Rwanda genocide suspect Kayishema arrested in SAfrica

A Rwandan man accused of ordering the killing of some 2000 Tutsis who have been in search of refuge in a church throughout the 1994 genocide has been arrested in South Africa, the United Nations tribunal for warfare crimes dedicated in Rwanda says.

Former police officer Fulgence Kayishema had been on the run since 2001, when the Worldwide Prison Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) indicted him for genocide over his position within the destruction of the Nyange Catholic Church in Kibuye Prefecture.

“His arrest ensures that he’ll lastly face justice for his alleged crimes,” mentioned Serge Brammertz, prosecutor on the Worldwide Residual Mechanism for Prison Tribunals (IRMCT), which has changed the ICTR because it wound up in 2008.

Kayishema is predicted to be transferred to Rwanda for trial because the United Nations mentioned in 2012 his case had been transferred to the Rwandan authorities.

In her first touch upon Kayishema’s arrest, Rwandan authorities spokesperson Yolande Makolo wrote on Twitter: “Lastly.”

An estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and Hutu moderates have been killed throughout Rwanda’s genocide, orchestrated by an extremist Hutu regime and meticulously executed by native officers and odd residents within the rigidly hierarchical society.

Kayishema has been on the US State Division’s wished checklist beneath the Rewards for Justice Programme, with a $US5 million ($A7.6 million) reward supplied for his arrest.

Brammertz mentioned the investigation that led to his arrest spanned a number of nations in Africa and past, and was made potential by the assist and cooperation of South African authorities.

In Could 2020, one other mastermind of the genocide, Felicien Kabuga, was arrested in France after 26 years on the run.

Kayishema’s arrest means there at the moment are solely three fugitives indicted by the worldwide tribunal whose whereabouts stay unknown, although Makolo mentioned Rwanda considers {that a} larger variety of suspects are nonetheless on the run.

“Almost 30 years later, we’ve a protracted checklist of Rwandan genocide fugitives nonetheless at massive in a number of nations around the globe,” she instructed Reuters.

“We’ll proceed to work with accomplice states and establishments to make sure that they’re held to account for crimes dedicated within the 1994 genocide towards the Tutsi,” she mentioned.

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