Jean-Damascène Bizimana
Jean-Damascène Bizimana (born c. 1958) is a former Rwandan diplomat and member of the United Nations Security Council and a quality control manager for Capitol Plastics Products in Auburn.
Bizimana was appointed as the Republic of Rwanda's ambassador to the United Nations by President Juvénal Habyarimana, who had siezed power from his cousin, Grégoire Kayibanda, in a 1973 coup. Both Kayibanda and Habyarimana represented the ethnic Hutu majority which had formerly suffered at the hands of Tutsi controlled governments. At the time of Bizimana's appointment, Habyarimana's government was fighting off the first waves of rebellion from the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front. With help from France and Zaire, the rebellion was put down, but Habyarimana was killed when his presidential jet was shot down near the Kigali International Airport on April 6, 1994. Bizimana remained as ambassador for the interim government headed by Théodore Sindikubwabo.
In the aftermath of the assassination, Sindikubwabo's interim government embarked on a massive genocide of Tutsis and other political opponents. It is estimated that between 500,000 and 1 million Rwandans were killed in the 100 days following. During that period, Rwanda was one of 10 rotating members of the United Nations Security Council. As ambassador to the UN, Bizimana sat on that council and downplayed the violence taking place in his country, blaming the Tutsis for reacting violently to the news of Habyarimana's death and for perpetuating violent rebellion. He voted against an arms embargo against his government in the council in May 1994.
General Roméo Dallaire of Canada, leader of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda, accused Bizimana of spreading propaganda and aiding his government's atrocities by providing them with confidential intelligence from the Security Council, including the operations of Dallaire's own mission. As the scale and brutality of the genocide became known, Bizimana withdrew from active participation in meetings of the council. In July, when Tutsi rebels captured Kigali, Bizimana emptied his mission's offices in New York and disappeared. His possible complicity in the Rwandan genocide has been under investigation ever since, and the new government has threatened his arrest for war crimes, but no formal charges have been filed. His whereabouts remained unknown until 2010.
In 2010, researcher David L. Bosco found public records indicated that Bizimana moved to Opelika immediately after leaving New York and that he had become a citizen and registered to vote before October 2004. Bosco spoke briefly with Bizimana at Capitol Plastics Products, but was not granted an interview. A few weeks later, as the Rwandan government reactivated its investigation, he told the Associated Press that he played no part in the genocide and had asked the council to pressure the RPF for a cease-fire and asked the UN to send more troops to his country several times. If he were charged in Kigali, he would have to be tried in absentia because the United States has no extradition treaty with Rwanda.
References
- Bosco, David L. (April 4, 2010) "Rwanda's ex-U.N. ambassador, who vanished after genocide, resurfaces in Alabama." The Washington Post
- Reeves, Jay (April 24, 2010) "Ex-diplomat in Opelika probed in Rwanda genocide." Associated Press