The General's Trial: Dallaire Inconvenienced By Genocide Trial, 24 Nov 2006

The General's Trial: Dallaire Inconvenienced By Genocide Trial, 24 Nov 2006

[So, as you should have read in the transcript from the 23rd of November, Maitre Black showed up in court that day totally AMA (against medical advice) and with a Dr's note in hand. But this is a special court, a self-proclaimed 'Victims' Court', so illness only merits consideration and gets play for the Prosecution and its key snitch and punk-ass collabo, General Dallaire. By iatrogenically morphing his alcoholism and drug addiction into bi-polar disorder (aka, manic depression, a frustrating mess, according to Jimi Hendrix) and PTSD (for those vets who can't bear to tell their kids what they really did during the war), Dallaire has not only been permitted to continue in disequilibrium by gobbling medicine cabinets full of weapons-grade squealing yella zonkers, but he's received from the Victims' Justice movement a yearly grant of two six-month paid vacations from his significant human responsibilities in all the war crimes under discussion in Arusha and elsewhere. However, when Chris Black was knocked off his feet and into the ICTR hospital, hooked into the full Litvenenko irrigation system (though, happily, Chris' politics didn't qualify him for a Polonium test), the best offer the bench could make was that only his death would excuse his not being in court--and in that eventuality, he'd have to deliver his death certificate in person. This is just a little tranche of a transcript, but it is fraught with the bathos and craven conniving that has come to identify the proceedings at the ad hocs--it's what gave Judge Richard May the brain cancer that removed him from the Milosevic trial. But, I'm happy to say, Chris seems to be bouncing back, so, sit tight, much more fun in GenocideLand to come. --mc]

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THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR RWANDA

CASE NO.: ICTR-00-56-T THE PROSECUTOR
CHAMBER II OF THE TRIBUNAL
v.
AUGUSTIN NDINDILIYIMANA
FRANÇOIS-XAVIER NZUWONEMEYE
INNOCENT SAGAHUTU
AUGUSTIN BIZIMUNGU

FRIDAY, 24 NOVEMBER 2006

(1306H)

CONTINUED TRIAL

Before the Judges:
Joseph Asoka de Silva, Presiding
Taghrid Hikmet
Seon Ki Park


For the Registry:
Mr. Roger Noel Kouambo (Canada)
Mr. Issa Toure
Mr. Abraham Koshopa

For the Prosecution:
Mr. Ciré Aly Bâ
Mr. Moussa Sefon
Mr. Segun Jegede
Mr. Abubacarr Tambadou (Canada)
Ms. Felistas Mushi

For the Accused Augustin Ndindiliyimana:
(Mr. Black is out, sicker'n a dog, and probably in need of a test for Polonium poisoning--cm/p)

For the Accused François-Xavier Nzuwonemeye:
Mr. Charles Taku

For the Accused Innocent Sagahutu:
Mr. Fabien Segatwa

For the Accused Augustin Bizimungu:
Mr. Ronnie MacDonald

Court Reporter:
Ms. Kirstin McLean

P R O C E E D I N G S


MR. PRESIDENT:
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Court is in session. The appearances are as before.


MR. MACDONALD:
Good afternoon, Mr. President, Your Honours. We have a problem. Counsel Black spoke to my legal intern, Ms. Bowghamni, this morning. And I guess he tried to call me but I was at UNDF all morning. And apparently he's not well at all. He went to the hospital, I believe, this morning. He is now at the ICTR clinic. He can barely walk -- he can barely speak, from what I understand, and he's told my intern that he would want me to represent him. Now, I have no problem with that, but my problem is I have no mandate from his client, and neither does he. Because the question was put to Mr. Black if he had spoken to his client, and, apparently, he has not. So obviously it's a problem.

What I could suggest, Your Honour -- I think Mr. Bâ will express his position to you. What I could perhaps suggest is that we try to get hold of General Ndindiliyimana and see if he is willing to have either me mandated -- mandated to represent him or anybody else.


MR. PRESIDENT:
Yeah.


MR. MACDONALD:
But that's the situation. Mr. Black, he's -- he's not going to be coming this afternoon.


MR. PRESIDENT:
Yeah. Yes, Mr. Bâ. What is the position?


MR. BÂ:
Mr. President, I think that the proposal made by Mr. MacDonald is full of common sense and good faith. We could try that. Otherwise, what remains for us to do is to ask the registrar to order Mr. Black's co-counsel to be here on Monday. In any case, we can try to carry out Mr. MacDonald's proposal.


MR. PRESIDENT:
Yes, Mr. Registrar, you are directed to contact Mr. Ndindiliyimana and explain the situation to him. And I -- on the other hand, I thought Mr. Black has an obligation to inform Court as to what happens about his unavailability.


MR. TOURE:
Taking note of what you've said, Mr. President.


MR. PRESIDENT:
Until you do that we will take an adjournment and come back. As soon as we get -- get across to Ndindiliyimana, please inform us.

Mr. Dallaire, there is a problem at this end, so I hope you will understand you have to wait for some time, until we call you back.

Court is adjourned for 15 minutes.

(Court recessed from 1310H to 1327H)


MR. KOUAMBO:
Your Honour? Your Honour?


MR. PRESIDENT:
Are we able to contact --


MR. KOUAMBO:
Your Honour?


MR. PRESIDENT:
Yes.


MR. KOUAMBO:
Mr. President, sir -- Mr. President.


THE ENGLISH INTERPRETER:
Mr. President, sorry -- Mr. President, we can't interpret that; that had lots of interruptions, we can't interpret that. If he could try again.


MR. PRESIDENT:
Yes, Mr. Kouambo, inaudible. Can you speak again?


MR. KOUAMBO:
I was saying that we were not informed of the entry of the Judges, and the general is still away for a few minutes. But in any case, we've gone to look for him and he will be here any time from now.


MR. PRESIDENT:
Oh, okay. He can take his time.

Yes, Mr. Registrar.


MR. TOURE:
Yes, Mr. President. In accordance with the instructions you gave, I spoke directly to Mr. Augustin Ndindiliyimana over the phone. He says that he does not want anyone to represent him apart from his counsel, Mr. Black. I thank you.


MR. PRESIDENT:
Yes. In view of that, we have to put it on record today that Mr. Black is not here and his co-counsel is not here. I think Mr. Black had a duty at least to write to the registrar informing about his condition, which he has not done.


MR. MACDONALD:
I think -- Your Honour, I think he had a -- he had a note from the doctor yesterday, and as he mentioned to you yesterday, he is -- his doctor even told him yesterday he shouldn't be here.


MR. PRESIDENT:
Yeah, but then what I say is that he should have sent at least a note to the registrar informing about his condition.


MR. MACDONALD:
But he's here at ICTR, if we could do anything, or --


MR. PRESIDENT:
Yeah, if he can come to the ICTR, at least he can walk into court for five minutes to inform (unintelligible).


MR. MACDONALD:
He's on -- apparently he's got -- he's -- in French, he's on drips. He can't walk and he can barely talk. Sarah, my legal intern, just spoke with him about ten minutes ago -- she just went to see him, and apparently he's in very, very bad shape, Your Honour. So I think --


MR. PRESIDENT:
Yeah, that is correct. So from what you say, if she has not gone, your intern, we would not have known what -- what was his condition and no information, if she had not gone. Because he did not take any initiative with --


MR. MACDONALD:
He called -- he -- just to get the record straight, Your Honour. Mr. Black called Sarah Bowghamni, my legal assistant, I believe four or five times. He tried to reach me; I was at UNDF all morning. And he -- his solution -- Mr. Black's proposed that we should proceed -- he wanted us to proceed, he mandated me to represent him. And I think he's perhaps not even well enough to realise that it's not his mandate, it's his client's mandate, and that's why I found it a bit strange when my intern told me about that. So -- I don't think -- personally speaking, I don't think he should be penalised for any of this, Your Honour, because I really think he's sick.


MR. PRESIDENT:
No, I'm only saying that at least for courtesy's sake, he should have, if he can call you and call the legal assistant, he could have called the registrar's office. That is what I say.


MR. MACDONALD:
But my impression, Your Honour, is that he thought perhaps everything would fall together and everything would be all right. So...


MR. PRESIDENT:
But it is the situation --


MR. SEGATWA:
Mr. President, could you please give the floor to his assistant for some clarification.


MR. PRESIDENT:
Yeah.


MR. DE WOLF:
Thank you, Mr. President. I was able to contact Mr. Black at 11:45. I spoke to him over the phone and he explained to me that he was not in a position to come, but that he had indeed spoken to Mr. MacDonald and asked him to represent him. When I spoke to him, he was not even in a position to express himself properly and he told me that he was in a very critical situation. So for the purposes of the records, I would like to confirm that Mr. Black is critically ill and it is not deliberately that he failed to appear in court today. Thank you.


MR. PRESIDENT:
Yeah. But the ground situation is his client is not here, his co-counsel is not here, Mr. Black is not here, and therefore we can't proceed today. Because even if he has asked Mr. MacDonald, Mr. MacDonald is representing army, and Mr. Black's representing gendarmerie. So yesterday he was objecting to Mr. Segatwa and other counsel for cross-examining -- touching something on gendarmerie. So I don't think it is proper for him to ask Mr. Black (sic) to represent him at this stage, because of the conflict of interest.

So therefore I direct the registrar to get the co-counsel on the next day, that is on the 5th, and also if he's not available, to appoint a duty counsel from the 5th to continue with the case -- 5th December -- to make arrangements, if co-counsel is not here, at least to have a duty counsel for the purposes of concluding the proceedings.

Yes, now I speak to Ottawa.

General, I hope you are there. We are having a problem here, therefore we have to postpone the case till 1 p.m. on the 5th. Do you hear me?


THE WITNESS:
Yes, sir, I hear you and I --


MR. PRESIDENT:
Yeah, sorry about that.


THE WITNESS:
-- raise also the limitations with time. As you are aware, sir, in our correspondence --


MR. PRESIDENT:
Yes.


THE WITNESS:
-- that the following week is now becoming quite prejudiced also. So I do hope that we are able to meet our aims in the time that will be remaining available --


MR. PRESIDENT:
Yes, okay.


THE WITNESS:
-- in the week of the 5th.


MR. PRESIDENT:
Since everybody understands the problem in court, Court is adjourned until 1 p.m. on the 5th.

(Court adjourned at 1336H)



C E R T I F I C A T E


I, Kirstin McLean, an Official Court Reporter for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, do hereby certify that the foregoing proceedings in the above-entitled cause were taken at the time and place as stated; that it was taken in shorthand (stenotype) and thereafter transcribed by computer; that the foregoing pages contain a true and correct transcription of said proceedings to the best of my ability and understanding.


I further certify that I am not of counsel nor related to any of the parties to this cause and that I am in nowise interested in the result of said cause.


___________________________ Kirstin McLean