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United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas — Laredo Division: In the Matter of Surrender of Elizaphan Ntakffiutmana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

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Extract

Pending before the Court is a request by the United States (the Government) for this Court to authorize the surrender of Elizaphan Ntakirutimana (the Extraditee) to the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsiblefor Genocide and Other Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of Rwanda and Rwandan Citizens Responsible for Genocide or Other Such Violations Committed in the Territory of Neighboring States (the Tribunal).For the reasons stated below, the Court DENIES this request and ORDERS the immediate release of the Extradit

Type
Case Report
Information
International Legal Materials , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , March 1998 , pp. 398 - 404
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1998

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References

* The text is reproduced and reformatted from the original text of the decision obtained by the ILM Editorial staff from the court

1 A Prefecture is roughly equivalent to a State within the United States, and a Commune is roughly equivalent to a county within a state.

2 For many hundreds of years there has been ethnic fighting between Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda. The Hutus are the ethnic majority in Rwanda and comprised 84% of the population in 1994. At that time Tutsis comprised 14% of the population of Rwanda. Historically, Tutsis have held disproportionate levels of wealth and political power in Rwanda dating back to British Imperialist days and beyond.

3 The Bisesero region is a mountainous region of Rwanda that spans two communes.

4 The record is unclear” as to when the Extraditee arrived in the United States. The Government contends that he’ remained in-Rwanda in the months following the Mugonero attack and led the attacks in the Bisesero region. The Extraditee contends that he fled the Mugonero compound on the morning of April 16, 1394, and did not return to the area. What is undisputed is that at some point the Extraditee was admitted to the United States and was residing here legally when he was arrested

5 This same law authorized the surrender of persons to a similar U.N. tribunal investigating charges of genocide in the former Yugoslavia. The Court expresses no opinion on the Constitutional efficacy of those provisions.

6 Genocide is defined by the Tribunal in U.N. security counsel Resolution 955, Article 2, Paragraph 2 as: “[alny of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

  • (a)Willing members of the group;

  • (b)Causing serious bodily or mental harm to Members of the group;

  • (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

  • (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

  • (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” The only conceivably applicable section to the allegation that the Extraditee ordered that a roof be taken off of a church is (c).The Court cannot say in good conscience that, assuming as the Court must that the event occurred, taking the roof off of one church is inflicting conditions on the Tutsis calculated to bring about their physical destruction.