Rwandan Arrested in the US is Convicted in Rwandan Genocide Court: Human Rights First Believes Case Shows the Importance of US Cooperating with International Tribunals

In a fine example of international justice at work, on February 19, 2003 two Rwandans were convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for their role in the killings of thousands of members of the Tutsi ethnic minority in Rwanda in the spring of 1994. Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, former chief Pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Rwanda, was convicted of aiding and abetting genocide. His son, Gerard Ntakirutimana, a medical doctor, was convicted of genocide and of crimes against humanity. The court found that the father had assisted Hutus who were facilitating the hunting down and killing of Tutsi refugees seeking shelter in a church, and that he led attackers to groups of Tutsi. The son was found to have shot dead two people and to have taken part in attacks against others.

What makes this judgment particularly significant in the US is that Pastor Ntakirutimana was the first individual to be surrendered by the US to an international criminal tribunal, setting an important domestic precedent. After the Rwandan’s arrest in Laredo in 1996, a Texas Magistrate initially refused the State Department’s request for an order to surrender him to the tribunal. The court held that the federal statute providing for the surrender of fugitives by the US to the ICTR was unconstitutional and that the US had failed to establish “probable cause” to support the surrender (See In the Matter of the Surrender of Ntakirutimana, 988 F. Supp. 1038 (S.D.Tex. 1997). Believing that this decision was wrong in law, and that the case was an extremely important test of the US’s obligation to comply with lawful requests for the surrender of individuals indicted by international tribunals, Human Rights First filed an amicus curiae brief in the federal court in the Southern District of Texas In 2000, the US Supreme Court finally confirmed a decision of the 5th Circuit Court reversing the denial of transfer, clearing the way for US officials to hand over Mr. Ntakirutimana to the ICTR.

The surrender of Ntakirutimana was an important milestone in US cooperation with international criminal tribunals. The US played a leading role in the establishment of the Rwanda Tribunal by the UN Security Council, and has often been at the forefront of international efforts to bring about the surrender of suspected war criminals to the ICTR as well as to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. In the case of Elizaphan Ntakirutimana the US demonstrated its willingness to comply with its own international duties towards international tribunals and to contribute to the global effort to ensure that there is no safe haven for war criminals. Moreover, the case is an excellent example of how international justice can work successfully when states cooperate. After the US played its role in transferring the suspect to the Tribunal, others will now play their part. Ntakirutimana will now serve his ten year sentence in one of several countries that have agreed to host prisoners convicted by the tribunal.

The Nktakirutimanas decision is the ninth judgment to be delivered by the ICTR, which was established by United Nations Security Council resolution 955 of November 8, 1994 to prosecute individuals responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Rwanda during 1994. Eight other trials are in progress. The Tribunal is located in Arusha, Tanzania.