The New York Times

October 20, 2000

Rwandan's Appeal of Life Term Rejected by War Crimes Court

By MARLISE SIMONS

THE HAGUE, the Netherlands, Oct. 19 - Six years after 500,000 civilians were killed in a mass frenzy in Rwanda, the country's former prime minister learned today that he would spend life in prison for the crime of genocide after a United Nations tribunal rejected his appeal.

The former Rwandan leader, Jean Kambanda, who was convicted of the massacres of Tutsis in 1994, appeared before the appellate court of the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda, holding this session in The Hague, and listened motionless as the presiding judge rejected all eight counts of his appeal.

Mr. Kambanda, the world's first head of government ever to be convicted of genocide, had at first pleaded guilty to the charges. But he filed an appeal in September 1998, just three days after he received the maximum sentence of life in prison. The former Hutu official had expected greater leniency after his guilty plea and his cooperation with the court, which included testimonies on the inner working of the government as it planned the massacres.

Mr. Kambanda, who turned 45 today, had told the court in his appeal that he wanted to retract his confessions and wanted a new trial because he had been ill advised by a court- appointed lawyer. But the presiding judge, Claude Jorda, in reading the judgment today said that the former banker and economist, "given his intellectual and professional abilities, was capable of understanding the consequences of the crimes he had admitted to."

In the crowded public gallery, separated from the court by thick bulletproof glass, there was faint applause. Mr. Kambanda showed no expression during the 20-minute ceremony.

Mr. Kambanda's appearance in The Hague today threw light on the lingering mystery of his whereabouts. Because Mr. Kambanda had pleaded guilty and testified on the role of other high-ranking Hutu politicians and military officials during the massacres of 1994, he was never detained with the other prisoners of the Rwanda tribunal. Court officials disclosed today that the former prime minister had spent some time at safe houses in Tanzania rented for this purpose, but for much of the past two years he had been held in custody at the tribunal's detention center in The Hague. Mr. Kambanda's wife and two children were granted special protection by the court and are presumed to be in the Netherlands.

Now that the appeals court has upheld Mr. Kambanda's life sentence, he is likely to be returned to Africa, to Mali, Benin or Swaziland, which have agreed to take in convicts from the Rwanda tribunal, a court spokesman said. That statement, made at a press briefing, drew criticism from Rwanda's ambassador to the Netherlands, Jacques Bihozagara. He said the government of Rwanda demanded that those convicted by the international tribunal should serve their sentence at home and should not get better treatment than the 125,000 people held for war crimes in Rwanda, often in miserable circumstances.

"Why should the planners of the genocide receive special conditions?" he asked. "Why is the tribunal worrying if they get their breakfast, their lunch? A killer is a killer, whether he is a prime minister or not." If the tribunal believes that prison conditions in Rwanda are not acceptable, he said, the tribunal could help to improve them.

The Rwanda tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, where Mr. Kambanda was tried, has so far convicted eight people, all of them on charges of genocide. It now has 43 prisoners, 3 of whom will go on trial on Monday.