The trial of Rwandan genocidaire and lessons learnt

The on-going trial in France of a Rwandan genocide fugitive, Claude Muhayimana has re-ignited the debate about the slow response of the international community in apprehending and putting on trial hundreds of genocidaires roaming freely in various parts of the world.

While countries like The Netherlands, the US, Sweden and Canada acted and extradited suspects to Rwanda to answer for their crimes, others like France, Belgium, and many African countries have either ignored the arrest warrants, or are just dragging their feet.

Muhayimana obtained French citizenship in 2010. He currently lives in Rouen, France.

He is accused of “complicity” in genocide and crimes against humanity for having “aided and abetted” the Interahamwe militias by transporting them to different refugee sites, notably at Nyamishaba School, at Gitwa, and Bisesero where hundreds of thousands of Tutsi were massacred.

In addition, he is accused of participating in the killings conducted in the Kibuye Catholic church on April 17, 1994. He also allegedly worked closely with the then prefet of Kibuye, Clement Kayishema, who was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for life imprisonment but died in prison in Mali in 2016.

On December 13, 2011, Rwandan judicial authorities had issued an international arrest warrant against Muhayimana for his role in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. They had requested his extradition by France. On April 9, 2014, Muhayimana was arrested in Rouen following a complaint filed in June 2013 by the Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR) rights group. A criminal investigation was launched regarding his alleged role in the genocide committed in Kibuye, and he was placed in pre-trial detention. On April 3, 2015, Muhayimanawa was released and placed under judicial supervision.

On November 9, 2017, the examining magistrate referred the case to the Criminal Court in Paris (Cour d’Assises) for complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity through aiding and abetting the Interahamwe militias.

Muhayimana’s trial will last till end of December 2021.

Muhayimana is the fourth genocide suspect who is tried in France. He follows Pascal Simbikangwa who was sentenced to 25 years in 2014. It also comes after a joint trial of two former mayors Octavien Ngenzi and Tito Barahira who were both handed life sentences in 2016.

But given the number of genocide fugitives, including individuals who were ring leaders in the planification and execution of the genocide against the Tutsi, holed up in France, this is a drop in the ocean. At this pace, justice will never be rendered in time because most survivors will be dead.

Nevertheless, at least France has shown pretence of some justice. Other countries, like the United Kingdom have completely ignored pleas to try key genocide fugitives living scot-free in their territories for over two decades.

Writing in The Sunday Times on April 7, 2019, Andrew Mitchell, said: “In 1945 Britain was at the forefront of the prosecution of Nazi criminals at Nuremberg. We are proud of our reputation around the world for promoting accountability and standing up for certain important values.

“But we also know that 25 years ago a terrible genocide took place in the heart of Africa, where nearly 1m Tutsi people were murdered by their Hutu neighbours over a 90-day period — a faster killing rate than Hitler achieved with all the industrial mechanisms of the Holocaust. And Britain harbours a guilty secret which should worry all decent people who care about its role in the world.”

Regrettably, the UK today has not shown willingness to extradite or try the five suspects who took part in horrible mass-killings in parts of Rwanda. Those suspects are Celestin Mutabaruka, from Kent; Vincent Brown, also known as Vincent Bajinya, from London; Celestin Ugirashebuja, from Essex; Charles Munyaneza, from Bedford; and Emmanuel Nteziryayo, from Manchester.

Three of those accused were former mayors in Rwanda. All five deny the allegations against them and involvement in the genocide despite overwhelming evidence against them.

While the Rwandan grassroots courts – Gacaca courts – tackled as many as two million cases, the ICTR only managed to complete 69 trials. Gacaca trials cost $40 million, whereas the ICTR trials cost a staggering $1 billion.

Genocide is a crime against humanity. The international community has no excuse in not tracking and punishing the perpetrators.

While most Rwandans are very much delighted about how the government managed to ensure that justice was done and seen to be done, they are rightly aggrieved by the lack of adequate response by the same community. As the saying goes, justice delayed is justice denied. Britain and other countries are denying justice to Rwandans.