How France’s complicity emboldens mass murderers

Author: Samson Kasujja

• 2023-01-24 05:32:00

On January 19, French journalist Maria Malagardis appeared in court over a “public insult” complaint filed by Aloys Ntiwiragabo, a wanted mass murderer who participated in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Ntiwiragabo who has hidden in France for years is a former head of Rwandan Military intelligence during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

The lawsuit has its roots in a tweet on July 24, 2020. Malagardis was questioning how an African Nazi should be living in France peacefully.

“An African Nazi in France? Anyone going to react?” tweeted Malgardis.

The journalist was by the time surprised by an article of Mediapart which revealed that the genocidaire was identified in France, hiding in the suburbs of Orléans, a city in north-central France. The investigative story was signed by Théo Englebert.

Ntiwiragabo, held the rank of Colonel during the Genocide. He is wanted by magistrates at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). His whereabouts were unknown for more than two decades. During the Genocide, he arranged meetings that planned massacres during Genocide, and was co-founder of the genocidal FDLR militia based in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Malagardis, whose experience and seriousness are recognized by her peers, felt it was impossible to let the former spymaster and mastermind of the Genocide roam freely in Paris.

Despite a preliminary investigation opened in Paris following the revelations of Mediapart, Ntiwigirabo is not worried about facing French justice.

While Malgardis was asking French authorities whether they are going to act after the revelation by Mediapart, her voice fell on deaf ears. No single action was taken by French justice.

 Instead, Ntiwiragabo later issued a lawsuit against Malagardis, accusing her for “public insult” because she called him an African Nazi. Now the journalist has in turn become a victim of France’s irresponsibility. 

 Ntiwiragabo is not the only mass murderer in France. Other Rwandan Genocidaires harbored by France include Agathe Kanziga Habyarima, widow of former Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Genocide financier, Félicien Kabuga, now in court after more than 26 years on run.  

Most of the senior leaders in the Rwandan  genocidal government fled to Paris through Mobutu Sese Seko’s Zaïre. Reaching there, they massively found residence in cities such as Orléans and Rouen where they formed extremist networks within the Rwandan community. This is why Rouen, for example, is nicknamed the “European capital of genocidaires”. The extremist network  there was found by Jean de Dieu Ngabonziza, Ntiwiragabo's brother-in-law, when he arrived there in 1998. He welcomed other mass murderers and they continued to exercise their influence on the diaspora with impunity.

Those include Col Christophe Hakizabera, a co-founder of FDLR, Col Augustin Munyakayanza, an FDLR commander, and Emmanuel Ruzindana, who was FDLR Commissioner for Political Affairs. Jean-Marie Vianney Ndagijimana, a former Rwandan ambassador and Minister, is the chief planner for the Genocidaires community in Rouen.

Rwanda issued extradition requests for over 40 genocidaires living in France. The UN also asked the European country to extradite or try these Genocidaires but Paris turned a deaf ear.

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) is an instrument of international law that codified for the first time the crime of genocide. The Genocide Convention was the first human rights treaty adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1948 and signified the international community’s commitment to ‘never again’ after the atrocities committed during the Second World War.

France is among the parties but it doesn’t want to act. By protecting mass murderers, is France telling the world that this Convention means nothing?

Or, since the Rwandan genocidal government was loyal to Paris, should the world just accept the reality that France has to be a safe haven for genocidaires? Or, is it because the mass murderers help France to mask its role in the Genocide? Does Paris want the FDLR to be stronger so as to destabilize Rwanda?

Only Paris can answer these questions.