Plenty of questions remain unanswered
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By Tommi Nieminen
How much is known about the possible guilt of the Porvoo man? At this stage, not very much.
According to the reports, it is clear that the man was in Nyakizu when the mass killings took place. He was also a member of the village council, which means that he was close to the mayor.
Details on whether or not he took part in the organisation of the murders and how that might have happened - depend on how truthful the stories of the eyewitnesses are.
Genocides are always difficult cases. Matias Hellman, a Finn, works in Bosnia-Herzegovina as a liaison official of the International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia.
"In genocides, the eyewitness testimony of surviving victims is extremely important in trials, especially when murder is involved", Hellman says. However, statements by victims are not always reliable. There are cases in which memories get distorted over the years. Traumas can change mental images. There are also cases in which people have made up completely false accusations of war crime.
Nevertheless, testimony from survivors carries weight, if it is credible in light of other evidence, such as written documents, satellite images, video material, and crime-scene investigation.
"At least 12 witnesses of the murders in Srebrenica survived. Some had been lined up to be shot, but were only injured and survived. Sometimes a victim's testimony alone is sufficient in court, if it is convincing", Hellman says.
That would not be good from the point of view of the Porvoo man - if he took part in the Nyakizu massacre. That is, if he did. So far, it is if, and only if.
If the eyewitness accounts are true, the Porvoo man may be guilty of acquiring and distributing weapons, organising military training, and leading at least one armed attack. Possibly even killing.
However, he also has his defenders.
his superior during the genocide lives in Pennsylvania, in the United States. Pastor Eleazar Ziherambere - the same man whom eyewitness Augustin Karambizi claims helped the Porvoo man acquire weapons - worked in 1994 as Secretary-General of the Union of Baptist Churches of Rwanda. The Porvoo man was the leader of the local youth centre of the organisation.
Ziherambere and the Porvoo man are brothers-in-law. They met in December when Ziherambere visited Finland.
"According to the Human Rights Watch report, he [the Porvoo man] was a good friend of Ntaganzwa. This is not true, because he was a very close friend of the previous mayor, Jean-Baptiste Gasana, and Ntaganzwa deposed Gasana violently", Ziherambere says by telephone.
If the Porvoo man is guilty, then why did the government of Rwanda not put him on the list of genocide suspects already in 1999, when Human Rights Watch published its report, Ziherambere asks. His name made the list only in 2006.
"I know that after the war his house was taken over by a Tutsi soldier. There have ben numerous cases reported in which false accusations have been made in retrospect about Hutus who have fled the country to keep them from returning to Rwanda to get their property back", Ziherambere says.
In his view, the Porvoo man did not have the kind of political clout in the village that would have allowed him to acquire and distribute weapons. However, an eyewitness of the African Rights organisation says that Ziherambere himself helped the Porvoo man amass weapons.
"I have asked him later how much of what was written in the HRW report had he done. He said that he did not take part in it. If he is guilty, let him be punished, but if he is innocent, let that come out."
Ziherambere fled Rwanda on April 16th, 1994, as the genocide was going on.
According to the HRW report, the Porvoo man was distributing weapons at that time at the bar that he owned in Nyakizu. Does Ziherambere remember the bar?
"No I don't when I left the country I don't believe that he had a bar. If he had one, it must have been in May or June."
The wife of the Porvoo man said the same in an interview with Ilta-Sanomat. The family did not own any bar.
Before the genocide, the wife worked as a deputy director at the Nyantanga health clinic, under the leadership of Valdine Renlund, a Finn. Renlund currently lives in Pietarsaari. She knew the Porvoo man already in the 1970s, when he came as a young man to the Nyantanga mission.
"I don't believe the charges. He was friendly and polite already then."
According to the HRW report, the Porvoo man was originally from neighbouring Burundi, from where he came to Rwanda at the age of 21 as a refugee. A civil war was going on in Burundi at that time, naturally between Hutus and Tutsis. At first, Hutu rebels killed an estimated 2,000 - 3,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, after which the country's Tutsi army implemented a systematic genocide. According to conservative estimates, between 100,000 and 150,000 people were killed in Burundi over a period of three months.
So the Porvoo man himself is a refugee from a genocide perpetrated by Tutsis. No wonder if he was left nursing a grudge.
In addition to Ziherambere, and family friends in Finland, one Rwandan living in Finland, Sixbert Musangamfura, believes in the innocence of the Porvoo man. They did not know each other during the genocide, but he said that he has heard that he helped many refugees during the war.
"The ones that he was not able to help might be blaming him now for not helping", he says.
In the summer of 1994 the Porvoo man arrived in Zaire as a refugee. Porvoo pastor Holger Nystedt, who has now retired, worked at the refugee camp in 1995. That is where they got to know each other.
"He helped the other refugees. He was a gentleman, a wonderful person", Nystedt says.
When some of the refugees in the camp were being returned to Rwanda, the Porvoo man slipped across the border into Kenya.
So he did not want to go back to Rwanda, even during a time of peace. Therefore, he must have been afraid of something.
From Nairobi, he moved to the Zambian capital Lusaka. There he studied at a theological college. At that time, HRW published a report on the Rwanda genocide. The Rwandan government was not yet interested in him then.
The Porvoo man applied for asylum in Finland in the spring of 2003. He registered at the reception centre in Vaasa, because there were other Rwandans living there. And there was also a Baptist congregation.
In 2002 and 2003 he studied Swedish and Finnish at a religious school. He became a familiar sight at the Swedish-language Baptist congregation.
"In our congregation, he presided over international small group activities in English and French. There was Bible reading and singing", says Pastor Vehkaoja.
The man's wife and 12-year-old son came from Kenya to Finland in August 2005. Everyday life was difficult, as there was no work available in Vaasa, and the Directorate of Immigration would not grant them a permanent residence permit.
His past began to unravel bit by bit. First, members of the Baptist congregation saw the report concerning the Porvoo man's alleged involvement in the genocide.
"He admitted that he was politically active, but he says that he did not take part in transporting weapons", Vehkaoja says.
This did not lead the congregation to take any action: "You have to take a man at his word."
The man moved to Porvoo in the autumn of 2006. His wife got work as a home nurse. The family went to church on Sundays, and the husband and wife sang in the church choir.
In late 2006 the family's peaceful small town life came to an end.
The government of Rwanda published a list of 93 Rwandans living abroad, who are suspected of involvement in the genocide.
The Porvoo man was number nine on the list.
Finnish police began their preliminary investigation early this year. The matter remained a secret until April 3rd, when the international organisations Redress and FIDH published a press release according to which there are 37 Rwandans living in Europe, who are suspected of having taken part in the Genocide.
A few days later it was Maundy Thursday.
Whether or not the Porvoo man is guilty or innocent, he has plenty of explaining to do about the events in Nyakizu. His actions will probably have to be examined by the Finnish legal system, because the Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which operates in Tanzania, is not handling any new cases.
He cannot be sent to Rwanda to be tried, because he could face the death penalty there.
If charges are raised against the Porvoo man, it will be a complicated legal case. Nearly everything that is known about the massacre in the remote and poor Rwandan village is based on eyewitness accounts reported later on.
Most of the witnesses are living as refugees in different parts of the world. Rakiya Omaar, the director of African Rights, believes that the witnesses Apollinaire Rugimbana and Augustin Karambizi are still in Nyakizu. Perhaps the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) will have to take a trip?
"The starting point is that this kind of investigation will focus on personal testimony. There will certainly be investigations abroad as well", says Thomas Elfgren of the NBI. "However, I am not yet ready to say where we will travel to".
Under Finnish law, genocide carries a sentence ranging from four years to life in prison.
But it is a long way to go before that will happen. For now, the Porvoo man is considered innocent.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 15.4.2007
More on this subject:
 On the trail of a genocide
Previously in HS International Edition:
Finland holds Rwandan man suspected of involvement in genocide (10.4.2007)
TOMMI NIEMINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
tommi.nieminen@hs.fi
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