Finnish police set up courtroom in Rwanda for genocide trial

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Stepping into the stone building that houses the Rwandan Supreme Court in the capital Kigali, the first thing that one sees is a stairwell that is kept very neat, and a picture of President Paul Gagame.
      The same photograph could also be seen on the wall of the courtroom itself, until a Finnish police officer put it in the corner.
      “A Finnish trial is beginning here”, says police officer Thomas Elfgren.
     
Elfgren and two other Finnish police officers are rearranging furniture and installing eqipment in the courtroom. On Tuesday, Porvoo District Court will set up shop there to continue a trial that was started in Porvoo at the beginning of the month.
      The men are installing wiring and placing microphones around the room for the recording of the sessions. In addition to new wiring, a device has been installed in the courtroom that provides electricity for 15 minutes in case of an electric failure.
      A video link is also to be set up in the court, with which the defendant, who is being held in a jail in Vantaa, can follow the proceedings. A test transmission on Sunday did not yet work.
     
When the members of the court landed in Kigali on Saturday evening, the large box containing the video equipment did not appear on the luggage conveyor.
      The equipment had been left at the airport in Brussels, but it arrived on Sunday evening.
      If the equipment had been delayed, police officer Jari Ikäheimonen says that a Skype online telephone link would have been used instead.
     
A set of new curtains is waiting on one of the chairs.
      “We thought that the atmosphere would be more like home”, Ikäheimonen jokes.
      The real reason for the curtains is the bright African sun, which shines through the window behind the witness stand. The testimony is to be recorded on videotape, and the glare needs to be reduced to guarantee a high-quality picture.
     
The courtroom differs from typical Finnish courtrooms mainly in that it is much larger.
      The small witness stand in the Rwandan courtroom is being replaced by an ordinary large table, which can accommodate a witness and two interpreters.
     
Outside on the street the only reminder of the genocide are the dented walls on the nearby Parliamentary building, which was hit by artillery fire at the beginning of the genocide in the spring of 1994.
      In other respects, the part of Kigali in which the building is located has a Southern European feel to it. The litter and the domestic animals that are typical of some other African capitals are nowhere to be seen.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Defence in Rwanda genocide case: defendant understood events late (2.9.2009)
  Porvoo court to travel to Rwanda to hear testimony (8.6.2009)
  Rwandan man accused of genocide says he tried to save Tutsis (17.6.2009)
  Defendant in Rwanda genocide case had trouble remembering days before massacre (4.9.2009)

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