President Dennis Byron
United Nations
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Arusha, TZ

OPEN LETTER – February 21, 2008

Dear President Byron,

Please accept this Open Letter on behalf of the ICTR Detainees under your Jurisdiction, in the spirit of defending an enhancing the integrity of the ICTR, and the record for history, that the Tribunal has established. It is a history for which we will be all held accountable. As U.S. President George Bush is meeting with President Kagame this week in Rwanda, there are a number of matters in the record at the ICTR and in the public record, of which the President may which to take note.

Multiple “War Crimes” Warrants Issued for Rwanda’s Leaders

Just last week, a Spanish Judge issued 40 international warrants for current and former members of Kagame’s government, including senior staff at Rwanda’s Washington Embassy. The warrants charge Kagame’s clique with war-crimes and crimes against humanity that may even fit the definition of “genocide.” But, these are not the only international arrest warrants issued for Rwanda’s current leaders.

French Judge Bruguiere (famous for indicting “the Jackal”) has also issued international warrants against nearly a dozen members of Kagame’s inner circle, too. Bruguiere also met with Kofi Annan in late 2006 to personally urge the U.N. Rwanda Tribunal to prosecute Kagame for the assassination of Juvenal Habyarimana, the war-crime that re-ignited the four-year Rwanda War and the massive civilian killings in the war’s final 90-days.

Chief UN Prosecutor del Ponte in 2003:
“Rwanda’s Leaders Guilty of War Crimes”

In the summer of 2003, Chief Prosecutor for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda (ICTR), Carla del Ponte, publicly announced that she would soon begin prosecuting members of Kagame’s Government for the same kinds of crimes charged in the French and Spanish warrants. But, nearly 5 years later not one case has been filed against one member of Kagame’s government, nor against Kagame himself. Prosecutor del Ponte’s long-time press-aide, Florence Hartmann, published a book in Paris in September 2007, that explains exactly how del Ponte was replaced.

According to the Hartmann book, just after her 2003 announcement Ms. del Ponte was threatened with removal from office by U.S. “war-crimes ambassador”, Pierre Prosper, because of the political quid pro quo between Washington and the Kagame regime that is spelled out in detail in the book. (Ironically, as you may know, Prosper was a former ICTR prosecutor under del Ponte, and must have had access to the same information motivated her announcement). When she refused to ignore her UN-mandate, to prosecute all crimes committed during the 1994 Rwanda War, she was sacked by the U.S. and U.K.[1]

ICTR Chief Investigator in 1997:
“ Rwanda ’s Kagame Assassinated Previous President”

According to sworn affidavits placed in the ICTR record in early 2006, more than 10 years ago, ICTR Lead Investigative Prosecutor, well-respected Australian QC Michael Hourigan, recommended that Kagame, himself, be prosecuted for the assassination of Habyarimana. But, in 1997, then-Chief UN Prosecutor Louise Arbour of Canada ordered him to drop the Kagame investigation; to forget it ever happened; and, to burn his notes! Hourigan resigned rather than comply and copies of his original notes are now part of the ICTR public record for all to see. [2]

The “ Rwanda Genocide” Cover-up on Clinton ’s Watch

The Hourigan affidavit makes clear that the “Rwanda Genocide”--Cover-up has been going on for at least a decade…but the reasons for the cover-up did not become clear until late 2007, when a senior Clinton Administration diplomat, Brian Atwood, was confronted with UN documents in the ICTR record describing a 1994 “cover-up” meeting with the Rwandan Foreign Minister in Kigali and the UN’s Kofi Annan. According to the UN documents, U.S.-sponsored human rights reports by investigator, Robert Gersony, documented massive military-style executions of civilians by Kagame’s troops, during and after the final 90-days of the four-year Rwanda War.[3]

The former Rwandan Foreign Minister at the meeting, Jean Marie Ndagiyimana, testified at the ICTR that, rather than participate in the proposed “cover-up,” he resigned and went into exile where he remains today. His ICTR testimony confirmed that Clinton’s USAID Chief for Africa, Brian Atwood, and the chief of the UN Department of Peace Keeping Operations Kofi Annan, were both in his office in late October 1994 urging him to assist in the “cover-up” the war-crimes committed by Kagame’s forces. [4]

The “Inconvenient Truth” Behind the Cover-up:
Pentagon Complicity in the 1994 Rwanda War

The damning “Gersony Report” included first-hand evidence of tens of thousands of civilians being massacred by Kagame’s troops in eastern Rwanda, later confirmed by similar reports by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Former Clinton-diplomat, Brian Atwood, not only confirmed he was at the meeting, but explained that he had engaged Gersony, and that Gersony’s findings of war-crimes being committed by Kagame were “…an inconvenient truth” for both the United States and the UN.

According to Atwood, unknown to the State Department, “the Pentagon had been supporting Kagame since before the 1990 invasion, when he was the head of Military Intelligence for the Museveni government of Uganda.” The “Gersony Report” tied the Pentagon to the crimes of Kagame’s invading, Pentagon-trained and funded forces. More UN documents in the ICTR record reveal that the State Department was negotiating for a peaceful settlement of the war at the same time the Pentagon was supporting Kagame’s invasion. The Clinton Administration to enlisted Atwood and Kofi Annan in keeping evidence of Kagame’s crimes from ever seeing the light of day, to prevent Pentagon involvement in the “Rwandan Genocide” from ever coming to light.[5]

The existence of a separate Pentagon foreign policy on Rwanda also tallies with the ICTR testimony of former Ambassador Robert Flaten, who testified that he seriously doubted that Habyarimana’s supporters planned to kill civilians on a massive scale, because western intelligence agencies would have reported it, when Amb. Flaten was in Rwanda from 1990 to late 93.[6] Flaten also testified that he personally warned Kagame that “he would be responsible for massacres like just happened in Burundi,” if Kagame broke the cease-fire and re-started that war.

Other de-classified State Department documents, of which the President must be aware, show that the invading Kagame forces that were the aggressors, and were blocking the State Departments efforts to implement the Arusha Accords peace agreement.[7] The UN’s General Dallaire has testified that Kagame would not agree to a ceasefire to use troops to stop the massacres because “he was winning the war.”[8]

Correcting the Historical Record and Ending the Cover-up

As the President is aware, the international warrants are still in effect, the del Ponte book and Hourigan’s affidavit are a matter of public record and that, under the laws of Rwanda, I too am a criminal “negationist” for writing this letter to you. My former investigator is seeking asylum in Europe and the ICTR Prosecutor who replaced Carla del Ponte is now prosecuting defense investigator for asking too many questions in Rwanda, but has denounced Judge Bruguiere’s request for the UN to prosecute Kagame and Spanish Judge Abreau, as well.

An ICTR defense lawyer, like me, has to hope that, despite all that is now known about the manipulations of the ICTR by the U.S. and U.K. for their own political purposes, the ICTR Judges will not be influenced by the sacking of del Ponte and that they will carefully evaluate the evidence in my client’s case….but it is hard to be too optimistic. At least my conscience is clear, now that the Great “Rwanda Genocide”—Cover-up has been exposed.

I would hope that now that the President and other Judges, Prosecutors, other UN-ICTR officials (who now know about the manipulation of their best efforts) will be take appropriate actions to re-examine all previous prosecutions and to suspend current prosecutions until the extent of the undeniable ICTR “Rwanda Genocide”-Cover-up. I look forward to working with the President and Prosecutor to regain the lost integrity that recent events have thrust upon us.



Respectfully,


Prof. Peter Erlinder
On behalf of ICTR Detainees and the Bureau of ADAD UN-ICTR Defense Lawyers Association.
Wm. Mitchell College of Law
St. Paul, MN. USA
peter.erlinder@wmitchell.edu


[1] Hartmann, Paix et chatiment: les guerres del la politique (September 2007 Flammarion, Paris)
[2] See Hourigan Affidavit and related documents in Miltary 1 record at the ICTR.
[3] See, UN documents in the Military 1 trial record at the ICTR.
[4] See ICTR Testimony of Ndagiyimana, November 2006, and related documents
[5] Interview with Dean Brian Atwood, Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota, December 22, 2007.
[6] See Flaten ICTR testimony, July 2006.
[7] See, April 1, 1994 Cable from U.S. Embassy in Kigali to Kampala Uganda in the ICTR Military 1 Trial Record.
[8] See ICTR Testimony of Gen. Romeo Dallaire and associated documents, January 2006.