Spotted This it is definitely worth a read. I think that Jacqueline might want factor in the ICGLR talks that are happening.
The Untold Stories: Kagame a wounded Buffalo: Will the ICC Prosecute a Man who stopped Genocide in Rwanda?
The international criminal lawyer Christopher Black on behalf of the Rwandese and Congolese coalition presented a petition to the International criminal court based in the Hague requesting Fatou Bensouda, the new Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, to investigate and indict Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
President Paul Kagame, is accused of violations various arms embargo and sanctions within the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he is also accused of helping the M23 so-called rebellion in Congo in violation of Security Council sanctions which has been responsible for gross human rights violations in the DRC.
As far as I know the Kgame legal camp will not tell the truth the President that it is possible to charge him, they will tell the President that since Rwanda is not a signatory to the ICC, the the ICC has no jurisdiction on him and other co-accused. I know these guys who are legal advisors in the President’s office will not be brave enough to tell their Boss the naked truth. I had this morning on the BBC Gahuzamiryango on the famous programme Imvo n’invano saying that President Kagame on his tweeter page he was quoted saying that all these allegations will not have any consequences. Mr President your legal advisors should tell you what happened to your former counterparts in the World. The likes of Milosevic, Khadafy, Bashir, just to mention a few
The legal argument that will be told to the President will be that, since Rwanda is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, the ICC cannot extend its jurisdiction to the once a strong man of Rwanda. Unfortunately Congo is, they could therefore charge Kagame and his officers with crimes committed inside the Congo, which would give them jurisdiction over him and his officers. Because the statute says that if any country or group commits crimes within a territory which is signatory to the statute, then even if they’re not signatory themselves, they would be under the jurisdiction of the ICC.
Therefore if his legal team cannot tell the president the truth who Will? Please Mr. President don’t read the only papers of Andrew Mwenda (The independent), The Rwanda New times, read also these online information although many of them have been blocked in Rwanda on your orders, to be honest, these guys don’t hate you, they rather tell you the truth which your so called close allies will never dare to tell you. It should be submitted that recently the US Ambassador Stephen J. Rapp told the Rwandan press that what he said in the Guardian News Paper in UK, was true and he even went further and said that he has more information on the allegations of the Rwandan regime supporting the M23 Militia group in the Congo which is trying to overthrow the Kabila regime.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) was formed during one of the bloodiest decades in human history, after the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides. The establishment of a permanent International Criminal Court in 2002 represented a major breakthrough in international justice. The Court is the only one of its kind that can investigate and prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes when national authorities are unable or unwilling to do so. In June 2011, the ICC issued arrest warrants for crimes against humanity in Libya, after the Libya situation had been referred to the ICC by the U.N. Security Council several months earlier. Meanwhile, the Court has issued three arrest warrants against President Bashir of Sudan for charges including genocide. The ICC sentenced the Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga to 14 years in jail for recruiting and using child soldiers in his rebel army in 2002 and 2003. The readers of this article should be reminded that the co-accused of Thomas Lubanga is Bosco Ntaganda who is shielded by the Kagame regime not for any other reason, but for the protection of Kagame and his forces on the complicity in the crimes of both Ntaganda and Thomas Lubanga respectively.
Indeed the Lubanga case is closely related to the current fighting in DR Congo, where forces loyal to Gen Bosco Ntaganda are threatening many lives in the Kivu region of the DRC. As I have mentioned above Gen Ntaganda is accused of the same crimes as his erstwhile ally Lubanga and his M23 group which resumed its rebellion shortly after Lubanga was convicted, amid mounting calls for Gen Ntaganda to be arrested. However, with the fate of the former Liberian leader Charles Taylor still fresh in the minds of Kagame , where the former leader was sentenced to 50 years for helping the former Sierra Leone war Lord Fody Sankoh despite the fact that Charles Taylor never stepped his foot in Sierra Leone will remind the Rwanda strong man that , the same typhoon weather could blow against him any time.
Will the International Community act this time?
It should be noted that, the international community is well aware of the crimes of the man they strongly believe to have stopped genocide, and to certain extent regarded as a reformer who has transformed the tiny central African nation which was at the verge of turning into butcher ground. Paul Kagame has used the excuse of pursuing “genocidaires” to justify his regular invasions of the Congo. The casualties in these operations, supported by the silence of the international community have run into the millions. Many people believe that Kagame has far outstripped Idi Amin as a mass killer (Amin’s killings are estimated at 100,000-300,000, whereas Kagame’s surely run well over 8 million civilians in Congo and unknown number in Rwanda). But Kagame is servicing establishment U.S. and Western interests, and for the past 20 years has therefore received a free pass to rob and kill.
It is very hard to tell whether this new pressure of the political opponents of Kagame will bear any fruit or it’s the same song and the same dancers who will be ignored by the international community. But make no mistake, the holding of the aid or total withdraw of these dollars will force the Kigali regime to change tactics and in fact the waters seem are unnavigable at the moment, the heat of the friction of the forces of uncertainty is giving the regime sleepless nights, with some carders within the RPF camp proposing different options to top up the monies that were suspended, RPF carders have been moving around spreading the gospel of kwihesha agaciro(Dignity) but really can you have the same dignity with owners of business empires of RPF and its operators? But certainly the missing hard currency in Rwanda has caused political diarrhea in the RPF political establishment and is biting hard.
Jacqueline Umrungi
Brussels.
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