One of most wanted fugitives of Rwanda’s genocide captured after 22 years

One of the most wanted suspects in the Rwandan genocide, a police officer suspected of orchestrating the killing of more than 2,000 people in a church nearly three decades ago, has been arrested in South Africa after 22 years on the run, a special court set up by the United Nations to find the perpetrators said. abide.

The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Justice (IRMCT) said Fulgence Kayishema was arrested on Wednesday in a vineyard in Paarl, a small town in the wine-making region about 50 kilometers east of Cape Town.

Kayishema, believed to be in his early 60s, had assumed a false identity and went by the name of Donatien Nibashumba, South African police said.

He was arrested in a joint operation by a judicial fugitive tracking team and South African authorities, the court said, following an investigation that traced him to several African countries, including Mozambique and Eswatini, since his indictment in 2001.

The United States is offering a $5 million US reward for information leading to Kayishema’s arrest through its Rewards for Justice program.

800,000 died in 3 months

More than 800,000 people were killed in the Rwandan genocide, which took place over three months in 1994 when members of the Hutu ethnic group turned on the Tutsi minority, slaughtering moderate Hutus who tried to protect them.

“The arrest gives hope to those who are still alive that other fugitives who are still at large will be caught as well,” said Naphtal Ahishakiye, executive secretary of the Rwandan genocide survivor organization Ibuka. “The crime of genocide is too great to go unpunished.”

Kayishema was indicted by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity for killing and other crimes. He has been free since 2001, the court said.

The court said he was accused of orchestrating the killing of more than 2,000 ethnic Tutsi refugees – men, women and children – in a Catholic church on April 15, 1994, the first day of the massacre.

The indictment alleges that Kayishema, who was a police inspector at the time, was directly involved in the planning and execution of the massacre by obtaining gasoline to set fire to the church with people trapped inside. When that failed, Kayishema and others used a bulldozer to knock down the church, burying and killing the people inside, including small children but also many old people and women. Kayishema and others then moved the bodies from the church grounds to a mass grave for two days, according to the indictment.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed Kayishema’s concern which “sends a strong message that those accused of crimes cannot escape justice and will ultimately be held accountable, even more than a quarter of a century later,” a spokesman said.

The rest are fugitives

The UN chief praised the cooperation between South Africa and Rwandan courts that led to Kayishema’s arrest, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. His thoughts now “are paramount” with the alleged crime victim Kayishema and his family and he stressed that “ending impunity is essential for peace, security and justice.”

South African police said Kayishema will appear in a courtroom in Cape Town on Friday before being extradited to Rwanda.

The IRMCT was formed in 2010 to continue to investigate atrocities and hunt down Rwandan genocide suspects and those suspected of committing war crimes in the former Yugoslavia during the ethnic conflicts of the 1990s and early 2000s.

“Fulgence Kayishema has been a fugitive for more than 20 years. His arrest ensures that he will finally face justice for the alleged crimes,” IRMCT prosecutor Serge Brammertz said in a statement. “Genocide is the most serious crime known to mankind. The international community is committed to ensuring that the perpetrators are prosecuted and punished. This arrest is a real demonstration that this commitment is unwavering and that justice will be done, no matter how long it takes.”

The court said it has now tracked down five suspects wanted in the Rwandan genocide since 2020. They are still looking for three more fugitives, it said.