{"id":40846,"date":"2019-04-04T15:19:55","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T13:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/40846-rwanda-the-most-judged-genocide-in-history.html"},"modified":"2025-05-12T12:11:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T10:11:54","slug":"rwanda-the-most-judged-genocide-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/40846-rwanda-the-most-judged-genocide-in-history.html","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda: The most judged genocide in history"},"content":{"rendered":"

Never before in the history of international justice has a mass crime been judged so much or in so many places as the 1994 genocide in Rwanda against the Tutsis. Rwanda set up more than 12,000 courts to ensure that no one would escape their share of responsibility. More than one million individuals were tried there. An international tribunal set up by the United Nations has helped prosecute ringleaders, while Western countries have also conducted some symbolic trials. And the task is not complete.<\/p>\n

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When the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took power in Kigali in July 1994, the judicial system no longer existed. Most of the country\u2019s magistrates had been killed or fled into exile. There were no longer any gendarmes, judicial police or judicial structures. A few weeks later, the communal lock-ups, prisons and other improvised detention centres were overflowing with tens of thousands of people accused of participating in the genocide that left between 600,000 and 1 million people dead between April and July 1994, according to different estimates.<\/p>\n

Two years later, Rwanda published the \"Organic Law of 30 August 1996 on the organization of prosecution of offences constituting the crime of genocide or crimes against humanity committed between 1 October 1990 and 31 December 1994\". It thus gave itself a broader temporal jurisdiction than that of the UN\u2019s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) set up after the genocide, which covered only the period from January 1 to December 31, 1994.<\/p>\n

On the history of the genocide<\/a>, there are two different opinions about when it started. While the international community considers that the genocide started on April 6, 1994, after the assassination of Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana, the new Rwandan authorities claimed that anti-Tutsi pogroms, which had been taking place since the outbreak of the RPF rebellion in October 1990, were part of a genocidal plan that had been in place for many years.<\/p>\n

Emblematic cases<\/h3>\n

Rwanda, ICTR, Belgium, France and Switzerland: a few emblematic trials on the genocide in Rwanda.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Colonel<\/div>Colonel Th\u00e9oneste BagosoraChief of Staff of the Ministry of Defence<\/small><\/a>
\"Jean-Paul<\/div>Jean-Paul AkayesuThe first man convicted of genocide by an international court<\/small><\/a>
\"Jean<\/div>Jean KambandaHe pleaded guilty to genocide, then withdrew his confession<\/small><\/a>
\"Pauline<\/div>Pauline NyiramasuhukoThe only woman to have been convicted of genocide by an international court<\/small><\/a>
\"Froduald<\/div>Froduald KaramiraA symbol of \"Hutu Power\" ideology<\/small><\/a>
\"Val\u00e9rie<\/div>Val\u00e9rie B\u00e9m\u00e9rikiA voice still anchored in people\u2019s memories<\/small><\/a>
\"Mgr<\/div>Mgr Augustin MisagoThe highest official of the Catholic Church tried in Rwanda<\/small><\/a>
\"L\u00e9on<\/div>L\u00e9on MugeseraA speech which calls to commit genocide against the Tutsis<\/small><\/a>
\"Sisters<\/div>Sisters Gertrude and Marie-KizitoGuilty of having handed over to the killers between 6,000 and 7,000 Tutsis<\/small><\/a>
\"Major<\/div>Major Bernard NtuyahagaInvolved in the murder of ten Belgian peacekeepers<\/small><\/a>
\"Ephrem<\/div>Ephrem NkezaberaTreasurer of the Interahamwe<\/small><\/a>
\"Pascal<\/div>Pascal SimbikangwaFrom the feared Central Intelligence Service<\/small><\/a>
\"Father<\/div>Father Wenceslas MunyeshyakaA symbol of the French justice system\u2019s lack of will<\/small><\/a>
\"Fulgence<\/div>Fulgence NiyontezeThe first Rwandan convicted in Europe for his role in the genocide<\/small><\/a><\/div>
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