Genocidaires in UK a blight on British government ahead of Commonwealth Summit in Kigali

The United Kingdom often prides itself of respecting human rights and international law. However, for many Rwandans, especially survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, this pretense is just totemic because this country has become a haven for genocidaires and war criminals.

Five wanted Rwandan genocidaires were granted asylum and given citizenship despite the fact that they stand accused of participating in the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994.

Their case has been in limbo since the decision by the High Court to block their extradition to Rwanda because it alleged that they could not get a fair trial in Rwanda. Since then, they have been living in the UK scot-free.

But recently, Andrew Mitchell, a British politician who has been Member of Parliament for Sutton Coldfield since 2001, raised the issue of the presence of these criminals. In Parliament, he asked whether these people will continue to live in the UK despite indictments issued against them 16 years ago.

Michell reminded fellow MPs that “there are five alleged perpetrators of the genocide in Rwanda who are living freely in the UK who have been doing so for now 16 years and have neither been extradited nor put before the British courts under our existing laws.”

Mitchell told the House that the issue “is bound to be asked during the Commonwealth meeting in Rwanda…because justice that is massively delay should not be catastrophically denied.”

During previous debates about these genocidaires, Davis Davis, member of Parliament of Haltemprice and Howden asked Ben Wallace, who was then Minister of for Security and Economic Crime: “other countries with strong records of protecting asylum and the rights of individuals under criminal investigation, such as Canada, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands, have seen fit to extradite suspects back to Rwanda. Why have we not?

The Minister answered that the government had no other choice except to accept the ruling by court.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected in Rwanda for the meeting among other UK government officials.

Read also: Will the UK ever part ways with Genocide fugitives?

The five indicted genocide suspects in the United Kingdom are Dr Vincent Bajinya, a medical doctor who headed the National Population Office (ONAPO) during the Genocide, former mayors - Célestin Ugirashebuja, Charles Munyaneza, Emmanuel Nteziryayo and Célestin Mutabaruka, a pastor.

Bajinya was the coordinator of Interahamwe militia in Kigali where he often organised meetings, in his home, where plans to kill the Tutsi were hatched. 

Mutabaruka, presently a Pentecostal preacher in the UK, headed Crête Zaïre-Nil (CZN), a forest management organisation in Musebeya, southern Rwanda, during the Genocide. He, among other accusations, led a gang of killers that murdered people on Muyira Hill, in Bisesero, in May 1994.

Munyaneza, Nteziryayo and Ugirashebuja were Burgomasters, or mayors, in the communes of Kinyamakara, Mudasomwa and Kigoma, respectively - in southern Rwanda - during the Genocide. They all commanded Interahamwe to kill thousands of Tutsi in their respective communes.