Our names tell a lot about who we are. The perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi who are on the run deliberately changed their identities to escape. They were inspired by Nazi fugitives hiding in Latin America and other areas after killing more than six million Jews in Europe.

 

Nazi fugitives were able to evade capture by dressing as civilians or enlisted soldiers, sometimes with forged or stolen identity documents. Those with adequate funds and false documents could buy passage for almost any destination around the world. Besides Latin America, some ended up in the US, Canada, Africa, and even Australia.

 

One of them is the notorious Nazi SS Lt Col Adolf Eichmann who masterminded the transport of European Jews to concentration camps.

 

In 1945, Eichmann escaped via the ‘ratlines’ to Argentina, settling in Buenos Aires under the false name of Ricardo Klement. He lived in Argentina, working as an assembly line foreman at a Mercedes-Benz automotive plant and kept a low profile in Buenos Aires. Strangely, his wife and children kept their own names, a decision that resulted in his detection. He was kidnapped in 1960 by Israeli agents who smuggled him out of the country without the knowledge or cooperation of the Argentine government. Eichmann was put on trial in Israel, found guilty of war crimes and hanged in 1962.

 

Following the defeat of the Rwandan genocidal government in 1994, top Genocide masterminds like Felicien Kabuga dispersed around the world. They bribed government bureaucrats for fake travel documents with fake names as their real names appeared on Interpol red notices.

 

When Kabuga was arrested on May 16, 2020, in his apartment and asked to identify himself he said his name was Antoine Tunga. The French agent who led the operation said refused to be duped and that day marked the end of Kabuga’s days on the run. It is believed that Kabuga was found with seven passports from different countries and with different identities.

 

Rwandan priests who were involved in the Genocide against the Tutsi changed their identities and continued to serve in European Catholic Parishes.

 

Athanase Seromba, the priest who ordered a bulldozer to crush Nyange Church which was full of more than 2, 000 Tutsi refugees was sentenced to life in prison by ICTR. Seromba fled Rwanda in July 1994.

 

Catholic monks helped him move to Italy, change his name and also helped him work as a priest for the Catholic Church near the city of Florence, under the alias Anastasio Sumba Bura.

 

During the Genocide against Tutsi, most schools were closed for the Easter holidays. But students at Marie Merci School in Nyaruguru District had remained to catch up on lessons they missed when they had gone on strike earlier in February 1994.

 

About 80 Tutsi students were killed at the nearby College of Arts on May 7. They ranged in age from 12-20 years. The school belonged to the Catholic Church. On May 2, 1994, the students were taken by gendarmes, on the orders of their director, Father Emmanuel Uwayezu, who is currently in service in Italy as a vicar at a parish in Empoli, a small city about 20 kilometres to the west of Florence. He has now changed his names to Father Emmanuel Mihigo Wayezu.

 

Not only did the genocide fugitives change their names but they also changed nationality.

 

The ICTR transferred the case of Bernard Munyagishari to Rwanda. He was President of Interahamwe in Gisenyi. He told the Nyarugunga primary court, in Kigali, in 2013, that he is a Congolese and he doesn’t speak Kinyarwanda.

 

Eight years later, he surprised the court and pleaded guilty for genocide crimes.

 

Genocide fugitive Vincent Bajinya who is in UK changed names to Vincent Brown in London. The butcher of Nyanza-Butare known as Philippe Hategekimana, alias Biguma, was called Philippe Hakizimana in DRC. He was later naturalized as a French citizen as Philippe Manier.

 

Vincent Bajinya alias Brown together with other genocide fugitives in the UK, Celestin Mutabaruka, Celestin Ugirashebuja, Charles Munyaneza, Emmanuel Nteziryayo

Pascal Simbikangwa, former chief spy, was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a French court. He previously lived in the Comoros and, in 2005, he moved to Mayotte under the false identity of Safari Senyamuhara.

 

Fabien Neretse, who was found guilty of crimes of genocide and sentenced to 25 years by a Belgian court lived in Belgium under false names of Fabien Nsabimana.

 

Another one, Paul Kanyamihigo, became Paul Camy after being naturalized as a French citizen.

 

On October 16, 2019, the French Supreme Court upheld the life sentences of Octavien Ngenzi and Tito Barahira. The former lived in Mayotte as Jean Marie Vianney Ntaganira and Omar Ngenzi when he was in Comoros. While the latter changed his name to Tito Barahirwa.

 

All members of the terrorist FDLR-FOCA militia, from top commander to foot soldiers and politicians, are required to use other names. Gen Sylvsetre Mudacumura was known as Bernard Mupenzi while his deputy Brig Gen Gaston Iyamuremye is known as Rumuli.

 

Genocide fugitives should be barred from legally changing their names without special permission, especially from their country of origin. The restriction on name changes would make it more difficult for genocide fugitives to evade justice.