Former Rwandan minister's body found in Belgium

Belgian authorities have positively identified a decomposing body discovered in a Brussels canal as that of former Rwandan Commerce Minister Juvenal Uwilingiyimana who was indicted by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), his lawyer Sven Mary announced on Dec. 22. "We haven't received full information on the cause of the death," Mary said. However, police in Brussels said suicide was the likely cause since the coroner had not found any wounds or signs of a struggle on the body occurring prior to death. Reacting to Uwilingiyimana's death the tribunal's prosecutor, Hassan Jallow, said: "This individual, although an indictee of the tribunal, voluntarily agreed to cooperate in the search for truth and justice for the Rwanda genocide of 1994. I convey my sincere condolences to his family." The tribunal, headquartered in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, said it had indicted Uwilingiyimana on June 13, 2005, for crimes of conspiracy to commit genocide; direct and public incitement to commit genocide; genocide; and murder as a crime against humanity. The tribunal issued an international warrant of arrest for Uwilingiyimana on Aug. 13, 2005, subsequent to which the tribunal's investigators were informed that the indictee wanted to cooperate with the Office of the Prosecutor, the tribunal said in a statement. "On confirmation of his willingness to tell the whole truth, it was agreed that the execution of the warrant of arrest would be held in abeyance to permit him to be interviewed regarding the events in Rwanda in 1994," the tribunal said. Then, the tribunal said, Uwilingiyimana signed a declaration stipulating the conditions under which he would be interviewed. "In this document he indicated that he was doing so voluntarily and without having been subject to pressure, threats or promises by the investigators," the tribunal said. It added the document provided that Uwilingiyimana's statements could "only be used by the Office of the Prosecutor if an agreement was thereafter finalized between him and the prosecutor regarding his case" at the tribunal. Notwithstanding the indictment and arrest warrant, Uwilingiyimana was never taken into custody, the tribunal said, "and came voluntarily to all of his meetings with the ICTR investigators." The tribunal said under this arrangement, investigators questioned Uwilingiyimana "for several weeks," seeing him last on Nov. 18. His wife reported him to the police as missing on Nov. 22. The tribunal said that on Nov. 28, a letter was published on the internet that was said to have been addressed on Nov. 5 to the tribunal prosecutor by Uwilingiyimana, indicating that he had terminated his cooperation because of pressures from the investigators to implicate high-level individuals. However, the tribunal said: "The letter was never delivered to the prosecutor or to any representative of his office. "Uwilingiyimana continued until Nov. 18 to meet with the very investigators whom he had supposedly denounced in the letter. "In fact, the prosecutor met with Mr. Uwilingiyimana on Oct. 29 and the chief of prosecutions met with him on Nov. 2. He was very cordial and thanked them for what had been done to accommodate his work schedule and to protect his security. He raised no complaints about the investigators and expressed satisfaction about the progress that was being made in covering the events. "However, he expressed concern, as he had often to the investigators, about the dangers that he and his family would face from powerful persons in the Rwandan exile community when he told the truth about these persons' responsibility for the Rwanda genocide." Uwilingiyimana, 54, was minister of commerce in the late 1980s and director of the Rwandan Office of Tourism and National Parks during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In 1998, he was admitted into Belgium as a refugee.