German court finally sentences Rwandan chief terrorists

For their involvement in war crimes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a German court has sentenced two Rwandan rebel leaders to 13 and eight years in jail respectively. Ignace Murwanashyaka, political head of the Hutu rebel group FDLR (Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda), and his deputy Straton Musoni were convicted of leading a terrorist organisation, and Murwanashyaka was also found guilty of four counts of assisting war crimes. Both have been living in Germany for many years and telecommanded the FDLR by email, telephone and SMS.

Is the verdict just? Are 13 or eight years enough for hateful perpetrators who lead terrorists and bear responsibility for cruel massacres, mass rapes and the use of child soldiers? In my opinion, this is not the most relevant question. The judges had to deal with crimes committed in Congo’s inaccessible jungle. They heard FDLR victims, but couldn’t verify what the witnesses said. They flew in FDLR members who met their “president” face to face for the first time in Germany and didn’t dare to say what they knew. At the end of the four-year-trial the court could only pass judgments on the basis of what it  could prove beyond doubt.

What is important is that Murwanashyaka and Musoni were convicted at all. Far too many perpetrators are still at large, and many of them are thought to lead a comfortable life abroad. Some of them are directly responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that left some 800,000 people dead. Just before the verdict in Germany, Rwanda’s National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) had published a list of 10 top FDLR leaders and other genocide suspects with arrest warrants on their heads, but who continue to lead the notorious group with impunity.

Among the FDLR ranks are many former members of the Interahamwe militia that carried out the genocide. They were driven out of Rwanda, which is now ruled by former Tutsi rebel leader Paul Kagame, and they have been operating on the other side of the border for two decades to fight Tutsi rule and influence in the region. The FDLR continues to wreak havoc and is a major reason why eastern Congo cannot find peace. It is classified as a terrorist organisation by the UN, AU, EU and the International Conference on the Great Lakes.

The UN has hailed the trial against Murwanashyaka and Musoni as a breakthrough after repeated calls by the Security Council to bring FDLR commanders living abroad to justice. After the ruling, the CNLG called on UN member states to follow suit and track and bring all FDLR leaders to justice. However, France has just rejected an extradition request by Rwanda for a French-Rwandan man who is accused of having co-organised a Tutsi massacre in Rwanda in 1994. It wasn’t the first rejection of a request of that kind. Genocide survivors now hope that he will be prosecuted in France, but also lament that out of 30 criminal complaints, only one trial has taken place in France within 20 years. This, by the way, is one of the reasons for the frosty relations between Kigali and Paris.

Reacting to the ruling, Johnston Busingye, justice minister of Rwanda, said : “This is a good step in giving justice to FDLR victims, and in the fight against the genocide ideology that the militia espouses.” He reminded the world, however, that the bigger task lies in eastern Congo where FDLR continues to operate.