President Kgame surrounded by his Minster of Justice and attorney General on Monday while addressing the UN General Assembly accused the west of playing double standards when dealing with international justice especially in African issues. But does the Rwandan head of state have the moral authority to accuse others of double standards in dispensing justice when he is exactly doing the same in a country he rules with an iron hand?
While President Paul Kagame is categorically right the world has to ensure that universal justice and equality are realized to ensure the rule of law is more effective domestically and internationally, he should extend the same hand of justice to his people who are either tried in his supervised courts or without following the due process of law where some people are extra judiciary executed.
“One can begin with the important principle of universal justice, an ideal which I believe we all would like to see realized. The rule of law internationally is premised on the principle that equality before the law is universal. This, however, is not always the case,”
Does President Kagame realize that the realization of justice is not only realized through his own lenses but in the lenses of many people who are deprived of justice by dictators like him and his counterparts in Africa? Where on earth or heaven would people like Hissene Habre the former dictator of Chad who killed his own people and fled to Senegal would have been brought to justice without universal justice?
The Rwandan President further argues that some national jurisdictions have assumed superiority over others without any legal or other justifications, resulting in the law being applied selectively. On contrary the Universal Jurisdiction has been applied in circumstances where leaders of dictatorial regimes have committed crimes against humanity under international law which constitutes a crime of international community where every state including Rwanda have a duty to fulfill the international obligation. Indeed, Rwanda has benefited from this principle than any other member of the international community.
It is worth noting that people like Theoneste Bagosora, Jean Kambanda and all the people who committed genocide against Rwandans would have been unreachable without the ICTR which of course is the hybrid of Universal Jurisdiction.
As the Rwandan President would like us to believe that the world will never have universal jurisdction if dictators like him are asked to account on human rights violations in their respective countries. While I do agree on this occasion with President Kagame that countries need to work together to guarantee universal justice in order to give it a meaning, the fact that he does not want to cooperate with other countries on the gross human rights violations committed by himself and his RPF soldiers in particular to cooperate and surrender his army generals who massacred the Bishops of Rwanda in Kabwayi makes his testimony a mockery and meaningless.

It is tragic that he preaches the rule of law to the international community in total disregard of the recent UN Mapping report that implicates the Rwandan government in the invasion of Congo by his own soldiers and through his proxy M23. How will the international community deal with cunning dictators who politicise justice and turn around accuses the international community of politicizing justice? The President of Rwanda should begin at home, as the saying goes , charity begins at home, the national and international justice are not different entities, in fact if domestic jurisdiction work properly and dictators like him disappear , the international universal jurisdiction will be irrelevant.
As usual Kagame cunningly informed the UN General Assembly that Rwanda has firsthand experience about the importance of the rule of law and more specifically, the implication of its absence or disregard, and unequal application. Is President Kagame aware that he is telling the international community which has recently investigated the Rwandan involvement in Congo and all his allies in the west have withdrawn the budget support and the European Union has now stopped all the contribution they have been injecting in his budget?
I do agree with President Kagame that pure punitive course of action is not always the best, but when should they be ignored? He interestingly admits that politics and justice are intertwined and separating them is a complex puzzle. Indeed, this how he has incarcerated all his political opponents and sentenced his comrades in absence.

He has always used genocide to silence all his political opponents using his courts and goes on deceiving the international community that Rwanda’s experience following the genocide is a stark example. Rwanda’s experience to justice leaves a lot to be desired, he singles out Gacacaca as one of the alternative approach to solve what he calls priorities of justice and social harmony, but for many Rwandans who know how Gacaca was used as a tool to settle political scores, will definitely tell you that it was hell on earth for people like former Prime Minister Celestin Rwigema who after falling apart with Kagame, Kagame ordered his Prosecution Authority to indict Rwigema for genocide. Is that Justice without politics?
Later Rwigema was he cleared without going into the due process of justice and he was nominated to represent the RPF regime to the East African Legislative Assembly after a big political bargain. I think Rwandans will one day put Kagame to task to explain all his actions in perverting the course of justice. I would therefore argue that President Kagame lacks the moral authority to preach justice both on regional and international level.
Jacqueline Umurungi

Brussels