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  • TUESDAY MARCH 27 2007 3:00 PM

Rwandan Set to Stand Trial in Canada for Genocide

Submitted by ElizaGirl

Edited by erin_broadley

Tags: Rwanda, Genocide, Dallaire, Canada, War Crimes, Hutu, Tutsi

Some seven years after Canada passed laws regarding crimes against humanity, a Rwandan is being charged with (among other crimes) genocide and war crimes. It is Canada's first trial since the laws passed in 2000.

Forty year old Desire Munyaneza, who came to Canada in hopes of refugee asylum in 1997, is accused of participating in the rape and murder of Tutsis during the 1994 attacks, in which an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were brutally and systematically slaughtered, most within a period of less than two months.

Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian General placed by the UN in Rwanda during the genocide is set to testify, as are survivors and other witnesses of the atrocities. One unidentified witness, who was 17 in 1994, claims to have seen Munyaneza killing several young Tutsis herself.

"He was moving around with a club, taking young people, beating them because they were the ones they wanted to kill first," she told the court.


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Comments
MschfMayhemSoap

MschfMayhemSoap

Phoenix, AZ
April 2006

MAR 27, 2007 04:22 PM

I saw that movie



glad to know the victims will get justice.

ElizaGirl

ElizaGirl

Yemen
August 2004

MAR 27, 2007 04:28 PM

See the BBC movie "Shooting Dogs" (which refers to the fact that so many corpses piled up--everywhere--that dogs were eating them and spreading disease. The same armed soldiers who were not given authority to use their guns to intervene in the genocide were given license to use their guns to shoot dogs) about the genocide. It was hideously painful to watch, but really, really well done.

and I don't knot if the victims can get anything approaching justice. Ever. But it's something...and it's a good message for Canada to be sending, imho.

Merritt

Merritt

Bainbridge Island, WA
October 2004

MAR 27, 2007 04:55 PM

I can't believe that only 27 people have been tried an convicted in Rwanda itself. Token justice, eh? Bravo for Canadia for doing what's right.

KushielsScion

KushielsScion

Gardendale, AL
May 2004

MAR 27, 2007 05:54 PM

If any body really cared they would have done something to try and stop it. This is why the UN is a waste of time and money. Action could have saved more people than I can count.

I applaud Canada for taking action outside the UN and actually doing something, but I can't see trials like this ever coming close to bringing about real justice.

OpticNerve

OpticNerve

Arlington, MA
November 2003

MAR 27, 2007 09:30 PM

rampage121584 said:
If any body really cared they would have done something to try and stop it. This is why the UN is a waste of time and money. Action could have saved more people than I can count.

I applaud Canada for taking action outside the UN and actually doing something, but I can't see trials like this ever coming close to bringing about real justice.



I suggest you read General Dallaire's detailed memoirs on the UN peacekeeping mission to Rwanda and re-assess your belief of the irrelevancy of the UN.

zenFish

zenFish

Vancouver, BC
August 2004

MAR 27, 2007 10:34 PM

OpticNerve said:

rampage121584 said:
If any body really cared they would have done something to try and stop it. This is why the UN is a waste of time and money. Action could have saved more people than I can count.

I applaud Canada for taking action outside the UN and actually doing something, but I can't see trials like this ever coming close to bringing about real justice.



I suggest you read General Dallaire's detailed memoirs on the UN peacekeeping mission to Rwanda and re-assess your belief of the irrelevancy of the UN.



+1 to that... but it also shows just how hard it is to make the UN work.

but it CAN if people want it to.


Xerxes

Xerxes

South Africa
June 2005

MAR 27, 2007 10:49 PM

Yay for Canada! I wish more and more people could be brought to justice.

RudieCantFail

RudieCantFail

I'm lost
January 2006

MAR 27, 2007 11:12 PM

Merritt said:
I can't believe that only 27 people have been tried an convicted in Rwanda itself. Token justice, eh? Bravo for Canadia for doing what's right.



The Rwandan government decided not to pursue charges against against every single person who committed a heinous act during the turmoil, and instead chose only to bring formal charges on the leaders who incited the atrocities. The main reasons being that the government had no hope of incarcerating or providing expedient justice to the over 100,000 people accused of crimes. Those accused of lesser crimes were charged in the communal Gacaca justice system, which is based on traditional modes of justice and reconciliation in that region of Africa.

The other aim of using the Gacaca system is to move towards reconciliation and unity so that ethnic strife is not perpetuated.

On a side note, one of the most horrible things about all the racially motivated strife in Rwanda is that those racial distinctions are artificial ones imposed by European colonists.

OpticNerve

OpticNerve

Arlington, MA
November 2003

MAR 27, 2007 11:53 PM

zenFish said:

OpticNerve said:

rampage121584 said:
If any body really cared they would have done something to try and stop it. This is why the UN is a waste of time and money. Action could have saved more people than I can count.

I applaud Canada for taking action outside the UN and actually doing something, but I can't see trials like this ever coming close to bringing about real justice.



I suggest you read General Dallaire's detailed memoirs on the UN peacekeeping mission to Rwanda and re-assess your belief of the irrelevancy of the UN.



+1 to that... but it also shows just how hard it is to make the UN work.

but it CAN if people want it to.




Exactly. That was one of the salient points I came away with after reading General Dallaire's accounts of being blocked by Americans and by other officials from Western powers from getting the equipment and the diplomatic support he needed to stop the genocide.

Gayballs

Gayballs

Seattle, WA
July 2005

MAR 28, 2007 12:28 AM

wait...
Where's the ironic title to this story?

KushielsScion

KushielsScion

Gardendale, AL
May 2004

MAR 28, 2007 04:10 PM

OpticNerve said:

rampage121584 said:
If any body really cared they would have done something to try and stop it. This is why the UN is a waste of time and money. Action could have saved more people than I can count.

I applaud Canada for taking action outside the UN and actually doing something, but I can't see trials like this ever coming close to bringing about real justice.



I suggest you read General Dallaire's detailed memoirs on the UN peacekeeping mission to Rwanda and re-assess your belief of the irrelevancy of the UN.



I'll do that, thank you. But I doubt it will change my belief that action could have been taken early on to stop so many people from dying.

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