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Find genocide fugitives, says Rwanda

Rwandan genocide survivor Gilbert Mwenedata releases a dove yesterday in Melbourne, Australia, to mark the 10th anniversary of the start of the 1994 genocide. PHOTO: EPA

As Rwanda yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of a genocide that killed up to 1 million people, the Rwandan government has renewed its appeal for fugitive masterminds of the slaughter to be brought to book.

"We call on the international community to arrest all genocide suspects still living in the various countries in the world and hand them to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [ICTR] in Arusha or try them for the justice of victims," Rwanda's ambassador to Kenya, Seth Kamanzi, told a news conference in Nairobi.

"There can never be reconciliation as long as justice has not prevailed," Kamanzi added.

The ICTR, which sits in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, has tried 21 people since it was set up in late 1994.

The trials of another 20 suspects are in progress while those of a further 22 have yet to begin.

Some 15 people suspected of planning or organizing the slaughter, an attempt to exterminate Rwanda's Tutsi minority which the current government in Kigali believes claimed 1 million lives, are still at large.

In Belgium on Saturday, a former Rwandan army officer was charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes for his alleged role in the deaths in Kigali on April 7, 1994, of 10 Belgian paratroopers and then prime minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana.

Belgium, the former colonial power in Rwanda, has already tried and convicted four Rwandans, including two Roman Catholic nuns, for involvement in the massacres, sentencing them to prison terms of 12 to 20 years.

There are growing fears that the hunt for the fugitive ringleaders is set to lose steam and possibly come to a complete halt this year because of a UN Security Council resolution passed last year which called on the tribunal to wrap up its investigations by the end of this year and to complete all preliminary trials by 2008.

"It's a huge job to trace all of them," said Alison Des Forges, an expert on the Great Lakes region.

"The ICTR is trying to find them," tribunal prosecutor Hassan Abubacar Jallow said in January.

The court sleuths' job has been made all the more difficult because many of the fugitives have used their university training, personal wealth or network of friends to make new lives for themselves.

Some of them "benefit from the complicity or indifference" of certain countries, according to Des Forges.

Fourteen ICTR-related arrests have been made over the years in Kenya, more than any other country. Among those picked up in Kenya was former prime minister Jean Kambanda.

Other suspects fled to western Africa, taking advantage of the longstanding solidarity among French-speaking countries.

Ten arrests have been made in Cameroon, including of Colonel Bagosora, the alleged mastermind of the genocide, whose trial is currently in progress in Arusha.

Among the most prominent suspects still at large is Felicien Kabuga, a wealthy businessman said to have been the chief financier of a Rwandan radio station that urged Hutus to kill Tutsis and a supplier of arms to the murderous militias.

The US government has offered a US$5 million dollar reward for information leading to his arrest.

The ICTR is also looking for Protais Mpiranya, who headed the presidential guard at the time of the genocide, and former defense minister Andre Bizimana.

Some suspects have been unearthed in Europe, such as Ephrem Setako, a former army officer who was picked up in February in an asylum-seekers' center in the Netherlands.

"Some countries are still not cooperating," Rwandan Justice Minister Edda Mukabagwiza said recently. "France is looking at some cases, but it's taking a long time."

To meet its deadline, the tribunal will hand some cases over to relevant national jurisdictions, but these are not expected to have the resources or clout of the ICTR.

Some of the fugitives are reported to have claimed refugee status under false names and to be coolly waiting until the end of the year.
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