Rwanda to Release Report on French Role in Genocide; Montenegrin Court Finds Albanian Separatists Guilty; Eta Terrorist Released Amidst Protest

by Sarah Benczik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

KIGALI, Rwanda - After a two-year investigation, Rwanda has announced that it will release a report detailing France’s role in the Rwandan genocide.  The report was privately submitted to the Rwandan government last November, but was not made public at that time.

The report was the work of a special commission established to scrutinize France’s alleged role in the genocide that took place in 1994 in the days following the assassination of Hutu then-president Juvenal Habyarimana.  It is estimated that Hutu extremists, in a violent backlash, sought and killed 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Many have accused France of training and arming the Interahamwe militia of Hutu extremists, and allege that France has further interfered with the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) by sheltering suspected leaders of the genocide within its borders.

Aloys Mutabingwa, Rwandan envoy to the ICTR said yesterday that the ICTR’s investigations had produced “sufficient and credible” evidence to bring French government officials before the ICTR.  He also stated that it was only because the ICTR wanted to avoid a diplomatic incident that French officials had not been charged.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame said last week that Rwanda has strong evidence implicating France’s role.  The BBC reports that Rwanda now intends to release the 500-page report resulting from the two-year commission.

For more information, please see:

Afrol News – France “should be charged” for Rwanda genocide – 9 August 2008

BBC - Rwanda to reveal ‘genocide role’ - 5 August 2008

Reuters – Rwanda’s Kagame blasts France over genocide – 7 April 2007

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PODGORICA, Montenegro – A Montenegrin court has convicted 12 ethnic Albanians of plotting a rebellion to carve out a separate region of Montenegro for Albanians during the months following the country’s separation from Serbia.

The court sentenced 17 defendants to prison terms ranging between three months to six years.  All 17 had been arrested in September 1996 during a police raid on the eve of Montenegro’s parliamentary election.  Police recovered a stockpile of weapons.  Four of the defendants are U.S. citizens, including the “mastermind,” Doda Ljucaj. 

Katrina Dedvukaj, sister of two of the defendants, said, “I am not happy. …We are not terrorists.”  Defense lawyers have stated that the defendant plan to appeal the decision.
With the exception of Ljucaj, the defendants were released on bail after their travel documents were confiscated. 

Montenegro has been accused of police brutality against the defendants.

For more information, please see:

B92 – 12 Albanians get 49 years for armed rebellion – 5 August 2008

International Herald Tribune - Montenegro court convicts 17 ethnic Albanians – 5 August 2008

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BARCELONA, Spain - Iñaki de Juana Chaos, convicted of a series of murders during the 1980s, was released from prison on Saturday.  De Juana Chaos had been sentenced to 3,000 years in prison, but under the 1987 penal code, he could only serve a maximum of 30 years. 

According to The Guardian, Spain's prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, said that the Basque separatist "generates a perfectly understandable feeling of contempt" among all citizens "and of course the head of government. But we must respect the law." 

De Juana Chaos, who is now 52, had actually earned the right to a 12-year-early release, but earned further jail time after writing newspaper articles from prison deemed to be terrorist threats.  He is now under a new investigation into a recent letter he wrote to be read at a welcoming ceremony held in his honor in San Sebastian, in which he allegedly praises terrorism by calling Domingo Iturbe Abasolo “a great man.”  It is illegal in Spain to express support for terrorism. 

De Juana Chaos’s release was protested by victim’s groups and family members, who, according to AFP, called his release “an insult to the judicial system and an affront to the victims of ETA.”

For more information, please see:

AFP – ETA killer’s release from Spanish jail sparks protests – 3 August 2008

International Herald Tribune – Spanish judge begins new probe of Basque militant – 4 August 2008

The Guardian – Spain: Families of victims protest at Eta terrorist’s release after 21 years – 4 August 2008