A Finnish court will begin hearings in Tanzania today in a case related to the Rwandan genocide. The District Court of East-Uusimaa has moved to Dar es Salaam to hear from 19 witnesses in the first Finnish case about universal jurisdiction and genocide.

by Susanna Mehtonen, Helsinki

The defendant, François Bazaramba, arrived in Finland as an asylum seeker in 2003. His application was denied in 2004 because he was suspected of involvement in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

In 2006, Rwandan authorities issued an international warrant for his arrest and in 2007 Bazaramba was detained. The Rwandan government filed a request for Bazaramba’s extradition, but it was denied by the Finnish Ministry of Justice on the grounds that the defendant was likely to face an unfair trial in Rwanda.

In June 2009, Finnish State Prosecutor Raija Toiviainen charged Bazaramba with genocide in Rwanda’s Maraba and Cyahinda sectors and in the vicinity of Nyakizu mountain in the Butare prefecture. The prosecutor also filed a secondary indictment concerning 15 murders. In all, Bazaramba is charged with killing and ordering others to kill Tutsis, distributing anti-Tutsi propaganda, leading road-blocks, taking part in the redistribution of Tutsi property to Hutus, and handing out matches and inciting others to burn Tutsi houses. Bazaramba has denied all allegations and claims he helped Tutsis flee the genocide.

The trial started in September 2009 and was scheduled to last until the end of the year. Practical difficulties have dragged out the proceedings, which are now expected to take a few more months.

The court decided early on that it would be logistically impossible to bring all witnesses to Finland. Many of the prosecution witnesses are incarcerated in Rwanda - either serving sentences or awaiting trial - and a number of defence witnesses live in different countries on the continent. The court also considered what it called the humanitarian aspects of bringing witnesses to Finland in the midst of harvesting season, which could lead to some witnesses losing their crop.

Taking note of a similar case in Canada, the Finnish court decided to travel to Rwanda last September and is now in Tanzania. Rather than send a roving mission, the court is moving the entire proceedings to the field. This includes judges, the court secretary, prosecutors, two defense counsel, interpreters and equipment. The defendant has refused to travel abroad and will instead follow the proceedings from prison via real-time satellite video.

During the four weeks it spent in Rwanda, the court heard from nearly 40 witnesses and went to Butare for a field study of alleged crime scenes.

The court is now setting up in Tanzania. “We [will] start the proceedings in Dar es Salaam on February 24th,” says Petra Spring-Reiman, court secretary for the case. 19 witnesses will testify - most of them in closed proceedings to protect their identities, says Spring-Reiman.

Bazaramba’s defense team, however, resisted the move. “Our client’s right to a fair trial is at stake,” said Ingrid Heickell, one of Bazaramba’s lawyers. “The defense witnesses should have been brought to Finland instead as they might not feel safe enough to speak freely in Tanzania,” she added, saying the defense had only agreed to hold proceedings in Africa relating to prosecution witnesses.

The issue of witness protection and the alleged torture of witnesses are just two of the challenging issues foreign to the more ordinary proceedings the court is used to dealing with. In a groundbreaking decision, the Court of Appeal ruled last September that the court can hold part of its proceedings behind closed doors in order to protect the identities of the witnesses.

As with so many other issues related to this trial, the Bazaramba case will likely set a precedent for any future cases involving universal jurisdiction and international crimes in Finland.

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