While genocide ideology cases continue to rise their conviction rate remains lower than the general average, at least based on a report by the National Public Prosecution (NPPA).
For instance, in the last six months of 2021, NPPA recorded an overall crime conviction rate of 91.1 per cent, but there was an unignorable lower level of conviction for genocide ideology crimes.
There was a 75 per cent conviction rate for violence against a survivor of genocide, 71 per cent for disposing off or degrading evidence, and 67 per cent for justification of genocide.
Genocide ideology cases had an 80 per cent conviction rate, whereas discrimination and demolishing, damaging or desecrating a memorial site or a place where bodies of the victims of genocide are laid to rest had 90 per cent and 100 per cent respectively.
While acquittal is sometimes attributed to ‘nice lawyers’, prosecution has bigger challenges, the major one being collecting evidence, according to Faustin Nkusi, NPPA Spokesperson.
“The evidence of such type of cases depends, most of the time, on testimonial evidence. It is always difficult to gather corroborating evidence on how things happened on the scene of crime,” Nkusi said.
He added that sometimes, there are no witnesses or they are not willing to testify.
“Sometimes crimes are committed when there is only the suspect and victim,” Nkusi noted.
This was echoed by the Umbrella body of the survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi Ibuka.
Naphtal Ahishakiye, the Executive Secretary of Ibuka, pointed to the unwillingness of potential witnesses to take part in delivering justice as one of the challenges.
“Sometimes, testimonies of people who were present at the crime scene are not accurate, and some even choose to strip gravity off the crime and call it a ‘misunderstanding,’ ‘drunkenness’ and others,” Ahishakiye said in a phone interview.
Valerie Mukabayire, the president of the National Association of Genocide Widows (AVEGA) gave examples of areas where witnesses betrayed the victim.
One of them, she said, was the association’s member who was found murdered.
In a systematically planned cover-up, people in her area accused her son to have killed her because of land disputes. Because the lady was a member of AVEGA, they got deeply involved and had her son acquitted, something Mukabayire says was a privilege that other people don’t get.
“Sometimes witnesses don’t cooperate, so the investigators should not give up on getting evidence. They should go beyond testimonies because these cases are easily covered up,” Mukabayire added.
Whilst available data from Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) indicates that cases of genocide ideology reported during the annual national commemoration week dropped, 53 cases that involved 68 suspects were registered between April 7 and 13 alone.
Earlier reports had shown that 1,215 genocide ideology related cases involving 1,525 suspects had been put to book from 2019 to March this year.
Nevertheless, Nkusi assured that prosecution is working on ensuring more convictions.
“Our target is always to make sure that conviction rate increases not only in genocide ideology but also in all cases. Quality of investigation by collecting sufficient evidence is key in making sure that our conviction rate increases,” he said.
In the NPPA July to December 2021 report, murder and emerging crimes have the highest conviction rate, with 86.3 per cent and 91 per cent, respectively.