Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
26-05-2023
KIGALI/ PRETORIA: One of four remaining fugitives from the 1994 Rwandan genocide has been captured, UN prosecutors say.
Fulgence Kayishema was arrested in Paarl, South Africa, on Wednesday, the UN court which has been trying the genocide suspects announced.
Kayishema was charged in 2001 over an incident during which more than 2,000 Tutsi men, women and children were burned inside a Catholic church.
Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the genocide.
In a statement, The Hague-based tribunal known as the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MICT) described Fulgence Kayishema as “one of the world’s most wanted genocide fugitives”.
It said an international operation involving many countries had made it possible to arrest the man, who had used a number of aliases and false documents.
According to the indictment, Fulgence Kayishema directly participated in the planning and execution of a massacre of refugees hiding at the Nyange church in Kivumu, Kibuye prefecture, on 15 April 1994.
It says Kayishema and others tried to burn the church down with the refugees inside. When this failed, they bulldozed it, burying and killing all those hiding there.
Their corpses were then buried in mass graves.
The Tanzania-based ICTR sentenced more than 60 ringleaders of the genocide, including three over the Notre Dame de la Visitation church massacre.
The church’s priest, Athanase Seromba, was sentenced to life in prison in 2008.
The ICTR closed down in 2015, with the remaining cases being taken over by the MICT.
Fulgence Kayishema, one of the world’s most wanted genocide fugitives was arrested in Paarl, South Africa in a joint operation by the IRMCT Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) Fugitive Tracking Team and South African authorities.
Kayishema is alleged to have orchestrated the killing of approximately 2000 Tutsi refugees’ women, men, children and elderly at the Nyange Catholic Church during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. He has been at large since 2001.
In reaction to the arrest, IRMCT Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz stated:
“Fulgence Kayishema was a fugitive for more than twenty years. His arrest ensures that he will finally face justice for his alleged crimes.
Not all opposition parties are on the same page on the matter – some regional parties such as the Biju Janata Dal and the YSR Congress Party will attend the ceremony. (Int’l News Desk)
