Arusha 4

The library is a place of solace and opportunity to some

BY GEORGE KAGAME

Arusha

As part of its mission, the ICTR runs a fairly well equipped and managed modern library with internet connection and variety of regional internal newspapers or news magazines.

The lawyers, judges, interns and administrators have access to borrowing books; unfortunately that privilege is not extended to others outside the UN realm. Students from Tanzanian universities and visiting interns also use the library.


The library however provides other valuable privileges for common folks, today, fr example like so many days since I reached Arusha, I get to hang out with one of Rwanda’s former ministers that was standing for trial at the ICTR and was acquitted.

That does not mean that we go for drinks or watch movies, however the genial ex minister reports to the library everyday, checks his email, reads a couple of things on Google, flirts with the library lady managers and leaves for lunch to return later and carry on the same activities in no particular order.

The ex Minister Rob Mutama (not his real name) was brought to Arusha in 1996 after his arrest in Cameroon, he was charged for genocide related crimes, stood for trial and the ICTR acquitted him of charges in 2004.

The ICTR since that judgment in 2004 and the appeal in 2006 is still locating another country in which to resettle the minister.
The ICTR’s office of the Registrar and the UN High Commission for Refugees is still locating which country to take him to. This search has taken from 2004, when the minister was released to date.

During the period waiting for the UN to get him new nationality he lives in one suburb in Arusha. If he is not at his house we hang out in the library and share a few jokes once in a while, (as I write this he is chatting away with another dark coloured man who also reports in the library everyday as a visitor, we have waved hands too.)

For journalists, if its not a courtroom, the choices for places to hang out are very limited, it’s either library, press room or your house, so when the chambers are free the library is the only option.

Today there’s a man that is appearing as a prosecution witness in the case against another minister in the Habyarimana regime The witness today was asked if he ever met the ex minister in question, he answered back in very cold clear terms.
"The Minister came to our road block and recognized one of us never had a gun.
He slapped him in the face and had the poor guy arrested. The Minster then told us that our enemies were actually the.............. I killed many people and I have apologized for that." And that is the only time I want to be a lawyer!
Back in the library, a certain Rwandan lady walks in, I gesture in her direction to get her attention she does not bother.

It is strange here, the closed group fellowships people from the same country have when they are in foreign places is distant in Arusha. Here the corporate Rwandan community is just that corporate! With a few exceptions there is little interaction between people here, be they from the same country or otherwise, everyone is dressed in business class suits and as a way of greeting, they make comical facial expressions to each other and maybe a nod of the head.

You even never get to meet the beautifully endowed girl/woman who sits in the office next door. It is hard finding three people for example talking about Rwanda whipping Morocco by the magical score line of 3.1.

In the lift, which is just about among the rare places where you get in close contact with someone, it’s a mini nightmare, you are stuck with this guy, or chick in one little box for close to two minutes, doing nothing but stealthily trying to look at each other. Sometimes, I hang out in the lifts so I can meet someone strange on a particular day.

It is not surprising that there is no room for people to exchange unnecessary niceties or pleasantries. Here life moves faster. People are always on the move, a Belgian former army colonel will be in town for three days to testify, as a Canadian lawyer is here only for two days to provide expert blah blah. \


Add a Senegalese student that is here doing research for only two weeks and you have a community of constant strangers, outside on the streets, on a good day, there are more tourists on the pavements than locals in the town city centre.

People who are on the run always never have time for Friday movies or drinks! Like American journalist Josh Kron wrote in The New Times recently; "After only seven months, you are already a veteran." With such background for a workplace, the library is a temple for many lonely people working for the ICTR, which is the only way we end up hanging out with ex minister.