A United Nations criminal tribunal was so hobbled by the hostility of the Rwandan government that it was unable to investigate “very credible allegations” of crimes by the forces of President Paul Kagame, says Louise Arbour, the tribunal’s former chief prosecutor.
Ms. Arbour, a retired Supreme Court of Canada justice, revealed details in an interview with The Globe and Mail of how the Kagame government and its supporters made it difficult for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to investigate many serious crimes, including the assassination of two presidents – the event that ignited the genocide in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.
The attack on the presidential plane in 1994 was just one of many unsolved crimes in Rwanda before and after the genocide, she said, adding: “I think that remains a very serious failing of international criminal justice.” FULL STORY