To: Sibomanaxyz999@gmail.com
From: fondationbanyarwanda@yahoogroupes.fr
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 2015 08:59:34 -0500
Subject: [fondationbanyarwanda] Toronto Star @Deportation Habinshuti J.B.
News
Rwandan facing genocide-related charges in last-ditch plea to avoid deportation
Canada Border Services Agency said former Rwandan civil servant Jean Berchamans Habinshuti would get "fair trial" in his homeland.
Jean Berchmans Habinshuti is making a last-ditch plea to the new Liberal government to stop his deportation to Rwanda where he faces genocide-related charges.
Jean Berchmans Habinshuti hopes Canada's new immigration minister will spare him from deportation to Rwanda, where the former civil servant faces genocide-related charges.
Canadian officials have denied his plea to remain here amid expert witnesses — academic André Guichaoua who has testified at international tribunals, former Rwandan prime minister Faustin Twagiramungu and human rights activist René Mugenzi — who attested to the man's innocence.
In a recent decision on an assessment of the risk he faces if returned to Rwanda, a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officer recognized Habinshuti is facing prosecution for serious crimes in his homeland but suggested he could call on the experts to testify in Rwanda at his trial.
"The testimony of the three witnesses above and any others that (he) would have could be pertinent within the criminal trial process in Rwanda," senior CBSA officer S. Nester wrote in Habinshuti's pre-removal risk assessment.
"For this allegation of risk, providing that he would be given a fair trial and humane detention facilities, I find it unlikely that he would face a risk of torture, risk to life or risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment upon his return to Rwanda."
Habinshuti, 60, served as private secretary to late Rwandan prime minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana. He never faced war crimes charges, but Ottawa deemed him inadmissible for his alleged role in a meeting that ultimately triggered the 1994 genocide, in which an estimated one million Rwandans perished in three months of attacks mostly aimed at the minority Tutsi population by extremist Hutus.
He was employed by the Rwandan government between 1992 and 1999, and served as an opposition member of parliament from 1999 to 2003. He finally joined his wife and family in St. Catharines in 2011, and subsequently filed an asylum claim.
An admissibility tribunal had initially deemed him admissible to Canada, but the decision was overturned in an appeal by then-immigration minister Jason Kenney. Habinshuti has remained in detention, pending deportation to Rwanda on Nov. 9.
"My husband has not done anything wrong. He is not a genocidal man as they want to label him. As a mother, I am very upset and saddened by the whole situation," said Amelberga Niringiyimana, the man's wife.
"This is a pity to see such an outrageous injustice happening in this country," added Liliane, one of the couple's three children here. "This is hitting the family hard."
Ottawa never alleged Habinshuti committed, was involved or was complicit in the genocide but deemed him inadmissible because he was a "prescribed senior official" in the former regime and could "exert significant influence on the exercise of government power."
His lawyer, Raoul Boulakia, said Habinshuti was wrongly captured by a provision of the law that was intended to catch those implicated in genocides.
"The law was used by overzealous officials to accomplish the exact opposite of its original purpose," said Boulakia, adding his client has already exhausted his options and only the new immigration minister can grant reprieve.
Montreal-based journalist Judi Rever, who has reported from the Congo and Rwanda for CBC and Agence France-Presse, said it is not only unjust but factually wrong to find Habinshuti inadmissible for having worked for Uwilingiyimana, a Hutu moderate who wielded no power and was eliminated as soon as the killings began.
"The Canadian government's determination that Mr. Habinshuti is inadmissible . . . has now put him in greater danger if he were to return to Rwanda. The assessment has now created a pretext and excuse for the regime to target Mr. Habinshuti even more," Rever said in an affidavit.
"Canada should immediately stop proceedings to deport Mr. Habinshuti and recognize him as a (United Nations) Convention refugee."
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-Ce dont jai le plus peur, cest des gens qui croient que, du jour au lendemain, on peut prendre une société, lui tordre le cou et en faire une autre.
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