I don’t know if Rwanda’s formerly asked to try its longtime fugitive, Felician Kabuga who’s recently been arrested in the outskirts of Paris. The mentioning of the name Kabuga evokes anger, abhorrence, trauma and vengeance so seriously to speak. What a reeking criminal whose deeds destroyed many lives directly or indirectly! Likewise, Kabuga once shook the world for his balmy, brutality and inhumanness. It’ll take many years for us to comprehend the type of monstrous this person is. For, his dingiest deeds will always typify brutality and anility. While many criminals of Kabuga’s magnitude and nature faced their deaths violently the same way they or their agents and gung-hos violently did to many innocent people, some dirty netherworld kept Kabuga buoyant in his criminality for reasons only known to itself. And it seems. It’s sad. Kabuga won’t meet his end with the same violence thanks to the instruments charged with delivering justice to him either internationally or Rwanda to have no death penalty that he legally deserves.
Such a netherworld, indeed, didn’t only offend Rwanda and all human rights lovers but also traumatized it as a country and a people. What now brings a sigh of relief is the fact that, at last, the big eyes and long hands of justice have caught up with Kabuga at the manner and time nobody would expect. For, this hardnosed ogre evaded justice for over two decade which meant unfathomable tortures and trauma for Rwanda. It’s time now to cast this bad apple back out of France to Rwanda so that he can face justice.
Kabuga idiotically and unfeelingly tried to evade justice for a long time to end up buttonholed at the time nobody would expect. Moreover, Kabuga aka Mr. Machete, killed many more innocent people; and evaded justice for a long time. It’s too bad: such a predator spent many years of evanescence in comfort while those his victims, for the entire time he’s been at large, suffered inexplicable sufferings and trauma.
As we ponder on what to do with Kabuga, his children and friends or whoever that enabled him in any way to rent an apartment in Paris or anywhere, travel or evade justice must be added to the charge sheet as appurtenances after the fact to offences. I implore the powers that be that’ll deal with him to see to it that he discloses his coconspirators in order to help the authorities to deliver justice to them as well. I strongly beseech the international community to allow Rwanda to legally try Kabuga. That’s because the sacrilegious and heinous crime against humanity Kabuga charged with was committed in and against Rwanda.
If Kabuga isn’t tried in Rwanda, justice won’t be deservedly served. Being tried in Rwanda’s very important so that the victims cannot only see justice being served but also come to the closure after evidencing the monster[s] who ruined their lives being rewarded. Rwandans deserve and have the right to hear Kabuga’s story so that they can corroborate it with what they know.
Furthermore, Kabuga needs to be given an opportunity to apologise to millions of his victims whose loved ones he robbed. Arguably, Gaaca, Rwandan traditional justice system that’s proved to be effective and reconciliatory, stands as a very competent court to try Kabuga provided that, as noted above, Rwanda doesn’t have death sentence. As was the case of Nuremburg trials whereby Nazi criminals were tried in the country where the crime was committed, Kabuga too must not be tried anywhere except in Rwanda. While Nuremberg trials didn’t have precedent, Rwandan Genocide, just as any holocaust, has one on the Nuremberg trials. Essentially, the trial of Kabuga must be based on the rationale of where the crime was committed or secundum justttiam, ubi grande peaculum factum est.
First of all, as noted above, the crime Kabuga’s charged with was committed in and against Rwanda, which’s a locus in quo. Thus, Rwanda thereof qualifies to try this desperado.
Secondly, much, if not the entire evidence’s still in Rwanda. Thank Lord that Rwanda preserved this evidence.
Thirdly, trying Kabuga in Rwanda will avert financial and logistic bedlam of transporting witnesses to and from the location other than Rwanda where Kabuga’s going to be tried.
Forth, seeing’s believing. Kabuga’s victims deserve the rights to witness his trial so that they can have the opportunity to hear what he’s to say if he decides to after the court grants it; shall it deem it fit.
Fifth, Rwanda’s what it takes to try Kabuga just like any other criminals implicated in this sacrilegious act that left the world shocked about how a human could do what Kabuga and his co did to other humans.
Sixthly, allowing and enabling Rwanda to try Kabuga won’t only do justice to his victims and their families but also honour a grief-stricken nation that’s a lot to learn from this criminal, especially the means and motifs by which Kabuga committed this indescribable crime. Ergo, learning Kabuga’s criminality won’t only console his victims but also enable the world to know his netherworld in order to be able to thwart the likes whenever and wherever there are the signs of recidivism. As well, it’ll help academics to study the whole thing in order to find solutions on how to predict and prevent it.
Apart from bringing the closure, learning Kabuga’s netherworld, networks and sources of means will add up to the literature of how to deal with such lunacy. This is very important for reconciliation in conflict resolution. For, knowing what we don’t know on how Kabuga committed the crime[s] and evaded justice will send a strong signal to those who still think they can replicate what Kabuga heartlessly did. His story may not only disclose the link[s] he’d but also help to identify his accomplices who have never been brought to justice whether they’re Rwandans or not.
Lastly, allowing Rwanda to try Kabuga will act as the noblest act of socially redressing it for the total disappointment the international community intentionally or otherwise displayed during the commission of the crime whereby Rwanda was abandoned at the hour of its need up until the RPF came to save it from its predators who forlornly happened to be brainwashed Rwandans.
In a nutshell, Kabuga needs to pay and be rewarded for his deeds. This is the nature of justice and the law altogether. Actually, I can say. He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword though Kabuga is very lucky. For, Rwanda doesn’t have capital punishment that he fittingly deserves. In fact, there are many lessons from Kabuga’s arrest among which’s that no innocent blood can be shed in vain. As well, justice and truth may be delayed but not killed. He who daydreams that he/she can get away with murder must think twice. We need to support Rwanda to see to it that Kabuga and the likes are tried in Rwanda as the act of honouring the victims and the country. As noted above, by so doing, the victims and the nation might come to the closure of the hardest period of their lives ready to open a new page. And Kabuga needs to see with his eyes the country he destroyed and how it’s been rebuilt and developed.
Source: African Executive Magazine today.