The smaller the fish, the bigger the rap

The lowest ranking officer of the Rwandan Armed Forces (Forces armées rwandaises, or FAR) ever convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is Lieutenant Ildephonse Hategekimana. The former commander of a small military camp in southern Rwanda, he is also the only officer to receive the maximum sentence for his crimes.
By Clive Muhenga, Arusha

[related-articles]In two separate rulings, the ICTR Appeals Chamber on May 9 upheld the Trial Chamber’s sentence of life imprisonment for Hategekimana, while commuting that of Major Aloys Ntabakuze to 35 years. Both had previously been given maximum sentences. During the Tutsi genocide in 1994, Hategekimana headed the small military camp of Ngoma in Butare. Ntabakuze on the other hand, commanded the Para-Commando Battalion, a large elite unit within the vast military camp of Kanombe, near Kigali International Airport.
The Appeals Chamber dismissed all seven of Hategekimana’s grounds for appeal and upheld his sentence of life imprisonment for genocide and crimes against humanity. In its verdict, the Chamber noted that the Lieutenant had ordered the selection, abduction and mass murder of Tutsis in a convent near the Ngoma camp on 30 April 1994. The judges concluded that he had authorised and encouraged rape as well. Ntabakuze got off with a much lighter sentence. The Appeals Chamber rejected two findings - that he was responsible as a superior for crimes committed by militia members, and for executions perpetrated by certain Para-Commandos on a hill in the Kabeza area near the airport. In the end, Hategekimana will pay much more dearly for his crimes than any of the high-ranking officers convicted by the ICTR so far – including Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, long dubbed “the brains” of the genocide by the Office of The Prosecutor (OTP).
Indeed, Ntabakuze’s fate closely resembles Bagosora’s. The former Director of the Cabinet in Rwanda’s Ministry of Defence was also sentenced to life imprisonment by the Trial Chamber and also saw his sentence commuted to 35 years by the Appeals Chamber.
No direct responsibility
In both cases, the Appeals Chamber ruled that the defendants’ responsibility was minimal - they had merely failed to prevent or halt the crimes and had not disciplined the perpetrators. Lieutenant-Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva, who commanded operations in the Gisenyi sector (northern Rwanda) and was tried alongside Bagosora, was released the day the Chamber handed down its decision (14 December 2011), sentencing him to 15 years’ imprisonment – just a bit longer than the time he had spent in detention. “These cases differ from the Lieutenant’s in that the superior officers had no direct responsibility. In Hategekimana’s case, it was he who gave the orders,” surmised a senior officer at the OTP.
Major General Augustin Ndindiliyimana, who was chief of staff of the Gendarmerie nationale in April 1994, was released on 17 May 2011, following a conviction that is now under appeal (see article). The term of his sentence happened to be exactly the same as the length of time he had spent in detention. In the same decision, former army chief of staff Major General Augustin Bizimungu was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Major François-Xavier Nzuwonemeye, Commander of the Reconnaissance Battalion of the Rwandan Army, and his second-in-command, Innocent Sagahutu, each received 20-year sentences.
Kigali complains
In Kigali, these decisions are seen as an exoneration of former high-ranking military officers. On 18 January, the Rwandan group Ibuka and the British NGO Survivors’ Fund filed a joint petition to testify before the Appeals Chamber. “The crimes committed by Major General Augustin Ndindiliyimana, Major General Augustin Bizimungu, Major François-Xavier Nzuwonemeye and Captain Innocent Sagahutu shock the conscience. But the sentences the Trial Chamber imposed are grossly inadequate in redressing the horrors those military leaders unleashed against thousands of innocent victims,” states the petition.