Mother Superior at the Sovu Convent

Consolata Mukangango (Sister Gertrude) was found guilty of violations of international humanitarian law. She was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
© Réseau Intermedia.

Identity

The Butare Trial judges made short shrift of the Prosecutor's renewed accusations that Joseph Kanyabashi's defense investigators interfered with witnesses and evidence. The judge's November 30 decision, dismissing all allegations of possible contempt against Joseph Kanyabashi's defense team, came as no surprise.

L'ensemble des auditions de requêtes concernant les nouveaux actes amendés par le procureur et les demandes de jonctions dans « l'affaire Butare » sont suspendues sine die. Le 30 septembre, la défense de Joseph Kanyabashi a en effet fait appel de la décision rendue sur la composition de la chambre. Une procédure équivalente menace de reporter de la même manière les débats concernant le procès groupé des militaires. Ce 30 septembre, les juges ont failli s'approcher du débat de fond.

Derrière les « 4 de Butare » à Bruxelles se profilent les « 6 de Butare » à Arusha. Attendu depuis cinq ans, ce procès doit s'ouvrir le 11 juin. Le procès des « quatre de Butare », qui vient de s'achever à Bruxelles, fut long à venir. Mais il fut. De son côté, le Tribunal international pour le Rwanda a aussi son « dossier Butare » en gestation depuis cinq ans. Mais il est bien loin d'en avoir délibéré.

Factory director in Butare

Alphonse Higaniro was found guilty of violating international humanitarian law. He was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment.
© Réseau Intermedia.

Identity

Coming in the wake of the « Butare Four » trial in Brussels, the « Butare Six » trial opens in Arusha on June 11, after a five-year incubation. The trial of the « Butare Four » in Brussels has just ended. It was a long time coming, but it finally came. In Arusha, the International Tribunal for Rwanda has its own « Butare file », which has been in preparation for the last five years. But deliberation is still a long way off. In a coincidence of court scheduling, the trial of the « Butare Six » is due to open on June 11, three days after the verdict handed down by the Brussels Assize Court.

The Butare Trial in Arusha got off to an excruciatingly slow and shaky start this past week. Butare Trial

Witness TA, a victim of multiple rape in 1994, was forced to endure a long two-week ordeal before an out-of-control tribunal. If the ICTR archives are ever revisited, the hearing of witness TA will stand out as a disgraceful moment in the court\'s history. For two weeks, from October 24 to November 8, 2001, the woman recounted the multiple rapes of which she was a victim during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The Rwanda Tribunal gets a new Acting Chief of Prosecutions.And it is seen as a curious choice. On December 7, 2001, Prosecutor Carla del Ponte surprised her assembled staff by announcing that Silvana Arbia would replace Ken Fleming as Acting Chief of Prosecutions. Fleming, an Australian Queen's Counsel, served as Acting Chief after Mohamed Othman left Arusha to become Chief Prosecutor for the United Nations East Timor tribunal. Del Ponte told her staff she wanted Fleming to have more time to ready the upcoming trial of four high-level government figures.

There has been a new twist to the chaotic so-called «Government I» trial. A year after it opened before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the trial was ordered to start again from scratch before a new panel of judges. Now the news agency Hirondelle reports that the prosecution has asked for one of the accused, André Rwamakuba, to be tried separately. The prosecutor says he wants the case to «focus on the conspiracy within the MRND», the former presidential party, of which Rwamakuba was not a member.