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RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM PRIORITY 0117
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RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA PRIORITY 0072
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0414

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MADRID 000201 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
L-EUR FOR PETER OLSON, KAREN JOHNSON 
L-LEI FOR PROPP, CLIFTON JOHNSON 
L-AN FOR ONA HAHS 
THE HAGUE FOR HEATHER SCHILDGE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/22/2018 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KLIG KJUS OFDP SP RW
SUBJECT: RWANDA/SPAIN: INTL ARREST ORDERS IN WORKS, NOT YET 
DELIVERED 
 
REF: KIGALI 107 
 
MADRID 00000201  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
Classified By: DCM Hugo Llorens for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1. (C)  SUMMARY: Post agrees with ref A assessment regarding 
the February 7 indictments issued by Spanish National Court 
Judge Fernando Andreu of 40 Rwandan military officials on 
charges of genocide.  The overall implication of the 
indictment is that Tutsi leadership, including President 
Kagame, were responsible for provoking the genocide, 
beginning with cross-border actions from Uganda against the 
GOR in October 1990, and subsequently conducting a 
"counter-genocide" that left more Hutus dead than Tutsis in 
the original genocide.  The indictment identifies Rwandan 
Lieutenant Colonel Rugumya Gacinya as the current Rwandan 
Defense Attache to the U.S. and assigns to him responsibility 
for four massacres and participation in the assassination of 
a Spanish priest.  Consular LES legal advisor notes that 
Judge Andreu's investigation has been underway for two years, 
including interviews with witnesses who claim direct 
knowledge of events, including former GOR officials, 
journalists, and a former U.S. Representative.  Interpol told 
LES that Rwanda could elect to challenge any Interpol 
warrants requested by Spain as politically motivated, which 
would trigger an internal review by Interpol.  Legatt has 
made an inquiry with Interpol but has not heard back.  MFA 
contacts have indicated that the judiciary has issued 
international arrest orders, that Interpol-Spain has not yet 
received a request for red notices due to a bureaucratic 
delay, but that it should within a matter of days.  The GOS 
had relayed to the GOR that the judicial process was not 
reflective of Spanish foreign policy, nor did the GOS endorse 
or have prior consultation on the indictments.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U)  Judge Fernando Andreu of the Spanish National Court 
filed a 182-page indictment charging 40 Rwandan officials 
with genocide, among other offenses, on February 6, 2008. 
While the indictment names President Kagame as one of those 
responsible for the genocide, it does not indict him, as the 
Court recognizes the immunity of heads of state.  However, 
the indictment names Lieutenant Colonel Rugumya Gacinya as 
the current Rwandan Defense Attache in Washington and does 
not recognize any immunity from prosecution he may currently 
enjoy due to his diplomatic status.  Gacinya is accused of 
responsibility for the following: the Nyacyonga Field 
massacre in mid-April 1994; the massacre of civilian 
populations in the towns of Ngarama, Nyagahita and Kigasa; 
and the June 10, 2000 assassination of Spanish citizen and 
Catholic priest Isidro Uzcudun in Mugina.  The indictment 
alleges that Uzcudun was murdered because of his testimony 
about massacres of Hutu populations in and around Mugina. 
 
//PREAMBLE// 
 
¶3. (U)  The indictment begins as follows: (Embassy informal 
translation) "In the course of this investigation up to the 
present, rational and well-founded evidence has come to light 
that, beginning in October 1990, a highly-armed and 
well-organized group with a political-military structure 
initiated a series of activities of a criminal nature, first 
undertaking these acts from Uganda into the territory of 
Rwanda.  In its first four years, the group undertook 
different organized, systematic actions toward the 
elimination of civilian populations, both via the initiation 
of hostilities against the Rwandan army and in the carrying 
out of terrorist acts of serious magnitude  and intensity in 
Rwandan territory, principally in the north and center of the 
nation, all of this under a structured, stable, and 
strategically organized and regimented command.  From the 
time the group obtained power (in Rwanda) through violence, 
it created and developed a regime of terror and a structure 
of criminality parallel to the State, dedicated, under a 
planned and pre-established design, to kidnapping, torture, 
rape of women and children, the carrying out of terrorist 
acts (both directly and under the simulated authorship of its 
enemies), the imprisonment of thousands of citizens without 
 
MADRID 00000201  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
judicial process, the selective assassination of persons, the 
destruction and systematic elimination of cadavers through 
their disposal in unidentified mass graves, mass incineration 
of bodies, and dumping of bodies in lakes and rivers, 
indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population based 
on their ethnicity, seeking the elimination of the ethnic 
majority, and finally the carrying out of hostile actions 
both in Rwanda and in the neighboring country of Zaire (now 
Democratic Republic of Congo), producing indiscriminate, 
systematic massacres of refugee populations there and 
large-scale acts of pillaging to provide self-financing of 
these criminal acts, in addition to enriching its leadership." 
 
//ADDITIONAL DETAILS// 
 
¶4. (U)  The official charges, including genocide, crimes 
against humanity, war crimes, conspiracy, and terrorist acts, 
are laid out on pages 138-147. The explanation of the 
National Courts concurrent jurisdiction to the International 
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is elaborated starting on 
page 147.  The specific accusations against each of the 40 
individuals are on pages 151-178. 
 
¶5. (U)  Pages 96-101 detail the testimony of former U.S. 
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.  Page 95 describes a 
September 1994 visit by Jean Marie Vianney Ndagijimana to 
Washington and New York in which he allegedly was told 
separately by Boutros Boutros Ghali and former Assistant 
Secretary for African Affairs George Moose that if the 
 
SIPDIS 
killing of Hutus stopped, then a detailed report (the Gersony 
report) about the Tutsi massacre of approximately 30,000 
Hutus would be swept under the rug. 
 
¶6. (U)  Judge Andreu's investigation has been underway for 
more than two years.  The indictment contains testimony from 
numerous former GOR officials and anonymous protected 
witnesses.  The driving force behind this investigation is an 
NGO called the International Forum for Truth and Justice in 
Great Lakes Africa (aka Veritas Rwanda Forum), headed by 
Spanish citizens Juan Carrera and Jordi Palou-Loverdos. 
Palou-Loverdos is the legal representative of the nine 
Spanish citizens killed in the genocide.  The Forum initially 
filed a lawsuit with the National Court in 2005.  The Forum 
held a February 12 demonstration in Brussels to seek EU 
activity in executing the indictments.  More information on 
this NGO can be found in English at 
www.veritasrwandaforum.org.  The indictment attributes the 
deaths of the nine Spanish citizens to several of the 40 
indicted individuals, but the indictment does not claim these 
deaths as jurisdiction for the charges, nor is the list 
confined to those who were involved in the deaths of the 
Spanish citizens. 
 
¶7. (U)  The indictment concludes by authorizing the 
preparation of arrest warrants to be sent to the National 
Police, the Spanish Civil Guard, and INTERPOL, as well as 
European Arrest Warrants (Page 181). 
 
//JUDICIARY COMMITTED TO PURSUE ARRESTS// 
 
¶8. (C)  Embassy's LES legal advisor reached out informally to 
colleagues at Interpol and the National Prosecutor's office 
to inquire as to how and whether Judge Andreu's indictment 
would move forward with respect to international extradition 
requests and Interpol red notices.  The Chief Prosecutor of 
the National Court told LES February 15 that Judge Andreu was 
committed to following through with prosecution, including 
extradition requests for all those named in the indictment 
other than those with immunity, although he did not specify 
whether this referred to President Kagame or more broadly to 
those currently holding diplomatic immunity.  The Chief 
Prosecutor did not mention Interpol red notices. 
 
¶9. (C)  Interpol told LES that if Spain were to request red 
notices against the 40 individuals, the GOR could appeal the 
eventual Interpol decision via Article 3 by claiming the 
 
MADRID 00000201  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
indictments are politically motivated, which would trigger an 
internal Interpol review.  Separately, LEGATT made an 
informal inquiry with Interpol but has not yet heard back. 
LEGATT noted that Interpol will have some degree of a right 
of first refusal on whether or not to distribute the orders. 
 
//MFA NOT SUPPORTIVE// 
 
¶10. (C)  Antonio Sanchez-Benedito, Spanish Deputy Director 
General for Sub-Saharan Africa, told Poloff February 14 that 
the GOS had not received prior notification of the 
indictments, nor had the Court asked for GOS input. 
Sanchez-Benedito noted that Spain is a country with complete 
separation between the judiciary and the executive, with a 
judiciary that has perhaps the broadest judicial jurisdiction 
in the world.  He said the National Court made the decision 
without any consultation or advance warning of the 
government, although the GOS was aware of the investigation. 
Sanchez-Benedito said the GOS was not aware of the status of 
the order or whether the judiciary would seek Interpol 
warrants.  He said that the decision of the court has 
absolutely nothing to do with the Spanish foreign policy, and 
he added that he had conveyed this message to the GOR.  Of 
the Spanish universal mandate, he said "it is what it is; we 
have some judges who are interested in addressing human 
rights abuses worldwide."  He noted the nine Spaniards who 
were killed as a result of the genocide, saying that the GOS 
has consistently sought justice for those crimes.  But, he 
added, there are other fora where this is taking place - the 
ICTR in Arusha, the Great Lakes Conference, and the 
Tripartite plus mechanism, which the U.S. leads.  He said 
that the GOS supports these initiativess as the way to create 
lasting justice in the region, and the MFA has said as much 
to the GOR. 
 
¶11. (C)  On February 22, Sanchez-Benedito repeated his 
previous message and added that MFA understood that the court 
had issued international arrest orders, although Spain's 
Interpol office had not yet received them, due to a 
bureaucratic delay on the Spanish side.  He added his 
understanding that Interpol would receive the international 
arrest orders within a couple of days, and he concluded by 
repeating that the GOS had communicated to the GOR that it 
viewed these developments as unhelpful, but that it did not 
have power to intercede with the independent Spanish 
judiciary.  Finally, Sanchez-Benedito noted President Bush's 
recent visit to Rwanda and inquired after whether the issue 
had been raised either by President Kagame with POTUS or by 
others with Secretary Rice.  He said that the GOS would be 
very interested to know of any such developments. Poloff 
undertook to inquire. 
AGUIRRE