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Two decades on, genocide suspects still on the run

Tuesday April 04 2017

On Friday April 7, Rwanda will mark 23 years after the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi but government officials say hundreds of suspects remain free in different countries across the globe.

Kigali says countries should have the will to extradite suspects to Rwanda or arrest them and try them for justice to take its course.

The country’s National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) and genocide survivors’ pressure groups are urging African and European countries to consider sending to Rwanda wanted genocide suspects who remain at large.
Rwanda’s Prosecutor General Jean Bosco Mutangana said that the country has upped its efforts to pursue genocide suspects in different corners of the world, noting that 23 years on “there should be no country offering a safe haven for wanted suspects.”

“We are asking countries to co-operate with us in this effort to bring to book wanted genocide suspects, either by extraditing them or bringing them to justice,” Mr Mutangana told The EastAfrican from Egypt where he was to sign a co-operation MoU on criminal matters.

“There are still hundreds of Rwandan genocide suspects still at large and not bringing them to justice amounts to impunity,” he said.

According to NPPA, there are 673 indictments Rwanda has issued across the globe where many more files are still under investigation. The indictments are scattered across 35 countries.
Rwanda’s efforts to pursue genocide suspects from their safe havens seem to be paying off, with several European and African countries making fresh arrests and holding extradition hearings.

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At least 17 extraditions in the past couple of years have buoyed Rwanda’s efforts to pursue genocide suspects, while 21 suspects have been tried in different countries.
Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and France lead among the countries hosting the biggest number of wanted genocide suspects. Others include the UK, the Netherlands, US, Belgium and Nordic countries. Nordic countries are leading among those trying and extraditing genocide suspects.

READ: Rwanda says US extradition of genocide suspect ‘vote of confidence’

ALSO READ: Kigali seeks extradition treaty with Brazzaville

ALSO READ: France accused of sitting on Rwanda genocide cases

Genocide survivors, however, are angered by a large number of suspects roaming free in different European countries.
“They should be sent home. It has been proved that they can have a free and fair trial in Rwanda,” said the president of the genocide survivor’s umbrella, Ibuka President, Dr Jean Pierre Dusingizemungu.

Survivors say countries like France have been frustrating efforts to apprehend genocide suspects and bring them to book.

Relations between Rwanda and France remain fragile, partly due to Paris’ indifference to genocide cases on French soil.

Similarly, last year, rights watchdog Human Rights Watch called on Paris to bring to justice Rwandan genocide suspects on French soil.

The country came under pressure in the wake of the decision by a French court to uphold a 25-year sentence handed to Pascal Simbikangwa, a former head of intelligence, bringing the case closer to being the first genocide trial to be completed by France.

Human-rights groups said it was high time for France, which has had several skirmishes with Kigali over the issue of genocide suspects over the last 22, brought to book all suspects on its soil.

HRW said that France’s “slowness” in bringing genocide fugitives living in France to book remains a serious concern, backed by reports that France had supported the former government of Rwanda and supported and trained its military, whose forces went on to commit genocide.

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