Londres pourrait rejuger les 4 Rwandais qui n'ont pas pu être extradés au Rwanda

L'acharnement continue contre les 4 Rwandais qui n'ont pas pu être jugés faute de loi concernant les crimes de génocide et qui n'ont pas été extradés au Rwanda à cause d'un régime qui ne peut administrer une justice équitable. C'est à se demander à quel jeu jouent les autorités britanniques! Ils pourraient tout aussi bien demander à Paul Kagame de démocratiser son régime et d'améliorer le fonctionnement de la justice pour le bien de tous les Rwandais.

By RNA Reporter   

Wednesday, 08 July 2009

London: The four Rwandan men accused of Genocide in Britain could be tried there following a scheduled review that will expand British war crimes laws to cover the time the mass slaughter happened in Rwanda, it was announced Tuesday.

Under the proposals, the law which bars charges relating to any war crime, act of genocide or crime against humanity committed before 2001 will be changed to allow prosecutions for atrocities committed since 1 January 1991, including the Balkan wars and the 1994 conflict in Rwanda.

The British Justice Secretary Jack Straw unveiled the changes as President Paul Kagame met Prime Minister Gordon Brown and different officials on his visit. The new changes come following an outcry over a High Court decision in April not to send the four Rwandans resident back home to face prosecution.

Gordon Brown, who was hosting the Rwandan President Paul Kagame at Downing Street, said the proposals meant the "message to anyone suspected of genocide now living in the UK is simple: your time is up. You may have run from responsibility, but you can no longer hide from justice".

«They may have run from the responsibility for these crimes over the last few years, but they can no longer hide in Britain from the justice that should be meted out to them,» Brown told reporters.

A decision by the then-Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to allow the extraditions was thrown out by the High Court in April after judges ruled there was "a real risk they would suffer a flagrant denial of justice" if returned to Rwanda.

That ruling, announced on the 15th anniversary of the start of the genocide, sparked calls for urgent reform after critics said it confirmed Britain's status as a "safe haven" from justice because suspects could neither be sent home to face trial nor face prosecution in the UK for any offence pre-dating 2001.

Mr Straw said: "It's extremely important that a strong and principled message goes out that there are not going to be any safe havens for people who have committed these kinds of crimes."

There was concern that the Government had not gone far enough: it refused to change the law so that the mere "presence" of a suspect on British soil, visiting on holiday or for business, was sufficient grounds for arrest and prosecution.

Under Straw's planned changes to the law, the four men _ who were arrested in Britain in 2006 and have been in custody since then _ could be put on trial in London.

«It is important that as we try, as we move forward, as we reconcile, justice also needs to be seen to be done » Kagame said.

The Rwandan Four: Fugitives from justice:

Vincent Bajinya, 48

The most senior of the alleged Rwandan "genocidaires", Dr Bajinya is rated as a "category one" offender by the Kigali authorities. He is accused of organising the murderous Interahamwe militias and manning road blocks where hundreds of Tutsis were hacked to death with machetes. A medical doctor, he came to Britain and began working for a charity in London helping victims of torture. After gaining British citizenship, he changed his name to Vincent Brown.

Celestin Ugirashebuja, 56

The care worker from Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, is accused of having been a "bourgmestre" or local mayor in the rural commune of Kigoma. In 1994, he allegedly chaired meetings in which he exhorted the killing of Tutsis. At one village he is accused of using his authority to persuade Tutsi residents to return home, after which they were all slaughtered.

Charles Munyaneza, 51

The cleaner from Bedford is accused of organising the training of Interahamwe militias in his commune in southern Rwanda. When the genocide began, he allegedly used his role as bourgmestre to set up and supervise road blocks where Tutsis were stopped. Once the Tutsis were identified from their identity cards there were led off to be killed by Interahamwe.

Emmanuel Nteziryayo, 51

The jobless father-of-five, who lives in Manchester, was accused of handing out weapons and overseeing roadblocks in Mudasomwa commune, where he was bourgmestre. Prosecution files claim he once drove Tutsis to a police station to be killed. He claimed asylum when he arrived in Britain and was granted leave to remain.