Georges Ruggiu

Georges Ruggiu before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 2000

Georges Henri Yvon Joseph Ruggiu , or Georges Ruggiu for short , also Georges Omar Ruggiu , (born October 12, 1957 in Verviers , Belgium ) is a Belgian-Italian journalist and radio presenter . He participated in crimes during the Rwandan genocide . For this, he was sentenced on June 1, 2000 by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to twelve years in prison for crimes against humanity and genocide . He is the only European against whom the ICTR has passed a judgment.

Living in Belgium

Georges Ruggiu was born the son of an Italian firefighter and a Belgian teacher in Verviers, a town in the Walloon part of Belgium. He had three older sisters. His school and youth days were inconspicuous.

After completing his alternative military service , Ruggiu worked in his hometown as a social worker for the Belgian social administration. At first he took care of drug addicts , then he worked as a teacher for mentally handicapped children. In 1992 he moved to Liège and worked in a Belgian social security office . In his free time he was involved in helping people in need. Since 1990 his interest in Rwanda has grown from contacts with Rwandan students who lived in his neighborhood. These contacts became more and more extensive and, from mid-1992 onwards, included acquaintances with Rwandan nationalists living in Belgium . This group included students, politicians, officers, diplomats and people from the Rwandan government. Ruggiu founded the citizens' initiative Groupe de réflexion rwando-belge together with other people and published some articles on the Arusha Agreement and the political situation in Rwanda.

In August 1992, Ruggiu traveled to Rwanda for the first time on the occasion of a friend's wedding. Subsequently, his interest in the country increased. He rose to become one of the key figures on the Rwandan scene in Belgium and participated in major debates. In the spring of 1993, the then 35-year-old took a sharply negative attitude towards the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebel movement and instead supported the regime of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana . At that time, Rwanda was in a state of political upheaval. The RPF attacked the regime and the Rwandan army several times militarily and demonstrated its effectiveness. It was above all the intervention of French troops that secured Habyarimana's temporary power. Its rule, however, was not only called into question by the RPF, but also by the donor institutions, who vigorously called for the country's democratization. In addition, opposition parties emerged in the country itself in the early 1990s. In May 1993, Ruggiu and Habyarimana met several times. The talks, to which the President personally invited, dealt with the question of how the image of Rwanda and the reputation of the government inside and outside the country could be improved.

In Rwanda in 1994

In November 1993, Ruggiu finally moved to Rwanda. He started a family with his Rwandan girlfriend and worked for the presidential party Mouvement républicain national pour le développement (MRND). Habyarimana made sure that Ruggiu - albeit without any journalistic experience - found a job as a radio presenter at Radio-Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). This station, which employed seven other journalists in addition to Ruggiu, started broadcasting on August 8, 1993 and quickly developed into the central medium for spreading hatred of the RPF, the Tutsi minority as a whole and all allegedly disloyal Hutu . RTLM employed the Belgian, who did his programs not in the national language Kinyarwanda , but in French, from January 6, 1994 to July 14, 1994.

According to the judgment against Ruggiu, the latter has called for the murder of Tutsi over the radio. He put forward these calls as a demand to destroy the “cockroaches” ( Inyenzi ) - by that the Tutsi were meant. He called on the Hutu majority population in the weeks of the genocide to go about their work - an appeal that anyone in Rwanda can decipher to participate in the mass murder. He congratulated the Génocidaires on their deeds and encouraged them. He called on the population to be vigilant. Tutsi traitors should be tracked down, the broadcaster wants information about their whereabouts so that it can be spread.

He also attacked moderate Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana through the broadcaster and asked her to resign. Ruggiu also targeted the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). He accused her of collaborating with the RPF, this was particularly true of Roméo Dallaire , the Canadian commander of this United Nations peacekeeping force . After April 6, 1994, Ruggiu publicly claimed that UNAMIR was responsible for the murder of Habyarimana. The rockets that hit the presidential plane on the evening of April 6, 1994, were fired from an area that was under the control of UNAMIR.

Ruggiu agitated in particular against Belgium and thus against the Belgian contingent of blue helmets. It was Belgian rockets that were fired at the presidential machine. Belgium is responsible for the repression of the Hutu majority by the Tutsi minority and supports the RPF. The Belgian ambassador is planning a coup. Belgians appear in a neo-colonialist and blackmailing manner, so they - whether civilians or military - have to leave the Central African country immediately.

On April 12, 1994, Ruggiu and other journalists are known to have taken part in a tour through Kigali and the surrounding area, which was organized by the Rwandan army. The nature and extent of the massacres did not go unnoticed by Ruggiu. According to the court ruling, Ruggiu did not participate in direct acts of violence or killing. According to the court ruling, Ruggiu helped some people in need - Tutsi children and refugees asking for food, including Tutsis - during the weeks of the genocide.

Escape and arrest

After the end of the genocide, Ruggiu fled the country on July 14, 1994. First he stayed in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo ) and Tanzania , then in Kenya . To avoid arrest, he lived in different places under different identities. During the escape, Ruggiu published a book in which he denied that RTLM had called for violence against Tutsi. The broadcasts only served to mobilize the population against the RPF. In Kenya he came into contact with Muslims from Somalia , converted to Islam and took the name Omar . On July 23, 1997, the Kenyan criminal police arrested him in Mombasa as part of a major arrest operation against Génocidaires. On the same day, the authorities transferred him to the ICTR detention center in Arusha, Tanzania .

Trial, verdict, sentence and imprisonment

The trial of Ruggiu before the First Criminal Chamber of the ICTR began on 14 August 1997. The accused were laid six offenses to load: conspiracy to commit genocide , direct and public incitement to commit genocide , jointly committed genocide , murder as a crime against humanity , persecution as Crimes against humanity and extermination as crimes against humanity . On October 24, 1997, the fourth day of the trial, the journalist declared his innocence on all charges.

About two and a half years later, on May 15, 2000, he withdrew this statement and made a confession . It was the third admission of guilt by a defendant in this court up to that point. The number of charges was then reduced. The allegations were now: direct and public incitement to genocide and persecution as a crime against humanity . According to Ruggius, a speech given by a co-defendant in front of other prisoners was decisive for this change of opinion. Hassan Ngeze , editor-in-chief of the magazine Kangura and RTLM co-founder, explained in this speech that the acts of violence between April and July 1994 were a planned genocide. This information was disturbing to Ruggiu. He began to rethink what had happened in light of this statement. He increasingly isolated himself from his fellow inmates, who mistrusted him more and more. Finally, he contacted representatives of the Court of Justice. He talked to them about his work for a total of about 60 hours.

The verdict against Ruggiu was issued on June 1, 2000. The court found Ruggiu guilty on both of the remaining counts and imposed a twelve-year prison sentence, including pre- trial detention . On May 15, 2000, the prosecution, led by Carla Del Ponte , called for a 20-year sentence. The court assessed his confession, his cooperation with the prosecution, the lack of any previous convictions, the easily influenced character of the accused and the openly shown remorse as a means of mitigating the sentence. Ruggiu also held a leadership position neither at RTLM nor in the Rwandan political system. He did not personally participate in direct physical violence against the victims of the genocide. During the genocide, Ruggiu helped some needy and persecuted people. Georges Ruggiu is the first journalist convicted of incitement to genocide. The convict did not appeal the sentence. The Rwandan government protested the court ruling, which it believed was too mild.

Ruggiu spent ten and a half years in prison in the ICTR prison in Tanzania. During this time he testified as an incriminating witness on several occasions in trials at this court . At the end of February 2008 he was transferred to Italy, where he was supposed to serve the rest of his sentence. He was released early on April 21, 2009.

literature

• Nancy Amoury Combs: Guilty pleas in international criminal law. Constructing a restorative justice approach , Stanford University Press, Stanford (Calif.) 2007, ISBN 978-0-8047-5351-7 .
• Alison Des Forges : No witness is allowed to survive. The genocide in Rwanda . 1st edition. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-930908-80-8 (American English: Leave none to tell the story . Translated by Jürgen Bauer).
• Article 19 (Ed.): Broadcasting genocide: Censorship, propaganda & state-sponsored violence in Rwanda 1990-1994 . London 1996, ISBN 1-870798-33-3 (English, online, PDF; 680 kB [accessed May 6, 2014]).

Web links

• Photo by Georges Ruggiu

Single receipts

1. ↑ Ruggiu stated on October 24, 1997 when he was questioned in court that he was Belgian and Italian nationality (see minutes of the negotiation  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). The details of his dual citizenship were discussed in court on May 15, 2000 (see minutes of the hearing  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ) . Most of the publications on his person only mention Belgian nationality.    
2. ↑ Information on the professions of parents, on siblings and on childhood and adolescence according to The voice of terror ( Memento of October 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), article of May 30, 2000 in the British newspaper The Independent .
3. ↑ Information on employment according to The voice of terror ( Memento from October 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), article in The Independent from May 30, 2000.
4. ^ German: Rwandan-Belgian citizens' initiative .
5. ↑ On the situation in Rwanda in the early 1990s, see the example of the Steering Committee of the Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance to Rwanda: The International Response to Conflict and Genocide: Lessons from the Rwanda Experience . In particular Tor Sellström and Lennart Wohlgemuth: Study 1: Historical Perspective: Some Explanatory Fac tors, here Chapter 1 .
6. ↑ Information on Ruggius' life up to his move to Rwanda can be found in the judgment against him, sections 38–41.
7. ↑ See negotiation minutes from May 15, 2000  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P. 113 and passim .  
8. ^ German: National Republican Movement for Development . In 1993 the party changed its name to Mouvement républicain nationale pour la démocratie et le développement (German: National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development ).
9. ↑ For these people see the overview in Article 19 (Ed.): Broadcasting genocide: Censorship, propaganda & state-sponsored violence in Rwanda 1990-1994 . London 1996, ISBN 1-870798-33-3 , pp. 44 f . (English, online, PDF; 680 kB [accessed on May 6, 2014]).
10. ↑ Alison Des Forges : No witness is allowed to survive. The genocide in Rwanda . 1st edition. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-930908-80-8 , pp. 209 (American English: Leave none to tell the story . Translated by Jürgen Bauer, Ruggius claim on March 22, 1994).
11. ↑ The role of Ruggius during the genocide is based on the judgment against him ( memento of the original from January 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Sections 44-45. 
12. ↑ See the negotiation minutes from August 14, 1997  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P. 8.  
13. ^ Nancy Amoury Combs, Guilty pleas , p. 96.
14. ↑ Information on the conversion to The voice of terror ( Memento from October 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), article from May 30, 2000 in the British newspaper The Independent .
15. ↑ The transcripts of the process ( memento of the original from August 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. can be found in the ICTR database. 
16. ^ Indictment against Ruggiu ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , (PDF file, 927 KB). 
17. ↑ Before him, Jean Kambanda and Omar Serushago pleaded guilty.
18. ↑ See negotiation minutes from May 15, 2005  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P. 47 ff. Information on the duration of his testimony to the prosecution according to Darryl Li, Echoes of violence. Considerations on radio and genocide in Rwanda ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Footnote 13, in: Allan Thompson (Ed.): The media and the Rwanda genocide ( Memento of the original from April 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Pluto Press, Fountain Publishers, IDRC 2007, e- ISBN 1-55250-338-0 .    
19. ↑ See negotiation minutes from May 15, 2000  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P. 190.  
20. ↑ For the reasons for the judgment and the considerations regarding the sentence, see the judgment ( memento of the original from January 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Section 46–80, and Chapter IV. 
21. ↑ ^{a b} Michael Bitala: Rwanda court condemns foreigners , in: Süddeutsche Zeitung of June 3, 2000.
22. ↑ See in particular the Ruggiu reports from the Hirondelle news agency .
23. ^ Rwanda genocide court transfers Belgian reporter , Reuters report of February 28, 2008.
24. ↑ Information about Ruggiu ( Memento of the original from July 26th, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the TRIAL Watch website .  

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on March 24, 2008 .