Rwanda on Monday accused unnamed states of harbouring suspects in the country’s 1994 genocide and called for international pressure on those nations to hand over indictees to a United Nations-backed tribunal.
Aloys Mutabingwa, Kigali’s representative to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), lamented that 20 suspects indicted by the Arusha-based court remain at large in countries he suggested are aware of their presence.
”It is high time and highly imperative that the international community take decisive measures against certain member states who deliberately continue to host Rwandan genocide suspects,” Mutabingwa said in a statement.
”The government of Rwanda appeals to UN member states to actively take part in the identification, information sharing, arrest and transfer of the fugitives still at large,” he said.
The statement was released following the transfer to the ICTR on Friday of a former state media manager accused of genocide a week after his arrest in Gabon and the announcement a day earlier that the court had issued indictments for all suspects it so far plans to charge.
Of the 20 suspects still at large, the identities of only 14 have been made public, while the remaining six indictments are still under seal.
Mutabingwa did not identify the countries Rwanda believes are harbouring genocide suspects, but most of those still are thought to be hiding in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to ICTR prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow.
In addition, Rwandan authorities have repeatedly mentioned France as a country where genocide suspects are now living.
The ICTR was set up in 1994 to try the main suspects in the 100-day genocide in which about 800 000 people, mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were slaughtered by Hutu extremists.
Thus far, it has taken custody of 71 suspects, 22 of which have been convicted at trial and three acquitted. — Sapa-AFP