Jean Kambanda

Headline text

Jean Kambanda (born October 19, 1955) was the prime minister in the caretaker government of Rwanda from the start of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. He is the first and only head of government to plead guilty to genocide, in the first group of such convictions since the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide came into effect in 1951.

Kambanda holds a degree in commercial engineering and began his career as a low-level United Popular BPR banker, rising as a technocrat to become the chair of the bank. At the time of the April 1994 crisis he was vice president of the Butare section of the opposition Democratic Republican Movement (MDR).

He was sworn in as prime minister on April 9, 1994, two days after the President and former prime minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana was assassinated. The opposition MDR had been promised the prime ministerial post in the transitional government established by the Arusha accords, but Kambanda leapfrogged several levels in the party's hierarchy to take the job from the initial choice, Faustin Twagiramungu. He remained in the post for the hundred days of the genocide until July 19, 1994. During the massacre, Kambanda broadcast incitements to violence over the radio, such as: "genocide is justified in the fight against the enemy." After leaving office he fled the country.

Criminal responsibility

Kambanda was arrested in Nairobi on July 18, 1997, after a seven-week multinational stakeout and transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The court accused him of distributing small arms and ammunition in Butare and Gitarama with the knowledge that they would be used to massacre civilians. He was found guilty after acknowledging that he supported the calls for murder broadcast onRadio Rwanda, and that he distributed weapons to the militias. He confessed that the government organized the genocide in advance (officially, this was to ensure the safety of his wife and two children, although others have blamed the incompetence of his lawyers).

On September 4, 1998, the ICTR condemned Jean Kambanda to life imprisonment for:

Genocide, and Agreement to commit genocide
Public and direct incitation to commit genocide
Aiding and abetting genocide
Failing in his duty to prevent the genocide which occurred while he was prime minister
Two counts of crimes against humanity

This verdict was upheld by the ICTR House of Appeal on October 19, 2000, and Kambanda is currently jailed in Mali.

Blaming the army

Although Kambanda pled guilty after receiving legal counsel, his lawyer argued that the prime minister was a "puppet" of the military, who had dragged him from his bank, after killing the previous prime minister, to legitimize their control of their country. He asked the ICTR for a sentence of only two years because he acted "under duress with limited responsibility".

The court concluded that this defense against a charge of genocide was irrelevant, but this doesn't mean they accepted the story that he was "dragged from his bank", or that he briefly fled and was only titular head of government. This version of events is not as plausible as it may appear: although Kambanda seemed to be a relatively obscure member of an opposition party on 8 April 1994, commentators have questioned how powerless he really was. (For instance, the 2004 analysis published in the Chicago-Kent Journal of International & Comparative Law notes that Butare is the richest city in Rwanda, so a local politician also head of the largest bank would have significant influence.)

Responsible but not guilty

In his appeal, Kambanda said that his confession had been in error, due to poor or misunderstood counsel. He said that his objective was not to plead guilty but to tell the truth. According to the ICTR appeal:

"Kambanda noted that while he felt politically responsible for what happened, he did not feel guilty at the time and does not feel guilty now."

Legal legacy

As a head of government convicted by an international court, Kambanda is an important figure, with the verdict against him forming a precedent against the legal principle of State Immunity (which was used to reject an extradition order for Augusto Pinochet, for example ^[1]).

Preceded by Agathe Uwilingiyimana	Prime Minister of Rwanda April 9 1994 – July 19 1994	Succeeded by Faustin Twagiramungu

External links

Trial Watch on the case against Jean Kambanda.
The BBC story on Kambanda's testimony on the organization of the genocide, which forms an important source document for Linda Melvern's book Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwanda Genocide and the International Community (2004) Verso ISBN 1-85984-588-6
The ICTR official transcript of the sentencing phase, including Mr. Jean Kambanda's acknowledgement of his original guilty plea.
Commentary from the Center for International Human Rights on the Kambanda case, concerned that the former prime minister and his fellow accused were 'ordinary men'. Although admitted crimes of action and inaction are cited, the commentary notes that Kambanda and Jean-Paul Akayesu (his fellow accused) were "Pillars of their communities". It concludes:

"Of what are ordinary human beings capable -- be it in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia, El Salvador or elsewhere? Who is capable of genocide? And who is not?"

The Sacrifice of Jean Kambanda is a detailed account of the Kambanda trial and the politics & jurisprudence of ICTR, written by the California Western School of Law (2004).

The thesis is that Kambanda's conviction was accelerated to bolster confidence and support of the court within Rwanda. The principal charge against the workings of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is that Kambanda's right to counsel was overridden.

Although he was able to select his own choice of lawyer from a screened list, the court's Registrar held the final say. Not only was his attorney chosen by the court that was prosecuting him, the registrar is officially required to select a counsel 'prudently' with regard to their cost, and French and Canadian lawyers were initially excluded from the list (despite these countries supplying the majority of qualified French speakers who have passed the ICTR bar).

Kambanda's decision to defend himself for four months was scarcely recorded in the court's proceedings, and when he opted for counsel, the first act of the counsellor (who is characterized as 'inept') was to sign a confession to the prosecution's case. This analysis concludes that the appeal was strategically flawed, and that the probable reason for the legal "carelessness" was that Kambanda was the face of genocide in Kigali; no more time could be wasted before he was given the court's most severe punishment, without recourse to appeal.

Ultimately, the critique is not on the grounds of justice (Kambanda was certainly guilty), but concern that the court ultimately produced a show trial, since his appeal may not have been thrown out by the U.S. courts.

The International War Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) pressroom report on the Kambanda appeal - in which, among other things, the reasoning of incompetent representation and the credibility of a mistaken confession are rejected.

Notes

^ House of Lords Should Stand on "Right Side of History," says Rights Group - Human Rights Watch on the implications of the Kambanda conviction to Pinochet case (from 1998).