Prosecutor steps up pressure on the akazu

On November 21, Juvénal Uwilingiyimana left his home in Anderlecht, Belgium at dawn. Since then, the former Rwandan minister has gone missing. In a letter dated November 5 published on the Internet, he accuses the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) of trying to force him to accuse high-ranking dignitaries of the former regime. On November 29, the prosecutor replied by charging Uwilingiyimana with genocide.
Since being appointed head of prosecutions at the ICTR in May 2005, American Stephen Rapp has been determined to solve the mystery of the akazu, the name given to the inner circle around former president Habyarimana's family, whose members have been suspected for eleven years now of having organized the genocide of Rwandan Tutsis. Rapp is aware of the difficulties involved in investigating people who, according to him, could "pull strings in the dark" or "direct massacres from their living rooms," and is actively seeking testimony from members of the "akazu" inner circle, or failing that, the second circle. One of these members, Michel Bagaragaza, former head of the tea production network in Rwanda, and a close friend of the president's family, has already agreed to collaborate *IJT-36+. In his confession, he implicates another member of this "extended akazu" - Juvénal Uwilingiyimana, Minister of Commerce at the end of the 1980s and director of the Rwandan Office of Tourism and National Parks in 1994. At the end of August, the prosecutor made initial contact with Uwilingiyimana. Meetings were held over "several weeks," explains Rapp. Until mid-November the prosecutor thought he had been making a dent in the akazu wall. However, the situation took a turn for the worse. A new meeting with the investigators was scheduled for November 21. Members of the prosecution staff waited in vain for Uwilingiyimana at their usual meeting place in France. Four days later, the Belgian police issued a wanted notice for Uwilingiyimana, whose family had reported him "missing".

In a letter that he reportedly wrote and disseminated after disappearing, he announced that he had broken off collaboration with the ICTR prosecutor, criticized the police pressure to which he was subjected, and refused to help "bring down Mr. Zigiranyirazo Protais [President Habyarimana's brother-in-law, currently standing trial in Arusha], and all the Akazu members, including Agathe [Habyarimana's widow], or to bring down the MRND leadership [the presidential party], namely, Mathieu Ngirumpatse, Edouard Karemera and Joseph Nzirorera [former party leaders on trial in Arusha], as Michel Bagaragaza had just done." The tone of the letter is of outraged and obstinate rebellion.

Rapp says he did not see this November 5 letter on the Internet until November 28 and doubts its authenticity. "I don't believe Uwilingiyimana, whom I had the opportunity to meet, is really the author of this piece of propaganda," he confides. Still, he had to act. On November 29, the chief of prosecutions requested that the August 17 international arrest warrant against Uwilingiyimana and the June 10 indictment be unsealed. In his motion, Rapp wrote, "It was agreed by the accused and the office of the prosecutor that the execution of the warrant of arrest would be held in abeyance to permit the accused to be interviewed regarding the events in Rwanda in 1994." He attached a statement signed on October 3 in which Uwilingiyimana declares that he was informed of the indictment against him and states his promise to "collaborate" in the interest of "the administration of justice" and in order to "shed light on the events in Rwanda in 1994." The accused adds that he was "not subjected to pressure or threats and did not receive any promises from the investigators or other people involved."

Despite having let a man slip through his fingers whom he says was "on the cusp between the inner akazu and the extended akazu," Rapp remains unperturbed and determined. "We need witnesses who were part of the circle," he said.