A trial began last week in the French capital Paris, where a Rwandan man, Philippe Hategekimana faces charges of playing a key role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
The suspect, who was most known for the pseudonym of Biguma, is mainly linked to massacres of Tutsi in southern Rwanda, mainly the areas around the present-day Nyanza District.
During the Genocide, the suspect worked as a senior officer with the Gendarmerie, the equivalent of today’s national police and he used his powers not to protect the persecuted, but to kill thousands of innocent people.
This is a good gesture and it speaks to the momentum by French judiciary in recent years to bring to book fugitives who have found a safe haven in their country having committed atrocities back in Rwanda nearly three decades back.
However, the list of fugitives who found a home in France is still long and several of them continue to live there and continue to propagate the genocide ideology.
The National Public Prosecution Authority, through its Genocide Fugitives Tracking Unit has handed to French judicial authorities, indictments for hundreds of fugitives, including former members of the Akazu – a powerful cabal that was at the heart of the preparation of the Genocide against the Tutsi.
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One of them is Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana, the former first lady who was the substantive patron of this clique that had among them government officials, senior military officers, businessmen and members of the clergy among others.
Other notable masterminds who have found safe haven in France include Dr Sosthene Munyemana, the infamous ‘Butcher of Tumba’ who, against the dictates of the Hippocratic oath taken by doctors, decided to take life instead of giving it.
Many others still living freely in France include Col Laurent Serubuga, Callixte Mbarushimana, Laurent Bucyibaruta, and Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a Catholic priest who was until recently serving ministry and conferring sacraments despite having presided over the massacre of hundreds of people around Kigali, especially those that had sought refuge at St Famille church in Kigali, where he served as the vicar during the Genocide.
France may not be willing to have these fugitives transferred to Rwanda and that is fine, but let them be put to trial before it is not too late because with 30 years gone, they are not getting any younger and this means the survivors of their atrocities may never see justice served.