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negotiating table altogether.  That result would lead to

more death and destruction, not less.47

The Specter of Uneven Justice

The prospect of the ICC also raises the nettlesome

problem of uneven justice.  For example, 22 Rwandans were

publicly executed on April 24, 1998, after being convicted

in local courts of crimes committed during the genocide

campaign orchestrated by the previous Rwandan government.

Of the 346 people who have been tried in Rwandan courts,

about a third have been sentenced to death and another third

to life in prison.  The rest have received lesser sentences.

Only 26 have been acquitted, and there are about 125,000

people still awaiting trial.48

The week following the 22 public executions, Jean

Kambanda, prime minister of Rwanda during the 100 days when

majority Hutus sought to exterminate the Tutsis, admitted

before the Rwanda tribunal that he was guilty of committing

a crime against humanity and five other genocide-related

charges.  Kambanda is the highest former government official

being held by the tribunal, which has captured 25 suspects

accused of playing major roles in connection with massacres

in which at least half a million Tutsis and their sympathiz-

ers were killed.  Under the Rwanda tribunal's rules, Kam-

banda cannot be tried in Rwandan courts for the same crimes

and therefore faces a maximum sentence of life in prison

because the tribunal does not apply the death penalty.  But

one tribunal prosecutor has speculated that Kambanda may

eventually get reduced prison time if he cooperates in other

cases.49  The fact that Kambanda may get a reduced sentence

while lesser perpetrators are publicly executed upsets many

Rwandans.  As Australian journalist Pamela Bone points out,

The people being tried under the Rwandan justice

system are mostly not the principals of the geno-

cide.  These are being tried in Arusha, Tanzania,

by the United Nations International Criminal Tri-

bunal for Rwanda.  The UN tribunal is yet to se-

cure a conviction.  And the UN is . . . opposed to

the death penalty.  This means that those who

planned and incited the genocide will, if convict-

ed, spend some years in European jails, while the

lesser criminals will be put to death.  This does

not seem like justice to most Rwandans.50