Des “rebelles” rwandais acquittés par un tribunal des Etats Unis.
Qui est alors responsable de l’attaque des touristes à Bwindi / Buyindi (Uganda) en mars 1999 ?
Le Rwanda s'est doté d'une nouvelle constitution. L'article 25 de la nouvelle constitution est dans son esprit parfaitement conforme à la déclaration des droits de l'homme :
"Le droit d’asile est reconnu dans les conditions définies par la loi. L’extradition des étrangers n’est autorisée que dans les limites prévues par la loi ou les conventions internationales auxquelles le Rwanda est partie. Toutefois, aucun Rwandais ne peut être extradé."
Toute déclaration écrite, si belle soit-elle, n'est qu'un chiffon de papier, tant qu'il n'existe pas une réelle volonté de l'appliquer. C'est ainsi que Paul Kagame, lors de sa visite aux Etats Unis début mars 2003, s'est permis de livrer aux autorités américaines trois de ces concitoyens (Francois Karake, 38 ans, Grégoire Nyaminani, 32 ans, et Leonidas Bimenyimana, 34 ans). Des observateurs ont comparé ce comportement de Paul Kagame au tribun romain, revenant à Rome et emportant comme tribut des esclaves destinés à la fosse aux fauves du Colisée. Il y a de sérieux doutes quant à l'implication des ces trois hommes dans l'attentat de Bwindi (Uganda) le 1 mars 1999 dont ils sont accusés. On se rappelle qu'AfroAmerica Network accusait un groupe de militaires APR, commandé par le lieutenant Gatoto, du meurtre des six touristes concernés. Selon AfroAmerica Network, tous les militaires du groupe ont été retirés de leur zone d'opération et le lieutenant Gatoto aurait succombé aux tortures que lui ont infligé les services de sécurité de Kagame. Par une mise en scène grotesque, de prétendus rebelles hutu devaient être inculpés pour ainsi détourner l'attention internationale du rôle néfaste que joue l'armée rwandaise dans le pillage et les meurtres massifs en RDC ce que confirme le lieutenant Aloys Ruyenzi :
"Another glaring example is the killing of western tourists in the Bwindi National Park, which prominently featured in western media. RPF immediately blamed it on the Interahamwe and so did the western media. Yet, they had been killed by RPF soldiers disguised as Interahamwe. The decision to kill western tourists venturing in that area had been taken manly for two reasons:
- The issue of Interahmwe would be more internationalised if they were accused of killing innocent western tourists. As a result, RPF would be given a free hand in fighting them the way it wants and wherever they are suspected to be;
- RPF suspected some Europeans of sympathising with Interahamwe by disclosing to them the positions of RPF. Moreover, the presence of foreigners near an insurgent area was hindering RPF atrocities perpetrated under the disguise of counter insurgents operations."
Objet : Rwandan Rebels acquitted in the USA Court!
Judge: Rwandan rebels tortured in Portland tourist murder case
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
Friday, 18 August 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Three Rwandan rebels charged with murdering two Oregon tourists in Uganda were tortured and coerced into confessing, a federal judge ruled, barring U.S. prosecutors from using the confessions in court. Jean-Paul Bizimana, alias Xavier Van Dame, (front) leaves the High Court in Kampala after he was sentenced to fifteen years in jail for killing eight foreign tourists in Buyindi Forest in Western Uganda.
The ruling dealt federal authorities a major setback in a case stemming from the 1999 deaths of eight sightseers who had traveled to a remote rain forest hoping to see rare mountain gorillas. The victims were hacked and bludgeoned to death.
A Portland couple, Rob Haubner and Susan Miller, were among the victims.
The three rebels, who could face the death penalty if convicted, said Rwandan officials bound and beat them with rocks and sticks until they confessed to the U.S.
investigators. Medical experts said scars supported those claims.
"The court is painfully aware that two innocent American tourists were brutally killed at Bwindi on March 1, 1999. But that sentiment may not, under the law, dictate the result here," U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle wrote. Haubner and Miller were killed along with tourists from Britain and New Zealand. Rebels later said they had targeted English-speaking tourists in a bid to weaken U.S. and British support for the Rwandan government.
A Ugandan judge sentenced one of the rebels, Jean-Paul Bizimana, to 15 years in prison in January for killing the tourists and their guide. Three other rebels -- Leonidas Bimenyimana, Francois Karake and Gregoire Nyaminani -- are being tried in a Washington federal court for the American deaths. In her 150-page ruling Wednesday, Huvelle said the men offered the FBI inconsistent confessions only after being subjected to torturous conditions. One of the men said he was subjected to "kwasa kwasa," in which he spent two weeks with one arm over his shoulder, the other behind his back and his wrists bound with rope.
They testified to being beaten with bricks and sticks, having their ears boxed and sitting naked in an empty concrete room flooded with water. Defense attorneys said the coerced confessions were the government's key evidence. Justice Department spokesman Brian Sierra said the agency was reviewing the decision and had not decided how to proceed. "We're all sitting around saying, 'If this was our call, it'd be all over here,"' said defense attorney Jeffrey O'Toole, who represents Bimenyimana. Huvelle said the Rwandan military captain responsible for the abuses believed his job was to elicit confessions to help solve the case for his superiors, who wanted to curry favor with U.S. officials. The abuses did not happen in front of U.S. authorities, and the judge did not say whether they should have known about them.
The defendants are former members of the Liberation Army of Rwanda, or ALIR. It was formed in 1996 in refugee camps in neighboring Zaire (now Congo) by members of the former Rwandan Armed Forces and civilian militia known as Interahamwe, which carried out the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Source : The Oregon Herald, 18-08-2006