Transfers and delays: How fit are Rwanda’s courts?

How fit are Rwanda’s courts to try the country’s worst crimes? That's the question the legal community is asking - even before the ICTR’s first to-be-transferred suspect is outside the prison gates. ICTR judges are keeping Jean Uwikindi in Arusha until they consider his appeal against extradition to Kigali - and are assured he can get a fair trial at home.
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He was arrested in June 2010 in Uganda, charged with genocide, extermination and crimes against humanity. ICTR prosecutors accuse Jean Uwikindi of leading attacks against Tutsi refugees in 1994.
No proper mechanisms
"The transfer of Jean Uwinkindi should be stayed until a suitable monitoring mechanism is established to oversee his trial." Court President Judge Khan instructed Registry to “urgently undertake discussions and negotiations” to put such a monitoring system in place.
But - “there are no proper mechanisms to monitor proceedings in Rwanda,” ICTR defence lawyer Charles Taku told RNW.
Track record
Taku is pessimistic, expecting that “the ICTR prosecutor will not monitor the trials and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) does not have mechanisms to monitor trials.”
But Rwandan authorities insist their judicial system has a proven track record and that Jean Uwinkindi will get a fair trial.The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) considers that the Rwandan judicial system has improved over the last few years and there have been similar decisions in courts across Europe. But Rwanda still has to show it's ready for war crimes trials.
Guarantee
But “the reasons behind the ECHR’s decision are wrong and shocking. The human rights situation in Rwanda is so serious that fair trials cannot be guaranteed,” Ville Hoikkala, who represents Rwandan pastor François Bazaramba before the Finnish courts, told RNW. “Most defence witnesses are refugees, and it is very hard to call them to testify,” Hoikkala added.
ICTR judges boldly took a step further in testing the extradition process on Tuesday, referring a second case to Rwanda’s courts. Fulgence Kayishema, former police inspector, is accused of the most serious war crime, genocide - but is still at large.
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