Theoneste Bagosora: Evil In Disguise?
Guilty of genocide
Theoneste Bagosora will never be a household name, but it should be fixed indelibly in the mind of every murderous dictator around the world.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted Bagosora of being the "mastermind" of the Rwandan genocide that resulted in the deaths of at least 800,000 people. Bagosora and two accomplices were sentenced to life in prison.
The massacres began after a plane crash on April 6, 1994, that took the lives of the president of Rwanda and of neighboring Burundi. The court said the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile fired from the airport of Kigali, the Rwandan capital.
In the aftermath, Bagosora, a Hutu and a colonel in the army, took control of the Rwandan military and ordered Hutu militia to slaughter rival Tutsis, according to the determination of the court.
Putting mass murder on trial cannot lead to genuine satisfaction that justice was served. Some perpetrators, such as Pol Pot in Cambodia, escape prosecution altogether.
Even when the architects and agents of genocide are put in the dock, where their crimes can be exposed, there is no undoing the deaths, suffering and dislocation brought on by their atrocities. And, of course, no punishment can ever fit such horrors.
But trials and convictions do serve as a reminder that mass murder violates the consciences of decent people on all continents and as a warning to tyrants that the international community may hold them accountable.
That is not enough, but it is something. And it will have to suffice until the day when the world at last says "Never again" and means it.
Theoneste Bagosora will never be a household name, but it should be fixed indelibly in the mind of every murderous dictator around the world.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted Bagosora of being the "mastermind" of the Rwandan genocide that resulted in the deaths of at least 800,000 people. Bagosora and two accomplices were sentenced to life in prison.
The massacres began after a plane crash on April 6, 1994, that took the lives of the president of Rwanda and of neighboring Burundi. The court said the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile fired from the airport of Kigali, the Rwandan capital.
In the aftermath, Bagosora, a Hutu and a colonel in the army, took control of the Rwandan military and ordered Hutu militia to slaughter rival Tutsis, according to the determination of the court.
Putting mass murder on trial cannot lead to genuine satisfaction that justice was served. Some perpetrators, such as Pol Pot in Cambodia, escape prosecution altogether.
Even when the architects and agents of genocide are put in the dock, where their crimes can be exposed, there is no undoing the deaths, suffering and dislocation brought on by their atrocities. And, of course, no punishment can ever fit such horrors.
But trials and convictions do serve as a reminder that mass murder violates the consciences of decent people on all continents and as a warning to tyrants that the international community may hold them accountable.
That is not enough, but it is something. And it will have to suffice until the day when the world at last says "Never again" and means it.
Labels: Genocide
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 9:48 PM
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