Jerome Clement Bicamumpaka is a Rwandan politician. He is one of the 402 co-founders of the Rwandan political party MDRStatutes of the MDR political party, signed on July 1, 1991, in Kigali, Rwanda (Mouvement Démocratique Républicain), a democratic opposition party, created in Kigali on July 1, 1991. He was born on November 4, 1957, in Mukono (Rwaza), in Ruhondo commune, Ruhengeri prefecture.
An economist by training and consultant by profession, he joined the Interim Government of RwandaRwandan presidential decree of April 8, 1994 on April 9, 1994, as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. This government was in power for only three months, from April 9 to July 17, 1994.
Exiled in mid-July 1994, Bicamumpaka moved first to Kinshasa, Zaire, then to Yaoundé, Cameroon, where he tried to work as a consultant.
On April 6, 1999, he was arrested by the Prosecutor of the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) who accused him of crimes including genocide. Twelve and a half years later, he was acquitted of all charges by the Trial ChamberICTR, Judgment, Bizimungu & al. (Government II); L’Express.Fr, "Two Rwandan ex-ministers acquitted by the ICTR", September 30, 2011. of the ICTR and released. Bicamumpaka was then taken into the care of the ICTR Registry in Arusha. Awaiting the opportunity to join his family in Canada, he has since resided in Tanzania.
Birth, education and political affiliation Jerome Bicamumpaka is the son of Balthazar Bicamumpaka and Basile Ntakazalimara. Born into a practicing Christian family, he was baptized while still a baby. His father, Balthazar Bicamumpaka, was an important figure in Rwandan politics from the 1950s to the 1960s; he worked for the abolition of the ubuhake (the old Rwandan social order, somewhat akin to feudalism), the advent of representative government, and Rwandan independence from Belgium. He is considered to be a founding father of the Republic of Rwanda, proclaimed in Gitarama on January 28, 1961, alongside, among others, Grégoire Kayibanda, Dominique Mbonyumutwa, Vénuste Kayuku, Joseph Habyarimana Gitera, and Jean-Baptiste Rwasibo. He served as a minister from 1960 to 1965, then as president of the National Assembly of Rwanda from 1965 to 1969. Following a political crisis in 1968, he retired from politics in September 1969 to engage in business. He died on May 13, 1981, and was buried in Rwaza.
Bicamumpaka completed his primary and secondary school education in Rwanda, but in 1977, he was obliged, for family reasons, to engage in business alongside his father. Seven years later, he resumed his studies by enrolling in the Faculty of Economics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, in Belgium. He completed his education at the Institute of Administration and Management of the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL School of Management) in 1989.
At the end of his studies, he returned to Rwanda and formed a management consulting company, with clients including private companies, non-governmental organizations, UN agencies, state projects, and government ministries.
Bicamumpaka entered politics by co-founding the MDR IN 1991. The party platform included the development of democracy in Rwanda, support for public freedoms, economic liberalization to strengthen the private sector, and aid for Rwandan refugees.MDR, Program manifesto and Statutes, July 1991. The MDR quickly became the main political party of the Rwandan democratic opposition. The establishment of the MDR coincided with the Rwandan Civil War, and sought to provide opposition to the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), once President Juvénal Habyarimana and his party, the MRND, had finally accepted the establishment of a multiparty system in Rwanda.The Rwandan Constitution of June 10, 1992.
Bicamumpaka held several posts in the MDR. He quickly became a member of the party's secretariat committee in Ruhengeri prefecture, and a member of the committee in charge of studies and party programs. In 1992, he became chairman of this commission and at the same time a member of the party's Political Bureau, made up of 44 people from the eleven prefectures of Rwanda.
After the signing between the Government of Rwanda and the RPF, in Arusha, of the Protocol on the sharing of power and in view of the signing of the Arusha Peace AgreementPeace agreement between the Government of the Republic of Rwanda and the Rwandese Patriotic Front, August 4, 1993. which will take place on August 4, 1993, the MDR party is asked to designate the eleven deputies who will represent it in the Transitional National Assembly. In July 1993, Bicamumpaka was elected deputy of the MDR party, at the prefectural congress held in Ruhengeri. The National Transitional Assembly was to bring together representatives of approved Rwandan political parties, as well as those of the RPF. However, despite several attempts to set up the organs provided for in this Peace Agreement, none of them could be put in place before the fateful date of April 6, 1994.
In February 1994, when Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu was designated to lead the transitional government, he asked the MDR to nominate candidates for the three ministerial posts that were due to him. Bicamumpaka was one of the three MDR candidates submitted for the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, even though he also held elected office.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying President Habyarimana was shot downUNAMIR, Outgoing code cable, Number 001-212-963-6460, April 7, 1994. while trying to land at Kanombe International Airport.
Following negotiations between the officials of the UNAMIR (United Nations Mission for assistance in Rwanda), the Rwandan military officials and those of the five political parties that had participated in the Government since April 16, 1992, a new GovernmentAdditional Memorandum of Understanding of April 8, 1994 between the political parties MRND, MDR, PL, PSD and PDC, with a view to forming a new Government. This Additional Protocol follows on from the Memorandum of Understanding of April 7, 1992, between the same political parties, from which emerged the first multi-party transitional government in Rwanda, led by Dismas Nsengiyaremye, Prime Minister. was set up in place. It will be better known as the Rwandan Interim Government. The leaders of the MDR party proposed Jerome C. Bicamumpaka for the portfolio of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, as the Political Bureau had done two months earlier. This is how he entered the government, in a chaoticUNAMIR, Outgoing code cable, Number 990, April 7, 1994. environment of war, massacres of civilians and paralysis of all political and administrative organs of the Rwandan state.
The Rwandan Interim Government had received from the five political parties that made it up, a threefold mission, namely:
To ensure the effective management of state affairs, with particular emphasis on the rapid restoration of order and the security of persons and property; To continue discussions with the RPF for the establishment of the institutions of the broad-based transition, within a period not exceeding six weeks; and finally, To tackle energetically the problem of food shortage by seeking ways and means to help the disaster-stricken populations of certain prefectures and those displaced by war.
The legitimacy of the Rwandan Interim Government could not be questioned as some people close to the RPF are still trying to do more than twenty-seven years after its establishment. In fact, not only did its establishment comply with the laws of Rwanda, as well as all the protocols signed between the Government of Rwanda and the RPF, during the Arusha negotiations, but also this legitimacyUN Interoffice memorandum, Ralph Zaklin, Director and Deputy to the Under-Secretary-General Office of the Legal Counsel, Clarifications of the legal issues raised by the RPF, May 25, 1994. was recognized by the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, on May 25, 1994, in New York.
Bicamumpaka was sworn in as Minister on April 9, 1994. The investiture ceremony took place at the Hôtel des Diplomates. As part of his ministerial responsibilities, he decides to meet urgently the ambassadors of different countries accredited to Rwanda. These are mainly those from the following countries: The Kingdom of Belgium, France, the United States of America, the Holy See and those responsible for UNAMIR. Having made contact with these ambassadors, their meeting is scheduled for the afternoon of April 9, 1994, at their respective residences. The objective pursued by Bicamumpaka for these meetings was to call on their respective governments to come to the aid of Rwanda and its people, by stopping the massacres of civilians, as well as the war, and by encouraging the immediate resumption of negotiations between the Government and the RPF, with the aim of finally putting in place the organs provided for by the Arusha Peace Agreement. To this end, Bicamumpaka proposed to the Belgian and French Governments, respectively, through their ambassadors, to use their respective forces present in Rwanda or in the region, to stop the massacres and protect civilians, starting with the city of Kigali. It was in this context that at the request of the Belgian Ambassador, Johan Swinnen, he intervened energetically in the Government, on the eveningICTR, Case of The Prosecutor v Bicamumpaka et Al, Testimony of Belgian Ambassador Johan Swinnen, Wednesday 07 May 2008, Transcripts, at page 15-16, Para.1. of April 9, 1994, so that a thousand Belgian commandos stationed in Kenya be authorized to land at Kanombe international airport, in particular for the evacuation of Belgian citizens resident in Rwanda. The first of these commandos were able to land the next day in the morning.ICTR, The Prosecutor v. Bicamumpaka & Al, Testimony of Mr. Johan Swinnen, May 07, 2008, Transcripts, at page 10, Para. 1. There is no doubt that without his decisive and rapid action which enabled Belgian troops to deploy in Rwanda and to rescue Belgian citizens there, it would not be ten Belgians who could have been counted as dead in Rwanda, but several dozen civilians and soldiers! But after these soldiers finished rescuing the Belgians and evacuating them, their Government decided to withdraw them immediately. Of the four ambassadors Bicamumpaka wanted to meet on the afternoon of April 9, 1994, only Ambassador Rawson of the United States of America failed him, without any explanation. But to all these diplomats, the message from the Rwandan minister was the same, as the Ambassador Swinnen testified before the Trial Chamber of the ICTR in Bicamumpaka's trial.
From April 10, 1994, the latter wrote several diplomatic notes intended to inform the United Nations in particular (Security Council, General Secretariat, General Assembly, African Group, Group of Non-Aligned States, UNAMIR, etc.), the Organization of African Unity (OAU), countries which had bilateral relations with Rwanda, as well as several international organizations of which Rwanda was a member. The leaders of these organizations and countries have all received these Notes Verbales. Among the latter, we can cite the following:
On April 10, 1994, a first Note VerbaleLetter dated 13 April 1994 from the Permanent Representative of Rwanda to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council explaining the political situation in Rwanda since the assassination of the President on 6 April 1994; 5 pages. was drafted and sent to all recipients, with the President of the UN Security Council first, with distribution to all its members. On April 11, 1994, a second Note VerbaleJerome C. Bicamumpaka, Note Verbale from the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, sent on April 11, 1994, to UNAMIR. was sent to UNAMIR officials in Kigali.