Chris McGreal in Kigali
RWANDA’s Parliament is demanding that the government arrest a prominent Hutu politician who has been appointed as a regional governor despite his inclusion on the administration’s own list of men wanted for the 1994 genocide of Tutsis.
Boniface Rucagu is number 120 on the list of about 2 000 people who face the death penalty for organising the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of victims.
President Pasteur Bizimungu says Rucagu’s inclusion on the list is a mistake. But survivors of the genocide say there is ample evidence that Rucagu not only participated, but helped plan the mass murder, and that he was appointed governor of Ruhengeri province two months ago as a political measure to quell unrest among Hutus.
Deus Kagiraneza, a genocide survivor sitting in Parliament, submitted a Bill demanding Rucagu’s removal from office and his arrest. “His appointment was a blunder,” he said. “The position of the president is that someone is innocent until proven guilty. But that isn’t good enough.”
Before the genocide, Rucagu was an MP in the extremist ruling party, the MRND, which laid the ground for the killing. After his name was included on the new government’s list of people accused of leading the genocide, he launched a vigorous campaign to clear his name.
This included issuing a 40-page pamphlet in which he claimed to have opposed the slaughter: “There is no evidence I did anything. I was opposed to killing. I put my own life in danger to try and stop it,” he said.
But Rucagu’s case is undermined by his own virulently anti-Tutsi writings in the Hutu extremist newspaper Kangura, which predicted the mass murder before it happened. He was also a founding shareholder of Radio Mille Collines, which broadcast some of the most inflammatory exhortations to kill.
Parliament summoned two Cabinet ministers to explain Rucagu’s appointment. Sheikh Karim Harerimana, the interior minister, was defensive. “There is no concrete evidence Rucagu committed genocide. We believe he was included on the list by mistake. But if evidence against Rucagu were to be provided he will be dealt with like other killers,” he told Parliament.
For Kagiraneza and many other MPs there is more than enough evidence. “There’s plenty. He never resigned from the MRND. He was among the founding fathers of Radio Mille Collines. He had shares in Kangura. We have video tapes showing him at meetings. He was very proud of preparations for the genocide. He participated in preparing and executing genocide. When we asked why this evidence wasn’t used we were told his file was lost,” Kagiraneza said.
Among those prepared to testify against Rucagu is a former governor of Gitarama province who says he saw him kill six people. Another politician, an MP, is prepared to swear he heard him give a speech in Gitarama urging people to murder Tutsis.
Rucagu has been arrested and freed three times in the past two years. His final release came after his wife produced letters apparently written by him to the president of the extremist former regime pleading for an end to the genocide.
But Kagiraneza maintains the letters are fakes as there is no mention of their arrival at the president’s office despite meticulous records kept by the former administration.
Parliament debated the issue for three days before ordering the government to sack Rucagu. The administration has so far refused.