Prosecuting International Crimes in Africa - PULP - University of ...

CHAPTER
10
1 Introduction
GENOCIDE AS
PROSECUTED BY THE
INTERNATIONAL
CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR
RWANDA AND GACACA
COURTS IN RWANDA
* LL.B (National University of Rwanda); LL.M (Pretoria); Legal Researcher.
1 http://www.gov.rw/page.php?id_article=19 (accessed 7 April 2010).
221
Christian Garuka*
In 1994, while the World was celebrating the beginning of a new era of a
democratic and multiracial society in South Africa, Rwanda was
experiencing one of the most serious human rights violation in which
between 800 000 and 1 000 000 people were killed – mostly Tutsi and
moderate Hutus. Indeed, many people were involved in the killings,
including top government officials, the National Gendarmerie, the
Rwanda Armed Forces (FAR), MRND-CDR militia (Interahamwe), local
officials, and many Hutu in the general population. 1
2 Definition of the crime of genocide
The definition of genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of Genocide (Genocide Convention) is the oldest and has
been referred to subsequently by International tribunals as well as domestic
legislation. Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of Genocide reads as follows:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of 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.