, from the beginning, very strict limits and unilaterally opposed any national or international investigation into its own military conduct, as well as into war crimes or crimes against humanity of which it was itself accused. The RPF with the backing of its American supporters, then managed, in November 2005, to obtain from the ICTR Prosecutor the definitive cessation of legal proceedings against members of the victorious regime, and thus was then free to launch its own policy of ‘popular justice’ which enabled it to prosecute close to 2 million Hutus until the early 2010s.
Among the hidden parts of the official and hence written history, there is of course the issue of elucidating the downing of the presidential plane on 6 April 1994 which caused the death of the most important dignitaries of the Habyarimana regime. A polemic file that eludes the issue of the responsibility of the RPF for having taken the risk of large-scale massacres being committed. Indeed, the resumption of the war did not result from a hazardous decision or from one imposed by some kind of an awkward predicament. It was the implementation of a policy thoroughly thought through and well prepared, evaluated, and having been the subject of numerous announcements. The RPF was at that time sure that there no external military threat was going to deprive it of its victory. This is the same conclusion it reached before launching its offensive in February 1993. However, neither the breakdown of the institutions nor any defeat of their military forces occurred and the voluntarist coup d’état turned out to be a mistake with tragic consequences.

The risk of generalized impunity

Today, while President Paul Kagame has just granted himself the possibility to remain in power until 2034, and has personally taken the lead of the African/Rwandan disputes with international jurisdictions, everything seems to suggest that his very presidential immunity will lastingly dissuade any extension of aborted inquiries, or those which have seen their reports frozen within international agencies (IATA, UN, African Union…), just like the legal proceedings opened against members of the victorious camp (ICTR, Spain, France ,…) that are kept on hold.
The inevitable consequence of such selective impunity is that it erodes the reach of the entire work on truth and justice already undertaken. Thus, there is hardly any host country accepting Rwandan refugees that would engage itself in the organization of a trial of “genocide” suspects, wanted or not, often protected and ‘with a new identity'. They don’t want any more to be confronted, over and over again, with recurrent polemics on the credibility of the arrest warrants containing uncertain indictments or incriminating evidence, issued by the General Prosecutor’s Office of Rwanda, or on the low confidence granted fair trial guarantees in Rwanda in case of extradition. Even more seriously, despite militant activism deployed by some NGOs and embassies in Rwanda, the obvious fatigue of foreign political and judicial officials now extends to a growing disinterest of the public and the media towards these procedures.

The paramount issue of access to the official archives

A legitimate question then is why so many enigmas related to the Rwandese conflict have been kept alive while the major powers involved in the conflict --France, United States, Belgium, even the United Kingdom and Canada, and not ignoring the neighboring countries such as Uganda-- undoubtedly have the information likely to provide explanations.
Therefore, the issue of free access to the official international and national archives is now paramount in the eyes of the citizens confronting the ‘realism’ and accomplice-like solidarity that has always prevailed in international agencies to put a block on access to all the files or archives, to embargo the information which contradicts the role-playing exercises of the "informed" officials still doing the same job. All too often in the name of “National Security”.
Over the last years access to the French archives has somewhat improved, so that one could imagine that the unknown parts of its involvement in Rwanda could possibly be learned in a not too distant future. Also, in the USA, some advances have occurred in 2014 in the framework of The Campaign for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum devoted to the “International decision-making process in the age of genocide.” But in these two cases, beyond the considerable media coverage related to the declassification of some archives, the relevant documents related to exchange of information between defense and intelligence agencies remain inaccessible.
The discussion on the grey areas of the Rwandan drama needs to be reopened. It is the most important debt that needs to be settled in honor of all the victims and an important step in reconstruction and reconciliation will be achieved in Rwanda.