Arusha notes 2

Here ICT is a bridge to the ever present Language barrier

BY GEORGE KAGAME
Arusha


Inside the ICTR courtrooms there are installed all sorts of communication technology gadget. This is because the courts proceedings have complex communication issues to deal with that make it hard for detainees, witnesses, lawyers and even judges to communicate between each other effectively.

Apart form the fact that the detainees cannot speak English the main lingua franca of the court, there over 99 nationalities employed at the court-presenting a challenge that would have the hands of Kigali's numerous event management firms full.

First some detainees cannot read or write in any language making an observer wonder how they were effective in masterminding the slaughter of so many people in such a sort time without using any complex technology. The detainees that can speak do so only in Kinyarwanda and or French yet most communication here written or otherwise are in English, so the ICT equipment was primarily installed to deal with this problem.

The language issue is very interesting for me as a Rwandan working here, last week there was the unfortunate death of a Voice of America journalists who happened to be a Rwandan. I did not know him personally but out of professional fellowship I went to attend the vigil.

As the night grew several people joined the vigil crew and normally we were all speaking Tanzanian Swahili, I knew only later that all the people I was talking were Rwandan but who strictly spoke in Swahili as a disguise, they never wanted a new face to know they are Rwanda.

The fallen journalist, (he was Rwandan but will be buried in Tanzania died of a stroke on his way to report to work last Friday morning. The language barrier also ensured that there are many people employed here as translators and that is the only section in which many Rwandans are employed.

The court has a heavy presence of white people; it’s not easy to know which countries they all come from so the colour description is the only way that I can identify them so far. Most of the legal interns are white just as are many senior experts; even the senior security officials are also white apart from the rude senior official who heads security at the UN detention centre. He is also from West Africa.

The middle level executives are mainly West Africans while simple administrative jobs are held by Tanzanians. This simple description goes right to the internal workings of tribunal; many of the suspects are defended by West Africans especially from Cameroon-from where a sizable number of the 1994 Rwanda genocide suspects were arrested. I think this is because the suspects can easily communicate with the Cameroonians in French.

There is a also a big number of defense lawyers from Canada. I thought this is because Canada and Cameroon are big fans of international justice but a seasoned journalist here corrected me that there are several historical factors at play her concerning the issue.


About Cameroon for example, the journalists told me that the suspects had run to that country because they believed the good old theories of early European missionaries who decided with 'scientific evidence' that some Rwandans had come from Cameroon while another section were simply ‘foreign’ and they never agreed on which part of the world the ‘foreigners’ came from.

So when the RPF captured Kigali in 1994, the genocide suspects shifted their government machinery from Kigali to Gisenyi, moving into Eastern Congo and ending up in Cameroon, the rich ones flew while the poorer ones walked. Some of them remained in Eastern Congo.

Today is one such day when working at the ICTR gets exciting, this is because after sitting in the chambers for 8 hours, there's no story to file, the lawyers are either arguing or presenting evidence...some of this evidence is down right gruesome while some is interesting.

Today the premises of the court are also hosting the 8th Rev Leon H Sullivan summit. The summit is a huge conference that brings many international experts on Africa, African leaders, American African experts and politicians to find solutions to improve the conditions of living on the African continent.

There are rumours in the corridor today that the detainees are planning to stage a protest or demonstration. The demonstration, it is reported is because the detainees are concerned about the record of the government of Rwanda in regard to respect of human rights, they want the government to respect human rights and they hope to get the attention of Ambassador Andrew Young the former US ambassador to the UN.

So the chief spokesman of the ICTR and all his lieutenants are holding a closed door meeting about the issue. The media was not invited. The actual issue is actually is about the transfer of these suspects for their cases to be hard in Rwanda but no, they want to remain in Arusha. It is ironical that genocide suspects want to teach a legitimate government about human rights!



To be continued…