08/22/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10082

ARREST OF AUGUSTIN BIZIMUNGU

The United States is committed to bringing to justice those who commit massive acts of murder. As Pierre-Richard Prosper, U.S. Ambassador for War Crimes Issues, said, "The time has come to draw the net tightly around war criminals." The latest to be caught in that net is Augustin Bizimungu, the former chief of staff of the army in Rwanda. He was arrested by the government of Angola and sent to the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania.

Bizimungu is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity. He is alleged to be one of the ringleaders of the slaughter that occurred in Rwanda in 1994. Between April and June of that year, an estimated eight-hundred thousand men, women, and children were murdered. Most of the victims were minority Tutsis. The carnage was orchestrated by Rwanda’s government, which was then dominated by an extremist faction of the country’s Hutu majority. In some cases, soldiers and militia forced ordinary Hutu citizens to kill their Tutsi neighbors. Augustin Bizimungu is charged with personally supervising the training of the militias that carried out these crimes.

The United States welcomes and applauds General Bizimungu’s capture. The U.S. has been one of the strongest proponents of the need for war crimes tribunals like that for Rwanda. Indeed, the U.S. recently expanded its "Rewards For Justice" program to include individuals indicted by the U-N’s Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Augustin Bizimungu was among the most wanted. According to U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker, "The Rewards for Justice campaign contributed to making people aware of the need to apprehend him [Bizimungu] and send him to Arusha [for trial]."

The net around the Rwandan war criminals will continue to tighten. And the United Nations recently announced that it will pay for eighteen new judges to handle the cases before the tribunal.

The blood of eight-hundred thousand African men, women, and children cries out for justice. The United States will work -- in Rwanda and elsewhere -- to ensure that the murderers of innocent people are arrested and tried for their horrific crimes.