The Untold Stories: Tharcisse KARUGARAMA Misleading the Rwandan People and the International Community on Amnesty International Report.
The Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse KARUGARAMA has been heard this morning on the Voice of America defending the abominable act of Torture which is prohibited in the Rwandan Constitution and International law. Article 15 of the Rwandan Constitution is clear on this issue: No one shall be subjected to Torture, Physical abuse or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Similarly Article 3 of the European Court of Human Rights prohibits torture and “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. There are no exceptions or limitations on this right.
This European Court of Human Rights provision goes further and applies, apart from torture, to cases of severe police violence and poor conditions in detention. The European Court of Human Rights has also held that this provision prohibits the extradition of a person to a foreign state if they are likely to be subjected to torture. This article has been interpreted as prohibiting a state from extraditing an individual to another state if they are likely to suffer the death penalty
Interestingly Hon. Tharcisse who is a qualified lawyer a custodian of Rwandan justice has admitted that his army officials in what the former RDF spokesperson Jill Rutaremara baptized as special circumstances (Ubushishozi) could allow impunity to reign un checked.
Torture under international law is characterized as Jus Cogens a crime that cannot be derogated by any state regardless of whether a country ratified the torture protocol as Minister Karugarama tries to convince some of the listeners of these international media. It is therefore immaterial whether a country ratified it or not, any country or person in the position of a government official who tortures or abets, aids torture will be held accountable individually or collectively.
The legacy of Nurnberg should be a good example to the Hon Minister of Justice that you can delay justice but you cannot prevent it; those who are in power today oppressing every human soul will one day be paid in the same currency. Justice Robert Jackson who led the Nuremberg Tribunals noted that Justice is a statement to the triumph of the rule of law in the struggle against tyranny and oppression.
The precedent set by the Nuremberg tribunal under Justice Robert Jackson is a watershed moment for all those people who are in power today especially in our country Rwanda that there is no sanctuary for the leaders who misuse power. The legal concept emerging from Nuremberg Tribunal include that, crimes are committed by individuals, not abstract entities, and therefore individuals must be held accountable to deter future crimes, that no one is above the law, and therefore no head of state or military leader can hide behind their title to commit abuses ; that crimes are so grave as to affect and endanger all of humankind, and there it is in the interests of all countries to ensure that those responsible are punished and whether in peace or conflict , a trial based upon internationally recognized principles of fairness will be recognized.
The Minister of Justice is really indifferent by telling the listeners of BBC on the Kinyarwanda programm that the aggrieved parties (the families of the tortured people or the people who have disappeared as reported by Amnesty international should invoke Habeas Corpus to his judges so that they can force the executive to produce those people mentioned in the Amnesty International report to appear in court. For the readers of this article Habeas Corpus is the court order that directs the government officials to produce a person in court. However, we all know how Rwandan courts operate, if we ask the Minister on what happened to the families of people like Major. Alex Ruzinda or Col. Augustin Kizza respectively who were kidnapped by the Rwandan security agencies and have never been seen to this very day. Unfortunately we know all these security officers, for example the person who picked Maj. Alex Ruzindana is Butera who was a Capt. at the time of kidnapping Maj. Alex, he is now a Maj. in RDF. The wife of Maj Alex, Console and the whole family appealed to the government but instead were intimidated , the same happened to the family of Col. Kizza, just to mention a few. Does the Minister think that all what has happened to all these people has been forgotten?
Has the Minister informed the public who are these security agencies who tortured these innocent civilians? When and where they were prosecuted?
The Minister should be aware as a lawyer that he will not only be asked what he did but also what he didn’t do to save the human life. People are dying on almost daily basis on his watch, the Rwandan courts which he leads are failing the expectations of many Rwandans, and they acquit a person not because he/she is innocent or guilty but because Kagame and his system want the person to be out or in prison. This is what you will one day be answerable Hon. Minister.
Jacquline Umurungi
Bruessles.
Urakoze jacqueline umurungi, ubundi abantu baba mu Rwanda nkuko ubizi barapfuye baraboze ni ibishushungwe bihagaze. Hari umwongereza wincuti yanjye witwa westlake twaraganiriye mugihe ntangiye kumubwira ibyerekeye u Rwanda ati reka ntumbwire kiriya kigoryi kagame cyamaze abantu nahise ngwa mukantu ndavuga nti ariko buriya abantu bita kagame intwali bashingira kuki? Ko urugamba rwo muri 90 rwatangiye akajya kwihisha muri amerika ngo abone uko agambanira rwigema fred.
Ko ibigwi yiyitirira ari ibya ndugute ubundi bakirirwa kuri televiziyo ya kagame nako ngo y’urwanda baririmba ngo intwari kagame.
Banyarwanda mukanguke muyoborwa nabi mufite umuyobozi mubi mumwamagane dufatanyije azavaho kandi si kera.
Urakoze Murungi, Nawe Mututsi! AbanyaRwanda twese hamwe twiheshe agaciro dukore Nanze ubutegetsi bwumwicanyi Kagame rebellion!!!!!!!!!!!
My friend UMURUNGI you might have been busy telling the store that you forgotten to write your name and the place from where you are writing the story correctly; Jacquline Umurungi
Bruessles. In fact you are telling the truth, in general all the governments and politicians are the same, they all do what is in interest of themselves in most parts of their lives but sometimes I try to listen to them since they deal with complex situations.
I think Mr KARUGARAMA tried to be more realistic than political on this issue, had he denied the truth, he might have been branded as anything I don’t know but he played a wise and right card by accepting it, because no country in the world can say that it follows all the human right laws, even those western countries you are mentioning in the story. I would recommend the minister to take the issue seriously and start investigation in the matter so that those behind torture face true justice.
But what shocks me the most is to see those western countries coming to teach and blame us Africans as if we don’t have minds or they don’t do wrong things. Let us the example of Mr Assange, if it was happening in Africa do you think how louder the International Journalist Association could have been ? But because it is in Europe, none seems to be caring about it.
Another case is about Guantanamo bay issue, let us see how innocent people are being incarcerated without trial for more than 5 years, it is said that JUSTICE DELAYED MEANS JUSTICE DENIED; but because it is in America none will dare even to talk about it. See the treatment faced by ROMAN population in France and elsewhere you will see that the world is full of injustice, see how countries pretending to advocate democracy are banning Islamic headscarf in public but they point their fingers to Africa. MY AFRICA WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO WAKE UP ? They say no to torture but they brand water boarding (a famous system created by RUMSFELD under BUSH administration) as not being torture, they say that no one should be sent to a country where he or she will face death penalty but they want to send Assange to America, they sent Islamist, recently, to America; a country that applies death penalty, see how the US administration brands HEZBOLLAH as a terrorist organization but removes MKO (Iranian organization that killed thousands of Iranians) from this list, only because Hezbollah is against Israel do you think this is justified ? Me I don’t. what I need is that AFRICA SHOULD TAKE ITS OWN MATTERS IN ITS HANDS AND NEVER LET THOSE WESTERNERS MEDDLE IN ITS INTERNAL AFFAIRS. LET US SAY NO TO ANY FORM OF VIOLENCE EVERY WHERE IN THE WORLD. PEACE AND LOVE TO ALL
OYA, OYA, OYA!!!!!!!!! OYA! Twanze IKINYOMA. Twanze UBWICYANYI. Twanze MUNYANGILE. Twanze ABASAHURA IGIHUGU CYACHU. Twanze leta MBI YA FPR. Twanze KAGAME ni KINYOMA KYE. We have to stand up against any form of INJUSTICE whether inside or outside Rwanda. As Rwandans we should CHAMPION the fight against IMPUNITY. We should join the growing movement that realises that ENOUGH is ENOUGH, the “OYA TURANZE!!!” movement. The letter to Fred Rwigema (RIP) by Rama should galvanise us all to STAND UP AGAINST the vice in the FPR SYSTEM that has drained our souls and imagination. Tugarule UBUMPFURA nu BUNYANGAMUGAYO hamwe numurage Fred yadusigiye wu BUTWALI.
@Gahanga you are right, let us all SAY NO, kyangwa ngo OYA, to any form of violence, and I beg to add any form of manipulation too. If a whole minister of Justice admits that his Government presides over TORTURE, we should all in UNISON say NO!!! or OYA!!! TURANZE. The minister and his government should resign and be rejected respectively. Charity begins at home. Before we condenm WESTERNERS or OTHERS, I think we should first condenm our own government, RPF. After all it is our civic duty to do just that.
You all know how our country has slipped into another NORTH KOREA of Africa. We should all stand up and state the obvious, OYA TURANZE!!!!
Once King Martin said, we should learn to live together as brothers
Or we shall die together as fools.@ Gahanga stop those Kagame’s idiology
Of attacking western powers and accounting their internal mistakes just
To win public favour. Mr Gahanga if we don’t have international community
Protection in Africa these monsters can kill us all. Not only in Rwanda but
All over Africa we are cursed with heartless leaders who use whatever means
To remain in power. It you accuse America for Guantanamo bay just put your
Minds together and ask yourself was bush doing it for American or his personal
Survival? If you accuses Israel just ask yourself if Jews are doing it as a country or
Netanyuh as a person for his survival? Kagame never asked himself such questions
Coz if he did he would have corrected his mistakes. This man is gready for power
And we are loosing our friends, relatives, countrymen just becouse Paul and his
Group want to remin to power forever. I really wonder whether Tharasis is a qualified
Lawyer? This man never even in his life time ever won a case in court the time he was
Excesizing his profession in Uganda and now is justice minister who doesn’t know that
People are killed every night, people are toured everyday, hunted like animals, trucked
On phones and is confutable enjoying tax payers money. Am not biased with the state ariko
Let me remind these fellows if they do really read history, there is no single country in
Africa that contained dectators for morethan 50 years. You can kill whoever you want like
What Gadafi did, Idi Amin, Bokassa, mubrack with even foreign power support but time
Comes when you have to be accountable to all your deeds and sadly you go through in the
Same process you tried others with all mistreatments and even painful dearth. Am not wishing
You this Kagame and group but while fighting for your political survival try to be reasonable
Respect human rights, give people freedom and then find the best way of clinging on power with
People’s mandate like what you did in elections otherwise this plonging of killing believe me
Will have the most worst kick backs. You can call my advice rubbish like what Gadafi used to do
Even criticizing Americans and Britain in UN conference but when time knocks on your door
Believe anything can spark the exit. My dear friends in leadership be genuen with Paul and tell
Him the truth that is confutable sited on life time bomb so he should act accordingly and change
The stuation or we end up die together like fools. Karugarama you should do your work with the truth
Or you will be judged like Mohamed in Egypt.
I wish you peace and Change accordingly before change changes the stuation and we shall all become
The victim of your arrogance and past mistake Wich we might regret for the rest of our life.
zI0X8L Im obliged for the blog post.Thanks Again. Keep writing.