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What obligation does the international community have to participate in the process of justice for individual nations that have been ravaged by genocide or mass violence?
Within a society that is transitioning out of a period of genocide or mass violence, a multi-faceted effort at repairing, rebuilding and seeking justice is required. To be successful, a variety of components, from political and social arenas, to key institutions such as the police force and the education system, must participate in the process of transitional justice. But sometimes internal efforts are not enough. In the case of justice after genocide, a society may not be able to handle the task of judicial proceedings and truth commissions, and must turn to the international community for help. |
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Journalist Philip Gourevitch was one of the first people to draw the world’s attention to the Rwandan genocide. His book, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with our Families: Stories from Rwanda, brought the genocide into living rooms, classrooms
and the popular imagination. The book’s title comes from a story Gourevitch tells that takes place during the early stages of the genocide. The author tells how Tutsi sought refuge in a small hilltop village in the province of Kibuye called Mugonero. Headquarters of the Seventh-Day Adventist mission, Mugonero has a complex of buildings that include a church and a hospital.
Gourevitch tells the story of what happened to those Tutsi, and the fate of their spiritual leader, Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana.
Among the Tutsis at the Mugonero church and hospital complex were seven
Adventist pastors who quickly assumed their accustomed role as leaders of
the flock. When two policemen turned up at the hospital, and announced that
their job was to protect the refugees, the Tutsi pastors took up a collection, and
raised almost four hundred dollars for the policemen. For several days, all was
calm. Then, toward evening on April 15, the policemen said they had to leave
because the hospital was to be attacked the next morning. They drove away in
in a car with Dr. Gerard [A son of Pastor Ntakirutimana], and the seven pastors in the hospital advised their
fellow refugees to expect the end. Then the pastors sat down together and
wrote letters to the mayor and to their boss, Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana,
Dr. Gerard’s father, asking them in the name of the Lord to intercede on their
behalf.1
[The letter reads as follows:]
Our dear leader, Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana:
How are you! We wish you to be strong in all these problems
we are facing. We wish to inform you that we have heard that tomorrow
we will be killed with our families. We therefore request you to intervene
on our behalf and talk with the Mayor. We believe that, with the help of
God who entrusted you the leadership of the flock, which is going to be
destroyed, your intervention will be highly appreciated, the same ways
as the Jews were saved by Esther.
We give honor to you.
The letter was signed by Pastors Ezekiel Semugeshi, Isaka Rucondon, Seth Rwanyabuto,
Eliezer Seromba, Seth Sebihe, Jerome Gakwaya, and Ezekias Zigirinshuti.2
The response to their plea came within hours. Samuel Ndagijimana, a Tutsi orderly at the hospital who was now seeking refuge, recounts the events surrounding the letter:
“And the response came,” Samuel said. “It was Dr. Gerard who announced
it: ‘Saturday, the sixteenth, at exactly nine o’clock in the morning, you will
be attacked.’” But it was Pastor Ntakirutimana’s response that crushed
Samuel’s spirit, and he repeated the church president’s words twice over,
slowly: “Your problem has already found a solution. You must die.” One of
Samuel’s colleagues, Manase Bimenyimana, remembered Ntakirutimana’s
response slightly differently. He told me that the pastor’s words were “You
must be eliminated. God no longer wants you.”
Following the genocide, Ntakirutimana and his wife fled from Rwanda to Zaire to Zambia, and ultimately to Laredo, Texas in the United States. It was there that Philip Gourevitch interviewed him on September 25, 1996, and it was there the day after Gourevitch’s interview, that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested him based on an indictment issued against Ntakirutimana by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The indictment against Ntakirutimana included charges of genocide, complicity to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity (murder). In 1997, U.S. Judge Marcel C. Notzon rejected the indictment and issued a decision saying that Ntakirutimana should be immediately freed.
The “Laredo Judgment” was eventually overturned and Ntakirutimana and his son were taken into custody and extradited to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda based in Arusha, Tanzania. Over the course of several months, prosecutors brought witnesses and survivors to Tanzania to testify against Ntakirutimana and to help reconstruct that crucial period in early April, 1994. Among the evidence used against Ntakirutimana and his son was the letter given to Philip Gourevitch, a letter that Gourevitch gave to the International Criminal tribunal. In February 2003, the International Criminal Tribunal handed down the following sentences: 10 years imprisonment for Ntakirutimana, and 25 years imprisonment for his son. Click here for details concerning the sentence.
Connections for the Classroom...
- This story is tragic. Although we present the story in order to deepen our understanding on issues of justice, it is painful to read about such an horrific event. And so it is important to take time to reflect on your thoughts, emotions and reactions to what you have just read. In your journal, take some time to write about the case of Pastor Ntakirutimana.
- Research the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and the International Criminal Court (ICC), established in 2003. What obligation do countries have to participate in international justice? Why have some countries chosen not to take part in the ICC? What are some of the opportunities and challenges these global institutions face?
- Reflect on the sentence given to Ntakirutimana and his son. How do you interpret this judgment? Do you think this sentence represents justice served? If not, what sentence do you think would have been the most just?
1 We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with our Families: Stories from Rwanda, by Philip Gourevitch (Picador, New York) 1998, p. 28.
2 Ibid., p. 42.
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