Dafroza Gauthier: Portrait of resilience in the hunt for genocidaires

Dafroza Gauthier in Paris, France on February 4, 2014.

Photo credit: File

For nearly three decades, Dafroza Mukarumongi-Gauthier hunted suspects of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi she believed had escaped justice. They were not hiding in remote corners of Africa: Some led quiet lives in France, thousands of kilometres from Rwanda, where it all happened, having built new lives after the genocide in which more than a million people were killed.

With her husband, Alain Gauthier, Dafroza traced suspects, gathered evidence, contacted witnesses and filed civil lawsuits. Her work helped force the French justice system to confront a dark chapter that, for years, had remained largely beyond its reach.