Jérôme Bicamumpaka

Jerome Clement Bicamumpaka is a Rwandan politician. He is one of the 402 co-founders of the Rwandan political party MDR^[1] (Mouvement Démocratique Républicain), a Rwandan democratic opposition party, created in Kigali on July 1, 1991. He was born on November 4, 1957, in Mukono (Rwaza), in Ruhondo commune, Ruhengeri prefecture.

An economist by training and consultant by profession, he joined the Interim Government of Rwanda^[2] on April 9, 1994, as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. This government will last only three months, from April 9 to July 17, 1994.

Exiled in mid-July 1994, Jerome C. Bicamumpaka moved successively to Kinshasa, Zaire, then to Yaoundé, Cameroon, where he tried to re-integrate into active professional life as a consultant.

On April 6, 1999, he was arrested by the Prosecutor of the ICTR^[3] (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) who accused him of crimes including genocide. Twelve and a half years later, he will be acquitted of all charges by the Trial Chamber^[4] of the ICTR and released. Immediately taken into the care of the ICTR Registry in Arusha, awaiting the opportunity to join his Canadian family, he has since resided in the city of Arusha, Tanzania.

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Contents (Bibliography)

1. Birth, education and political affiliation

2. Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation

3. Exile and illegal arrest by the ICTR Prosecutor in Cameroon

4. Legal proceedings before the ICTR and acquittal

5. Release and post-acquittal

Birth, education and political affiliation

Jerome C. Bicamumpaka is the son of the late Balthazar Bicamumpaka and Basile Ntakazalimara. Born into a practicing Christian family, he was baptized while still a baby. Balthazar Bicamumpaka is an important figure in Rwandan politics from the 1950s to the 1960s. He was one of the political figures who worked for the abolition of the Ubuhake (Old Rwandan feudal serf system), the advent of democracy in Rwanda, as well as the independence of this country acquired on July 1, 1962. He is one of the founding fathers of the Republic of Rwanda, proclaimed in Gitarama (Rwanda) on January 28, 1961, alongside among others Grégoire Kayibanda, Dominique Mbonyumutwa, Vénuste Kayuku, Joseph Habyarimana Gitera and Jean-Baptiste Rwasibo. He will be minister, from 1960 to 1965, then president of the National Assembly of Rwanda, from 1965 to 1969. Following a political crisis which broke out in 1968, between the executive power and the legislative power of the country, he retired definitively from politics, in September 1969, that is to say at the end of his mandate as president of the Rwandan parliament, to engage in business. He died on May 13, 1981 and was buried in Rwaza.

Jerome C. Bicamumpaka did his primary and secondary studies in Rwanda. Graduated from modern humanities, scientific section, in July 1977, he was obliged, for family reasons, to engage in business alongside his father. Seven years later, he resumed his studies by enrolling in the Faculty of Economics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, in Belgium. He completed them at the Institute of Administration and Management of the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL School of Management) in September 1989.

At the end of his studies, he returned to Rwanda and started doing business again. Indeed, he created a management consulting company and carried out several consulting missions for the benefit of Rwandan private companies, non-governmental organizations, UN agencies, Rwandan state projects, Rwandan ministries, etc.

Decided to contribute to the development of democracy in Rwanda, to that of respect for public freedoms, to the strengthening of the Rwandan private sector through a real policy of economic liberalization and openness, but also to the resolution of the problem of Rwandan refugees by Following the path of negotiations, he became involved in politics on July 1, 1991, participating in the creation of the MDR (Republican Democratic Movement) political party, of which he was one of the 402 co-founders^[5]. The MDR will quickly become the main political party in the country, within the Rwandan democratic opposition. This party was created when Rwanda is experiencing a war coming from neighbouring Uganda and politically animated by the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) organization. President Juvénal Habyarimana and his political party, MRND, had finally accepted the establishment of a multiparty system in the country^[6].

Within the MDR party, Jerome C. Bicamumpaka is part of several bodies. He quickly became a member of the MDR party secretariat committee in Ruhengeri prefecture, and a member of the committee in charge of studies and party programs. In 1992, he became chairman of this commission and at the same time a member of the party's Political Bureau, made up of 44 personalities from the eleven prefectures of Rwanda.

After the signing between the Government of Rwanda and the RPF, in Arusha, of the Protocol on the sharing of power and in view of the signing of the Arusha Peace Agreement^[7] which will take place on August 4, 1993, the MDR party is asked to designate the eleven deputies who will represent it in the Transitional National Assembly. In July 1993, Jerome C. Bicamumpaka was elected deputy of the MDR party, at the prefectural congress held in Ruhengeri. The National Transitional Assembly was to bring together representatives of approved Rwandan political parties, as well as those of the RPF. However, despite several attempts to set up the organs provided for in this Peace Agreement, none of them could be put in place before the fateful date of April 6, 1994.

During the month of February 1994, when Faustin Twagiramungu, at the time Prime Minister designated to lead the broad-based transitional government, asked the MDR party to present several candidates to him to occupy the three ministerial posts that were due to him, the MDR Political Bureau made him proposals of three candidates for each cabinet post, as he had requested. Among the three-party candidates submitted for the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation was also Jerome C. Bicamumpaka. So, although he was elected deputy a few months earlier, he was also nominated for this ministerial post, during the month of February 1994.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

It was on April 6, 1994, that Jerome C. Bicamumpaka learned that the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana had been shot down^[8] a few minutes earlier while trying to land at Kanombe International Airport.

Following negotiations between the officials of the UNAMIR (United Nations Mission in Rwanda), the Rwandan military officials and those of the five political parties that had participated in the Government since April 16, 1992, a new Government^[9] was set up in place. It will be better known as the Rwandan Interim Government. The leaders of the MDR party proposed Jerome C. Bicamumpaka for the portfolio of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, as the Political Bureau had done two months earlier. This is how he entered the government, in a chaotic^[10] environment of war, massacres of civilians and paralysis of all political and administrative organs of the Rwandan state.

The Rwandan Interim Government had received from the five political parties that made it up, a threefold mission, namely:

• To ensure the effective management of state affairs, with particular emphasis on the rapid restoration of order and the security of persons and property;
• To continue discussions with the RPF for the establishment of the institutions of the broad-based transition, within a period not exceeding six weeks; and finally,
• To tackle energetically the problem of food shortage by seeking ways and means to help the disaster-stricken populations of certain prefectures and those displaced by war.

The legitimacy of the Rwandan Interim Government could not be questioned as some people close to the RPF are still trying to do more than twenty-seven years after its establishment. In fact, not only did its establishment comply with the laws of Rwanda, as well as all the protocols signed between the Government of Rwanda and the RPF, during the Arusha negotiations, but also this legitimacy^[11] was recognized by the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, on May 25, 1994, in New York.

Jerome C. Bicamumpaka was sworn in as Minister on April 9, 1994, around 11 am and his action should fall within the three objectives assigned to the Government. The investiture ceremony takes place at the Hôtel des Diplomates. As part of his ministerial responsibilities, he decides to meet urgently the ambassadors of different countries accredited to Rwanda. These are mainly those from the following countries: The Kingdom of Belgium, France, the United States of America, the Holy See and those responsible for UNAMIR. Having made contact with these ambassadors, their meeting is scheduled for the afternoon of April 9, 1994, at their respective residences. The objective pursued by Jerome C. Bicamumpaka, for these meetings, is to call on their respective governments to come to the aid of Rwanda and its people, by stopping the massacres of civilians, as well as the war, and by encouraging the immediate resumption of negotiations between the Government and the RPF, with the aim of finally putting in place the organs provided for by the Arusha Peace Agreement. To this end, Jerome C. Bicamumpaka proposed to the Belgian and French Governments, respectively, through their ambassadors, to use their respective forces present in Rwanda or in the region, to stop the massacres and protect civilians, starting with the city of Kigali. It was in this context that at the request of the Belgian Ambassador, Mr. Johan Swinnen, he intervened energetically in the Government, on the evening^[12] of April 9, 1994, so that a thousand Belgian commandos stationed in Kenya be authorized to land at Kanombe international airport, in particular for the evacuation of Belgian citizens resident in Rwanda. The first of these commandos were able to land the next day in the morning^[13]. There is no doubt that without his decisive and rapid action which enabled Belgian troops to deploy in Rwanda and to rescue Belgian citizens there, it would not be ten Belgians who could have been counted as dead in Rwanda, but several dozen civilians and soldiers! But after these soldiers finished rescuing the Belgians and evacuating them, their Government decided to withdraw them immediately from Rwanda! Of the four ambassadors Jerome C. Bicamumpaka wanted to meet on the afternoon of April 9, 1994, only Ambassador Rawson of the United States of America failed him, without any explanation. But to all these diplomats, the message from the Rwandan minister was the same, as the Belgian Ambassador Johan Swinnen^[14] testified before the Trial Chamber of the ICTR in the trial of Jerome C. Bicamumpaka.

From April 10, 1994, the latter wrote several Diplomatic Notes intended to inform the United Nations in particular (Security Council, General Secretariat, General Assembly, African Group, Group of Non-Aligned States, UNAMIR, etc.), the Organization of African Unity (OAU), countries which had bilateral relations with Rwanda, as well as several international organizations of which Rwanda was a member. The leaders of these organizations and countries have all received these Notes Verbales. Among the latter, we can cite the following:

• On April 10, 1994, a first Note Verbale^[15] was drafted and sent to all recipients, with the President of the UN Security Council first, with distribution to all its members.
• On April 11, 1994, a second Note Verbale^[16] was sent to UNAMIR officials in Kigali.
• On April 15, 1994, a third Note Verbale^[17] was also sent to all recipients, first with the President of the UN Security Council, with distribution to all its members.
• On April 20, 1994, a fourth Note Verbale[18]^[18] was sent to UNAMIR.

In these Diplomatic Notes, Jerome C. Bicamumpaka described the chaotic and catastrophic situation in which the Rwandan people were living, the massacres of civilians and the dramatic consequences of the war which had resumed in the leader of the RPF, and asked for immediate and urgent assistance to end them, as well as the creation of conditions for the establishment of the organs provided for in the Arusha Peace Agreement. Although it was difficult for him to be well informed of what was happening on the ground in Rwanda, given the chaos that reigned, he did not hesitate to speak about the fact that the Tutsis seemed to be the most targeted. by the killers, in the city of Kigali. He thus called for an intervention so that the killings of civilians were stopped before they spread to the rest of the country. He called on UNAMIR officials to deploy to Kigali to stop the massacres of civilians. During his meeting with General Roméo Dallaire at the Hôtel des diplomats on the afternoon of April 11, 1994, the latter promised to act, but it was only words! As we know all these calls for help from the Rwandan people apparently fell on plugged ears, and the Rwandan people paid a heavy price.

Almost all of the embassy staff were evacuated on April 12, 1994. Only the Chinese Embassy staff remained in Kigali. Moreover, for security reasons, the Rwandan Interim Government moved from Kigali to Gitarama that same day. Diplomatic work could therefore only be done outside the country. This is how Jerome C. Bicamumpaka travelled abroad, first to Burundi, whose president was killed in the attack on the Rwandan presidential plane. He then travelled to Kinshasa, Zaire, Europe and New York, to the United Nations headquarters. He also participated in the Conference, then in the OAU (Organization of African Unity) Summit which took place in Tunis, Tunisia.

During these trips, he met several political and diplomatic personalities, and the message addressed to them was the following: to call for the help of Rwandans who were perishing for unacceptable reasons, to do everything to help stop the massacres of civilians and the war, to come in humanitarian aid to the Rwandan people, to do everything to ensure that political dialogue is rapidly initiated between the warring parties in order to create the conditions for the implementation of the Arusha Peace Agreement signed on August 4, 1993, etc. .

During these meetings in New York, Paris, Bonn, Tunis, and elsewhere, Jerome C. Bicamumpaka observation is that some of the main world powers had a bias^[19] on the Rwandan crisis and even wanted one of the parties to war have the upper hand and seize all the power. Which was the opposite of the spirit and the letter of the Arusha Peace Agreement, and did nothing to stop the massacres of civilians in Rwanda. These Governments were only waiting for this seizure of power, and this is what took place in mid-July 1994. It was only then, and only then, that they mobilized massively to come to the aid of the Rwandan population, both those of the interior and those who had taken refuge in neighbouring countries. Obviously, the scale of the massacres of civilians and the distress of the Rwandan population in general were not sufficient to arouse the commitment of these countries to come to the aid of the Rwandans from April 1994, when appeals for this meaning had been launched, as of April 9, 1994, in particular by the Minister Jerome C. Bicamumpaka!

Exile and illegal arrest by the ICTR Prosecutor in Cameroon

Jerome C. Bicamumpaka left Rwanda for good on July 17, 1994, for neighbouring Zaire. He settled in the city of Kinshasa until December 1995, before settling permanently in Cameroon with his family. For professional and family reasons, he will live in Yaoundé, before migrating to the city of Douala.

On April 6, 1999, Cameroonian gendarmes accompanied by members of the ICTR's Office of the Prosecutor arrived at one of Jerome C. Bicamumpaka client companies, located not far from Yaoundé. In fact, he finally resumed his activities as a management consultant in Cameroon. While on an advisory mission to this industrial company, an ICTR agent came to his office and informed him that he was under arrest at the request of the ICTR Prosecutor, Ms. Louise Arbor. But, strangely enough, this agent does not carry either the arrest warrant or the indictment that would have been drawn up against Jerome C. Bicamumpaka. It was therefore an illegal arrest. Jerome C. Bicamumpaka will eventually be taken to the Cameroon Judicial Police headquarters in Yaoundé, where he will remain until his transfer to Arusha, at the ICTR headquarters, four months later. An arrest warrant, as well as an indictment will finally be produced by the ICTR Prosecutor, several days after this illegal arrest! In the meantime, the latter will have done everything to make media noise in order to defame him.

The legal proceedings before the ICTR and the acquittal

The ICTR Prosecutor will take four and a half years to prepare and allow the trial to begin. During those four and a half years, he worked with the Rwandan administration to fabricate charges against Jerome C. Bicamumpaka. The preferred tactic will be to resort to pre-trial detainees in Rwandan prisons, to promise them release or short prison terms, in exchange for the fabrication of charges against him. Some will accept this type of cooperation^[20].

Finally, the charges^[21] against Jerome C. Bicamumpaka will be those of conspiracy to commit genocide, genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, crimes against humanity (murder, extermination, rape), and the violation of article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II.

During his first appearance before the Trial Chamber, Jerome C. Bicamumpaka will refuse to plead guilty or not guilty, because the Registrar of the ICTR had refused him to be represented by a lawyer of his choice and therefore he did not have not received appropriate advice. The trial will eventually open on November 6, 2003. The adversarial proceedings will last almost five years, in that it was a joint trial of four defendants.

On the other hand, this will be the trial whose judges' deliberations last the longest. While until then, the longest deliberations had lasted 18 months, those in the trial of Jerome C. Bicamumpaka will last three years, leading to his acquittal on September 30, 2011. During the delivery of the judgment^[22], the president of the seat declared that the Prosecutor had accused Jerome C. Bicamumpaka and his three other co-defendants of extremely serious crimes, but that these defendants had produced before the Chamber numerous pieces of evidence which demonstrated the contrary of these accusations!

Release and post-acquittal.

After his acquittal^[23] by the ICTR Trial Chamber, Jerome C. Bicamumpaka is immediately released. The Prosecutor will never appeal, despite having the right to do so.

The Registry of the ICTR immediately took charge of him for his stay in Arusha, while waiting to be able to join his family. The latter was staying in Canada and had in the meantime become Canadian. The administrative procedures with Immigration Canada will last several years, and today for almost four years, Jerome C. Bicamumpaka is still waiting for the Canadian Minister of Public Security to issue him a ministerial exemption allowing him access to Canadian territory and to be reunited with his family. By now he will have spent more than ten years in Arusha, awaiting this reunification.

On December 8, 2021, the Registrar of the Residual Mechanism (UN-IRMCT) who took over from the ICTR in this charge of his management informed him that he would no longer benefit from the protection of the United Nations and his care, in Tanzania, because he would have declined the offer made to him to be relocated to Niger^[24]! In fact, on November 18, 2021, the Registrar told him that he had to travel to Niger within two weeks for his final relocation, along with eight other people awaiting a host country. He then declined this offer, imposed unilaterally and brutally, because it was contrary to the UN-IRMCT Headquarters Agreement, in particular in its article 37, then for medical reasons^[25], in view of the precariousness of medical care in Niger! Indeed, by doing so, the Registrar had violated his rights. On December 16, 2021, Jerome C. Bicamumpaka then had to initiate legal proceedings^[26] before the President of the UN-IRMCT, in order to be restored to his rights. This will be done on December 20, 2021, following a decision by the President^[27] of the UN-IRMCT. The final judicial decision on the merits is expected in the coming weeks. Today Jerome C. Bicamumpaka still resides in Arusha, under United Nations protection, waiting to be reunited with his family.

References[]

External links[]

• Moran, Benedict. "Rwanda genocide court's stranded men". america.aljazeera.com. Retrieved April 1, 2016.

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