Regional
Boris Johnson says to liaise with metropolitan police on genocidaires in UK
![image](webadmin/images/blob (2).jpg-20220625122913000000.jpg)
Clockwise Celestin Mutabaruka, Dr Vincent Bajinya, Emmanuel Nteziryayo, Celestin Ugirashebuja, Charles Munyaneza are Genocide fugitives who live in the UK.
The
UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has pledged to liaise with his country’s
Metropolitan Police on the question of five Rwandan genocide fugitives living
in his country.
Sixteen
years have passed with a decision still pending on the extradition of five
Rwandan genocide suspects – Dr Vincent Bajinya, Célestin Ugirashebuja, Charles
Munyaneza, Emmanuel Nteziryayo and Célestin Mutabaruka – in the UK.
For
all these years, these suspects were neither extradited to Rwanda nor put to
trial before British courts.
Responding
to a related question by The New Times during a press briefing
in Kigali on Friday, June 24, Johnson acknowledged the fact that justice
delayed is justice denied.
The
UK Prime Minister was in Kigali attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government
Meeting (CHOGM).
“I
went to the Genocide Memorial the other day. No one can go (there) without
being harrowed by what happened here in Rwanda (during the 1994 Genocide
against the Tutsi) and I understand people’s feelings,” he said.
During
his stay in Rwanda, Johnson took time to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial,
the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims of the 1994 Genocide
against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
“What
I said to President Kagame yesterday (Thursday, June 23) is; I would do
everything I can to try to expedite this. It’s in the hands of the Metropolitan
Police. I can’t intervene directly. But I will certainly be liaising with
them.”
Reminded
that Genocide is a crime against humanity, Johnson said: “I do completely agree
and that’s why I said what I said to you and President Kagame.”
“If
we can do anything more to bring genocidaires to justice then we will certainly
do that.”
Johnson
said the Metropolitan Police is set to have a new head soon – but did not
clarify when – after Dame Cressida Rose Dick who served as Commissioner of
Police of the Metropolis from 2017 to 2022 was recently forced to leave office.
In
February, Dick announced she would leave office after losing the confidence
of Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, reportedly over her response
to racism and misogyny in the force. Dick left office
on April 10.
Activists
and survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda earlier urged
leaders arriving in Kigali for CHOGM to help arrest all suspected perpetrators
of the genocide hiding in their countries.
Egide
Mutabazi, a genocide survivor from Ngoma District, said it’s a shame for UK to
still harbour the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide.
“It’s
unbelievable that the UK can't neither try them nor transfer them [to Rwanda]
for justice. Justice delayed is a justice denied.”
Earlier
this month, Conservative Party MP, Andrew Mitchell, a member of the British
House of Commons reiterated the call to his government to arrest and extradite or
try the men who continue to live in the UK despite indictments issued against
them 16 years ago.
In
April, Rwanda’s High Commissioner to the UK, Johnston Busingye, called on the country’s government to invest more efforts in
bringing to court Genocide fugitives who are at large.
According to Ibuka, the umbrella body of Genocide survivors, justice is not served when the fugitives die before they have their day in court to answer for what they did.
Source:
www.newtimes.co.rw