APRIL-MAY2008

*AFFIDAVIT*


I, **MICHAEL* ANDREW *HOURIGAN** Lawyer of 61-63 Carrington Street
Adelaide 5000 in the State of South Australia Solicitor *MAKE OATH AND
SAY* as follows:

1. I am a qualified legal practitioner in the State of South Australia.
I was also a former police detective before completing a law degree in
1995 after which time I took up a post as a Crown Prosecutor with the
Director of Public Prosecutions (D.P.P. Adelaide).


1. In April, 1996 I left the D.P.P. in Adelaide and took up a position
as an investigator with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.


1. Soon after my arrival in Rwanda I was put made a team leader in
charge of a team consisting of about 20 members and the team was to be
known as ‘the National Team’.


1. I was directed by Judge Richard Goldstone (the then Chief
Prosecutor) and Judge Honoré Rakotomana (the then ICTR Prosecutor) and
Mr. Alphonse Breau (the then Director of Investigations) to focus my
teams investigations on the following matters:-

1. 1. investigate the criminal conduct of Colonel Theoneste Bagosora
and then locate and arrest him;

2. investigate the criminal conduct of Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva
and then locate and arrest him;

3. investigate the murder of thousands of Rwandan elite in the
first days of the genocide by the Rwandan Presidential Guard.

4. identify the person(s) responsible for the fatal rocket attack
on 6 April 1994 killing President Habyarimana and all others on board;


1. Together with my investigators we conducted investigations into
these matters throughout the next year. During the course of 1996 I was
called upon to brief Judge Goldstone and then his replacement Judge
Louise Arbour and other senior prosecutors on the progress of our
investigations into Bagosora, Nsengiyumva, the Presidential Guard and
the rocket attack upon President Habyarimana’s aircraft.


1. At no time did Judge Goldstone, Judge Arbour or any other member of
the ICTR ever indicate to me that our investigations into the downing
of the President Habyrimana’s aircraft were outside the ICTR mandate.
On the contrary, it was made clear to me that the rocket attack upon the
President’s aircraft we were investigating was an act of
international terrorism which clearly fell within the ICTR statute
Article 4 Violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions:-

* *Article 4: Violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions
and of Additional Protocol II *

* The International Tribunal for Rwanda shall have the power to prosecute
persons committing or ordering to be committed serious violations of
Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 for the
Protection of War Victims, and of Additional Protocol II thereto of 8
June 1977. These violations shall include, but shall not be limited to:

* a) Violence to life, health and physical or mental well-being of
persons, in particular murder, as well as cruel treatment such as torture,
mutilation or any form of corporal punishment;

* b)


* c)


* d) Acts of terrorism;


* e)


* f)


* g)


* h)


1. I am pleased to say that the National Team was successful and we
achieved the following results:-

1. Located, arrested and charged Colonel Theoneste Bagosora with
Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity;

2. Located, arrested and charged Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva
Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity;

3. Gathered evidence against senior members of the Presidential
Guard in relation to the killings of key Rwandan citizens,
including but not limited to, UNAMIR-protected VIPS, Justice
Joseph Kavaruganda, (President of the Constitutional Court) and Vice
President Lando Ndasingwa (the head of the Parti liberal);

4. In late January or early February 1997, members of the National
Team were approached by three (3) informants (either former or
serving member of the R.P.F.), claiming direct involvement in the 1994
fatal rocket attack upon the President’s aircraft. Their evidence
specifically implicated the direct involvement of President Paul
Kagame, members of his administration and military.
The informants also advised that the Kagame administration was
actively involved in covert operations aimed at murdering high profile
expatriate Rwandans – one such murder was the death of Seth
Sedashonga in Nairobi.


1. With respect to the highly sensitive information from the three
informants regarding the plane crash, I immediately informed my
Commander, Jim Lyons. My Director, Mr. Alphonse Breau, was out
of the country, and I arranged for him to be told by telephone.


1. The information from the sources was very detailed and seemed very
credible. I was very concerned about the sensitivity of the information
and arranged for an urgent ‘secure’ telephone call to Judge Arbour.


1. Commander Jim Lyons and I attended at the US Embassy in Kigali and I
made a call to Judge Arbour at the US Embassy in The Hague using an
encrypted (‘secure’) STU III telephone. I informed Judge Arbour in
considerable detail about the information implicating President Kagame.
She was excited by the break through and advised me that the
information corroborated some other information she had just learnt
from Alison Des Forge the week before. At no time did she suggest that
our investigations were improper. On the contrary, I would describe her
mood as upbeat and excited that at last we were making significant
progress into the events surrounding the plane crash.


1. Judge Arbour was concerned about the safety of the informants and my
men. I advised her that the informants’ identities had been kept secure
and, if she so directed me, I would arrange for my investigators involved
in the plane crash to leave Rwanda. She directed that my investigators
should leave and I agreed to have them travel from the country on
suitable inquiries in Nairobi. As for me I declined to leave Rwanda and
advised her that I wanted to stay with my team and assist them in completing
other important investigations. She consented to this but asked me to
keep in touch with her while she considered what to do with this
sensitive information.


1. During the next week I was directed by senior members of the UN in
Kigali that I was required to travel to the ICTY in The Hague in order
to meet with Judge Arbour and brief on her on our investigations in the
rocket attack upon President Habyarimana’s aircraft.


1. Some days later I was approached at the ICTR headquarters in Kigali
by Mr. *Michael* Hall, UN Deputy Security (NY). He advised me that I
would be flying to Arusha the next day on the ICTR aircraft and from
there board an international KLM flight to Amsterdam. Mr. Hall asked me
to give him any information that I had on the air crash and he would convey
it to the airport in a UN diplomatic pouch. I then gave Mr. Hall a
single floppy disc containing a memorandum I had prepared for Judge
Arbour.


1. The next day Mr. Hall conveyed me to the Kigali airport where I
checked in for the UN flight. There Mr. Hall and I were told that the
flight was overbooked and that I could not fly to Arusha. Mr. Hall became
agitated and told the UN flight officer that the UN Secretary General,
Mr. Kofi Annan, had personally ordered my attendance in Arusha for an
international connection the next day. As a consequence I was given a
seat on the UN flight and flew to Arusha.


1. The next day I flew to The Hague and over-nighted in a hotel near
the ICTY.


1. The following morning I met with Mr. Al Breau and briefed him on the
information concerning the plane crash. Together we discussed forming a
special ICTR investigations unit based outside of Kigali to investigate
the plane crash.


1. Following breakfast Mr. Breau and I attended at the ICTY and met
with Judge Arbour. Also present was Mr. Mohammed Othman, Acting ICTR
Prosecutor.



1. I briefed Judge Arbour on the informants and their information
regarding the involvement of President Kagame and members of the RPF in
the downing of President Habyarimana’s aircraft.


1. I presented her with a copy of a memo I had prepared entitled
‘Secret National Team Inquiry – Internal Memorandum’ and this document
which is undated is attached to this statement. This document detailed
the information provided by the three informants.


1. To my surprise Judge Arbour was aggressive and questioned me about
the source of the information regarding the informants and the quality
and potential reliability of their information. I advised her that the
information was given to me by members from my team - the National
Team. Those members were Amadou Deme and Peter Dnistriansky. I advised
her that I held both investigators in the highest regard. I did say
that I was not able to provide any advice as to the reliability of
their information as it had not been tested. However, I did suggest
that it was very detailed and this, in itself, meant that it could be
subjected to considerable forensic examination.


1. Mr. Al Breau also expressed his strong view that both Amadou Deme
and Peter Dnistrianksy were highly effective and reliable men.


1. Judge Arbour then advised me that the National Team investigation
was at an end because in her view it was not in our mandate. She
suggested that the ICTR’s mandate only extended to events within the
genocide, which in her view began ‘after’ the plane crash.


1. I was astounded at this statement. I pointed to the temporal mandate
of the ICTR being 1 January 1994 until 31 December 1994, and this
clearly covered the time of the plane crash. I also addressed the
‘terrorism’ and ‘murder’ provisions of the ICTR statute.


1. More particularly I also told her that this was the first time she
had ever suggested that this was outside the ICTR mandate. I reminded
her that I had personally briefed her before about our investigations
into the plane crash and that she had never, ever, expressed a view that
this matter should not be part of an ICTR inquiry.


1. I expressed my strong view to her that these Rwandan informants were
courageous and were deserving of our protection. I cautioned her that
the UN had a history of abandoning informants in Rwanda, and I
specifically reminded her of the UN’s abandonment of Jean Pierre
Turatsinze in 1994.


1. Judge Arbour then became hostile and asked me if I was challenging her
authority to direct to the end our investigations into the plane crash.


1. I told her that I was not questioning her authority, only her
judgement. I informed her that I was her servant, and I would obey her
direction.


1. Judge Arbour then asked me if the memo that I had prepared for her
was the only copy. I told her that it was, and she said she was pleased
to hear that and placed in her office filing cabinet.


1. She then asked me to leave the room.


1. I was extremely concerned at Judge Arbour’s decision and felt that
it was wrong both in law and policy.


1. I returned to Kigali and a short time later resigned from the ICTR.


1. After my resignation from the ICTR I was offered a position as an
investigator with the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS)
in New York. Soon after taking up my appointment I was asked to provide
OIOS investigators investigating corruption within the ICTR with a
statement re my service in Rwanda for the ICTR.


1. On 1 August 1997 I prepared an internal memorandum detailing various
issues which I felt lay behind some of the difficulties with the ICTR.
A copy of this memorandum is attached here.


1. The OIOS leadership were not at all interested in the memorandum and
they expressed their concern at some of the contents of the document
implicating the Secretary General in some of the serious events in
Rwanda in 1994.


1. I completed six months with OIOS and resigned.


1. I feel that unknown persons from within the UN leadership and
possibly elsewhere pressured Judge Arbour to end the National Team’s
investigations into the shooting down of President Habyarimana.


1. Following my resignation my National Team was dismembered – the
National Team investigations into the plane crash were brought to an
end.


1. I have suffered at the hands of Judge Arbour and the UN because my
career with the ICTR was brought to an untimely and ignominious end. I
was proud of serving with the ICTR, but I felt that I could not work for
Judge Arbour when, in my view, she acted for personal reasons against
the interests of the ICTR, the UN and the world community which we served.


1. I know the facts deposed to herein to be true of my own knowledge,
information and belief, except where it otherwise plainly appears.

*SWORN* by the above named Deponent at Adelaide, South Australia
on the day of November

Quelques-uns des invités de marque à l'ouverture de la conférence Diversité 2007, le 22 octobre 2007 - Au centre, Louise Arbour, Haut Commissaire des Nations Unies aux droits de l'homme et ex-juge de la Cour suprême du Canada, entourée à gauche de Maxwell Yalden, Jennifer Lynch, c.r., et Hélène Goulet, respectivement ex-président, présidente et secrétaire générale de la Commission canadienne des droits de la
personnne, et à droite, de Mary Gusella et Michelle Falardeau-Ramsay, également ex-présidentes de la Commission canadienne des droits de la personnne, et à droite, de Mary Gusella et Michelle Falardeau-Ramsay, également ex-présidentes de la Commission.


As Head of the United Nations Human Rights organisation Louis Arbour confirmed her series of errors of judgement with errors of diplomacy after she replaced Sergio Vieira de Mello,who was killed in Baghdad with 21 other people in the bombing of UN headquarters

Iran Government allows executions of Ahwazi Arabs within days of Madame Arbour's visit to Iran, though these latest executions had been delayed by international public outcry
01 February, 2007
European condemnation of the Iranian regime follows serious allegations by three UN independent human rights experts that the trials of 10 Ahwazi men - including seven who have been executed since early December - were seriously flawed. Philip Alston (Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions), Leandro Despouy (Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers) and Manfred Nowak (Special Rapporteur on torture) urged the Iranian Government to "stop the imminent execution of seven men belonging to the Ahwazi Arab minority and grant them a fair and public hearing".

18 October, 2007Amnesty condemns executions in Iran
The following is an excerpt concerning the imminent execution of six Ahwazi Arabs from an Amnesty International public statement on executions in Iran The report also details imminent executions of Kurds, women and children, including those accused of murder. The Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO) this week appealed to UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour to intervene to prevent the execution of the six Ahwazis.

"The executions are in the context of a brutal clamp-down on Ahwazi Arabs protesting against ethnic discrimination and persecution. Although the Ahwazi Arab homeland in Iran's Khuzestan province is one of the most oil-rich regions in the world and represents up to 90 per cent of Iran's oil production, the community endures extreme levels of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy. Ahwazis are subjected to repression, racial discrimination and faced with land confiscation, forced displacement and forced assimilation. We appeal to you to condemn the latest wave of execution and call upon Iranian authorities to halt the imminent execution of the others. We also appeal to you to call upon Iran to ensure due legal process in accordance with internationally recognized standards and to uphold its obligations with regard to civil and political rights, including the provision of equal rights to ethnic, religious and minority groups in Iran- such as the indigenous Ahwazi-Arabs.

On 10 September, three Ahwazis were executed in defiance of the UN and international law, just days after UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, visited Iran. At least six more Ahwazi political prisoners are facing imminent execution.

20 September, 2007 "Iran executes more Arabs" - Peter Tatchell, The Guardian
This is an article published on The Guardian website by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell in relation to last week's executions of Ahwazi Arab political prisoners. Click here for the original.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has executed three more Arab political prisoners, just days after a visit from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour. In further defiance of the UN and international law, four more Arabs face imminent execution. There have been no protests from Britain, the EU or the UN. The UN's silence comes on top of the truly appalling vote by UN Human Rights Council to abandon its monitoring of human rights abuses in Iran.

25 September, 2007 Ahwazi Appeal to UN over Iran's Human Rights Abuses
An appeal by the Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO) to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon:

We are writing to inform you of the imminent execution of four more ethnic Arab-Iranians (Ahwazi-Arabs) in Ahwaz, provincial capital of Khuzestan in southwestern Iran - homeland to 5 million Ahwazi-Arabs. The news of their impending executions has come from their families, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Amnesty International, the Human Rights & Democracy Activists and from Mr. Musa Pirbani, Khuzestan’s prosecutor in an interview with the Iranian News Agency on Wednesday, September 13, 2007.
There have been no protests from Britain, the EU or the UN. The UN's silence comes on top of the truly appalling vote by UN Human Rights Council to abandon its monitoring of human rights abuses in Iran.

18 October, 2007

Amnesty condemns executions in Iran

The following is an excerpt concerning the imminent execution of six Ahwazi Arabs from an Amnesty International public statement on executions in Iran The report also details imminent executions of Kurds, women and children, including those accused of murder. The Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO) this week appealed to UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour to intervene to prevent the execution of the six Ahwazis.

"The executions are in the context of a brutal clamp-down on Ahwazi Arabs protesting against ethnic discrimination and persecution. Although the Ahwazi Arab homeland in Iran's Khuzestan province is one of the most oil-rich regions in the world and represents up to 90 per cent of Iran's oil production, the community endures extreme levels of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy. Ahwazis are subjected to repression, racial discrimination and faced with land confiscation, forced displacement and forced assimilation. We appeal to you to condemn the latest wave of execution and call upon Iranian authorities to halt the imminent execution of the others. We also appeal to you to call upon Iran to ensure due legal process in accordance with internationally recognized standards and to uphold its obligations with regard to civil and political rights, including the provision of equal rights to ethnic, religious and minority groups in Iran- such as the indigenous Ahwazi-Arabs.

................................................................
Brothers Mohammad Ali Sawari and Jafar Sawari had been in prison since 2005. They were initially accused of promoting Sunni Islam, which is a heinous crime in the sectarian Shia state of Iran. These charges were later supplemented with charges of bombing the Zergan oilfields. No evidence was produced to back up the charges.
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As Tony Blair warms to Iran, Tehran's hard-line Islamic regime is preparing to hoist 11 Iranian Arabs from cranes and slowly strangle them to death in public.

The men were convicted of involvement in a bombing spree after secret trials. But activists insist they are innocent and paying the price for merely hailing from the country's downtrodden Arab minority.Daily Mail

mINIATURE bIOGRAPHY:The International Criminal Tribunal: Louise Arbour 1999
By working to bring to trial former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and many other government officials, Arbour was instrumental in raising the profile of the tribunal from relative obscurity to what many believe to be the most effective international criminal court ever. She returned home when she was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1999. Her international influence is only likely to grow anew when she assumed, in June2004, the position of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, to which Secretary-General Kofi Annan recently named her.
...............................
What does she say and How does she say it?
Louis Arbour does not go down to well either in:October 13, 2007. Sri Lanka rejected calls for a United Nations human rights monitoring mission to the island on Saturday, as Arbour voiced concern about widespread alleged abuses at the end of a five-day visit. REUTERS/Buddhika Weerasinghe (SRI LANKA)

ALSO:More recently Arbour has been accused of acquiescing in the Ugandan government's "forcible disarmament" campaign against the Karamojong minority, in which rape, torture and mass killing are widely reported. She is quoted as saying “The actions of the UPDF do not comply with international human rights law and domestic law.” But, she also stipulated, “the decision of the Government to undertake renewed efforts to eradicate illegal weapons in Karamoja is essential….”^[

It is becoming evident that her diplomatic abilities were running down the UN Human Rights Organisation in 2007
Is it any wonder that she will resign at the end of her mandate June 2008?
Epuisée par quatre années sur la brèche, la Haut Commissaire de l'ONU aux droits de l'Homme, la Canadienne Louise Arbour a annoncé qu'elle quitterait son poste fin juin sans solliciter un nouveau mandat.Après avoir informé le secrétaire général des Nations Unies, Mme Arbour a présenté vendredi son dernier rapport annuel devant le Conseil des droits de l'Homme réuni à Genève.La Haut commissaire, 61 ans, a assuré à des journalistes qu'elle avait pris cette décision "essentiellement pour des raisons personnelles" et non en raison des attaques parfois virulentes dont elle a été la cible. "Ce travail est très dur (...). Je ne suis pas prête à me consacrer à cet engagement pour encore quatre ans", a-t-elle dit à des journalistes. Pour le moment elle rêve de se consacrer au jardinage... "Mais je sais que ce n'est qu'un rêve, que ce n'est pas pour moi", a commenté Mme Arbour.