Rwandans express mixed on Bagosora's life sentencing by the ICTR

BY GEORGE KAGAME

Across section of Rwandans interviewed by The New Times on Thursday for their reactions on the sentencing to life in jail for three individuals who have been identified as crucial in the planning and the implementation of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda with mixed reactions.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in what many observers say is their land mark trial so far sentenced to life imprisonment the Theoneste Bagosora a highly influential officer in the Rwandan national army prior to the Genocide in 1994, n the same judgement read by Norwegian judge Erik Mose, Lieutenant Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva; and Major Aloys Ntabakuze were also given life imprisonment sentences while General Gratien Kabiligi, a former director of operations in the same army and along with the three was in the same group jointly tried as Military Trail one was acquitted.

The majority of the interviewees picked randomly in Kigali said that Bagosora and his three co-accused in the Military Trial case deserved the life sentence he was given by the ICTR and that the trial took unnecessarily longer as there was not much research needed to ascertain the gravity of Bagosora's crimes in the Rwandan responsibility. Alphonse Bucyanayandi 39 and a resident of Gikondo and working in Kacyiru said the sentencing of Bagosora, Nsengiyumva; and Ntabakuze was long overdue; "the sentencing was expected and only because the ICTR does not a more harsh punishment. In my view, there's no possible punishment that Bagsora can be given to help the healing process of the country. But life sentence is better than anything else in the alternatives the ICTR have."

Robert Rwiyemeye 32, a survivor working in the city centre said he was disappointed that the trial took such a long time to come to an end; "we have endured much humiliation reading and listening to the radio about the proceedings in Arusha, the sentencing of these particular individuals should not have taken such a long while but am happy that Bagosora will hopefully spend the rest of his life in jail and i hope he stays long enough as the victims of his activities have endured for so long."

Maria Mukandoli 29 a kiosk owner in Nyabugogo said the judgement is crucial for its timing because it was one of the most important trials that the ICTR claims to have delayed in completing; "now that the biggest suspects have been sentenced, i hope that that ICTR does not ask for their mandate to be extended beyond 2009 as they asked the security council."
Stephen Muganga 45, who witnessed killings in Kanombe said he was disappointed by the acquittal of General Gratien Kabiligi; "Kabiligi was an influential commander in 1994, there's no chance that as director of military operations in the army he never participated in the killings." Kabiligi was one of the four former officers in the genocidal regime forces and was acquitted by the ICTR.

Bernoid Kaboyi the Executive Secretary of Ibuka a local organization charged with assisting the survivors of the genocide refused to give his opinion on the judgement when contacted by The New Times but Fracois Xavier Ngarambe the Spokesman of the Prosecutor's office said that the judgments were welcome but he objected to the acquittal of Kabiligi and the 20 years jail sentence given to Juvenal Habyarimana's in-law Protais Zigiranyirazo for his role in the genocide; "i have also been following the sentencing sessions in the news but anyone would have sentenced Bagosora to life in jail if you followed his responsibilities in the history of Rwanda. It is also good that the judgments are out of the way."