Today I was reading a story that the Christian Science Monitor ran in early March about the trial of Pauline Nyiramashuhuko. Nyiramashuhuko is the first woman ever formally charged before the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity. She was a major player in the Rwandan government and numerous witnesses testified they saw her give orders for Hutu gangs to rape Tutsi women before killing them.
Rwanda would like to try Nyiramashuhuko itself partly because some in Rwanda still blame international actors such as the United Nations for not stopping the genocide when they had a chance and also for openly helping the genocide planners when they fled Rwanda for bordering countries.
But the length of the trials is also a bone of contention — these trials are moving at a pace which is just ridiculous. There are many rape victims who were not killed but who will die from AIDS well before Nyiramashuhuko’s trial concludes.
Look, the main Nuremberg trial lasted from November 1945 to September 1946 — 10 months. Nyiramashuhuko first plead guilty in September 1997. Her trial is likely to last well into 2005 — eight years in custody at a minimum, and of course it will take even longer for her inevitable appeal.
They should have just handed her over to Rwanda and let them try her if they were going to move at this glacial pace.
Source:
A woman on trial for Rwanda’s massacre. Danna Harman, The Christian Science Monitor, March 7, 2003.