Did Kabuga’s trial in The Hague lead to Arusha facility closure?

Arusha. Felicien Kabuga’s trial in The Hague is likely to have fast-tracked the closure of the United Nations Detention Facility (UNDF) in Arusha.

The 89-year-old former businessman from Rwanda was the most well-known person to be detained and tried for his involvement in the 1994 murders.

“There are no more fugitives. Those who were not apprehended, namely, Augustine Bizimungu and Protas Mpiranya, are confirmed dead,” said Abubaccar Tambadou, the Registrar of the UN Tribunal here.

“Mr Kabuga was to be the last case but he would not be tried in Tanzania,” he said during the official closure of the UNDF here on Thursday.

The last Rwandan to be convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity Augustine Ngirabatware is already serving his sentence outside Tanzania.

He said those were the main reasons why the detention facility in Arusha for suspected perpetrators of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda had to close down.

Mr Kabuga, who until the horrific massacres was said to be the richest person in Rwanda, had a $5 million bounty on his head after, as he had gone into hiding.

He was not only alleged to be one of the masterminds of the genocide which cost nearly a million lives, but the financier of the killing squads.

After being on the run for 26 years, he was arrested at a secluded apartment in Paris and later taken to a UN detention facility in The Hague for trial.

Initially, he was to be brought to Arusha for trial but his lawyers fought hard to convince the Court he could not be brought here on health grounds.

However, Mr Tambadou said the absence of Kabuga and the closure of the UNDF in Arusha does not mean the end of International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (the Mechanism).

“We (the Mechanism) are not closing down. We have specific tasks to continue being here,” he told The Citizen.

The facility located near the Arusha airport was opened in May 1996 and used to detain suspects awaiting trial by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

It was designed with 89 individual cells and, according to the Mechanism Registrar, it is on record as the first purpose-built facility of the UN.

The first three persons to be brought there for detention and later tried were Jean Paul Akayesu, Clement Kayishema and George Rutaganda.

The Registrar said Tanzania’s decision to host the facility and by extension ICTR and the Mechanism was a demonstration of the country’s commitment to international justice.

A plaque expressing gratitude to the government of Tanzania for its partnership was unveiled and will be displayed at the site of the former UNDF.

Mr Tambadou added that between 1996 and this year over 90 people have been detained there awaiting trial. They include about 60 who were convicted.

During Thursday’s formal closure of the facility, the Registrar and the Commissioner General of Prisons Mzee Ramadhani Nyamka signed the transfer documents.

The facility will effectively be taken over by the Prisons Department on February 28, 2023 after completion of hand over procedures.

Speaking during the ceremony, the Prisons chief said the detention centre will be used as one of the security prisons in the country due to its “international standards facilities.”

The takeover of the UN prison by the Prisons Department, he pointed out, would also ease congestion in the existing prisons across the country.

The Arusha Regional Commissioner John Mongela lauded the hand-over, saying improved correctional facilities were key for delivery of justice.