[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 23 (Wednesday, March 6, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1593-S1594]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR RWANDA

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Madam President, I rise today to voice my support for 
the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda which is the often-
neglected sister court to the International Criminal Tribunal for the 
former Yugoslavia at the Hague. While the international media carries 
regular coverage of the Milosevic trial and the NATO efforts to arrest 
individuals wanted by the ICTY, much of the world, it seems, has 
forgotten about the ICTR. This week, as the UN's fifth committee 
considers the tribunal's budget, I want to make plain my continuing 
concerns about the tribunal, but I also want to be crystal clear about 
my continued support for its work.
  In 1994, an unspeakable horror unfolded in the tiny central African 
site of Rwanda. Despite the initial references to ``ancient tribal 
hatreds'' at the source of violence, we now know that the genocide was 
not a series of spontaneous acts; it was not about crowds gone wild or 
tribal bloodlust. It was carefully planned and centrally directed. 
Extra machetes had been imported, militia groups were in place, and 
incitements to murder had become a regular element of programming on 
the hate-radio station. The planners targeted not only ethnic Tutsis, 
but also politically moderate Hutus who threatened their grip on power. 
We know today that individual people--leaders and planners--are 
responsible for the deaths of some 800,000 people, and that the blame 
for these atrocities cannot be heaped on some imagined cultural 
failing.
  Two weeks ago, I had an opportunity to visit the International 
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha during a weeklong trip to Kenya, 
Tanzania, and Mozambique that I undertook in my capacity as Chairman of 
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on African 
Affairs. During my brief visit, I was able to meet with the Deputy 
Registrar, with Judge Navanetham Pillay, who is the President of the 
ICTR, and with some members of the Prosecutor's office. I was also able 
to sit in on one of the trials underway--that of Laurent Semanza, a 
former mayor of Bicumbi who is charged with several counts of genocide, 
conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity, including 
rape. I heard some of the wrenching testimony in that case, and was 
astounded at the strength of the tribunal officials, whose work 
requires them to confront the horrible facts of the Rwandan genocide 
every day of their work.
  For many years, I have strongly supported accountability measures in 
cases where crimes against humanity have occurred, and I think that 
international support for such measures is particularly important in 
Africa, where too often the international community fails to respond to 
atrocities the way we would if such acts occurred in Europe or North 
America.
  For this reason, I have been a supporter of the Special Court for 
Sierra Leone. I have long supported the ICTR. In the last Congress, I 
authored legislation that was signed into law that would extend the 
U.S. rewards program to allow our government to offer and pay rewards 
for information about individuals wanted by the tribunal. The reason 
that we did this is because this provision had already existed for the 
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia--an example 
of how a double standard relating to the courts was at one time 
institutionalized in our government.

  What had happened since the Arusha tribunal's inception is nothing 
short of groundbreaking. The ICTR was responsible for the very first 
international convictions for the crime of genocide. Many people do not 
realize this, although the international community adopted the 
definition of the crime of genocide following the holocaust, it was the 
ICTR that launched the first successful investigation and prosecution 
for that crime. It was the first-ever international tribunal to convict 
an individual of rape as a crime against humanity and to rule that rape 
can be a crime of genocide. The Tribunal was the first such institution 
to actually convict a national leader, the former Prime Minister of 
Rwanda, of genocide. The court has established principles of 
international law that will be studied in law schools around the world 
for generations to come.
  And more importantly, it is establishing, in the minds of African 
leaders and African elites and African societies, the possibility that 
those responsible for crimes against humanity may one day be held 
accountable for their actions. In central Africa in particular, this 
goal is essential to ending the culture of impunity for gross 
violations of human rights, whether they occur in Rwanda or Burundi or 
eastern Congo. The people who have been laboring in Arusha to hold 
those most responsible for the genocide and for crimes against humanity 
in Rwanda in 1994 deserve recognition, and respect, and support.
  Now, there are a number of steps that the international community can 
take to help this worthy effort. First, we can ensure that the 
prosecutor's office is adequately staffed. It is almost appalling that 
the post of Deputy Prosecutor has been vacant since the middle of last 
year. I was informed that vacancies exist throughout the office. The UN 
has to speed up its recruitment process, priortizing the expeditious 
placement of competent applicants in important jobs, rather than 
starving the court of staff for the overriding goal of even geographic 
distribution of personnel. UN member states must also help to address 
another problem--that of sentence enforcement. Currently, few of the 
African countries willing to house persons convicted by the ICTR in 
their jails can meet international standards for prison conditions. Of 
course I am not suggesting that the international community refurbish 
the prisons of an entire continent. But I am suggesting that perhaps 
there are small and reasonable steps that we can take to help.
  And the US and the rest of the international community I think should 
support the tribunal's request for ad litum judges. They have already 
supported a similar request for the ICTY for the former Yugoslavia. All 
observers have been concerned about the pace of the tribunal. It makes 
sense to provide it with the capacity to move more quickly through its 
work.
  Mr. President, must has been made in recent days of the 
Administration's decision to publicly push for the ICTR and ICTY to 
finish their work in the next few years. And the need to wrap-

[[Page S1594]]

up the Tribunal's work is not in dispute--in my meetings with Tribunal 
officials, no one suggested that the Tribunal should not aim to finish 
its work by 2008. This consensus, however, does not change the fact 
that much important still remains to be done, and the tribunals will 
need continued support to complete it.
  Some have also suggested that the existence of tribunals has given 
the international community a rationale for neglecting developing of 
indigenous justice systems in countries subject to the tribunals. And I 
agree that this is a pitfall that must be avoided, and I strongly 
support efforts to strengthen the capacity and independence of the 
judiciary in countries that have suffered from wide-scale human rights 
violations. Last week, Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Pierre 
Prosper told the House International Relations Committee that ``the 
United States stands prepared to assist the states in rebuilding their 
shattered judicial systems to make them capable of dispensing truth-
based justice and establishing systematic respect for the rule of 
law.'' I certainly hope he is right, because this is an indispensable 
element in the global effort to bring some stability to the heart of 
Africa. But I am not yet convinced that our actions will match this 
rhetoric, and I am specifically concerned that no funding is being 
requested in 2003 for the Great Lakes Justice Initiative. And while I 
am encouraged by the Rwandan Government's efforts to address the 
massive backlog of genocide-related cases through a system of community 
courts known as gacaca and believe that the international community 
should help the government in Kigali to ensure the integrity and 
efficacy of this effort, I also respect the Rwandan's decision not to 
attempt to try those most responsible for the genocide--known as 
Category One suspects--in these untested courts in which judges have 
very little training and where only limited safeguards exist for 
victims and for the accused.

  Madam President, it is important to acknowledge that much of the 
criticism that has been leveled at the tribunal is fair, and it 
reflects real, and in some cases ongoing problems with the ICTR. Too 
often in the past, allegations of waste and mismanagement proved to be 
accurate, and the tribunal must exercise constant vigilance to fight 
corruption and abuse. Decisive steps must be taken to address the issue 
of fee-splitting between those on trial and defense counsel. I was 
pleased to learn about some of the efforts currently underway during my 
visit. I have raised these issues with the Chief Prosecutor, I have 
raised them with U.N. officials in New York, I raised them in Arusha, 
and I will continue to raise them. And overall, the tribunal simply has 
to pick up the pace of its work. I believe that this, too, is being 
addressed. During my visit there were three cases being heard 
simultaneously. And as I have mention, providing additional judges to 
the ICTR will help to address this problem.
  Madam President, because this tribunal is so important, the 
international community must keep working to get it right. The ICTR 
still has a great deal of work to do, and the international community, 
including the United States, must ensure that they are operating with 
all the necessary support, and operating under clear demands for 
accountability and integrity. These two initiatives--supporting the 
court and demanding an end to corruption and waste--are not 
contradictory, they are complementary. I urge my colleagues and the 
administration to pursue both with equal vigor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.

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