Genocide Suspect Arrested in France

[DrakeS]

A man indicted by Rwanda on six counts, including Genocide and conspiracy to commit Genocide, was recently arrested in France, The Sunday Times has learnt.

Even though French authorities had by yesterday reportedly not officially communicated to the Rwandan government on this arrest, sources say Tito Barahira, a former Bourgmestre (Mayor) of Kabarondo Commune in the former Kibungo Prefecture, was arrested in Toulouse, France.

"Interpol has just confirmed to me the arrest in France of Tito Barahira. He was arrested in Toulouse! The CPCR had filed a complaint against him earlier in the week," Alain Gauthier, head of a Paris-based genocide survivors' advocacy group, told this paper.

"Hopefully, this arrest will be followed by others. I personally gave Interpol the addresses of two other persons covered by an international arrest warrant. We'll see if something happens. Three weeks ago, CPCR also filed another complaint that we are waiting to hear about."

During the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Barahira was the Director of Electrogaz in Kabarondo. A medical doctor, Barahira was also Chairman of the ruling MRND Party at Commune level.

Another Genocidaire - Octavian Ngenzi, who was the Mayor of Kabarondo during the Genocide, was also arrested in the island of Mayotte a few months ago. He is detained in Paris.

When reached yesterday, French Ambassador to Rwanda, Laurent Contini declined further comment on the matter, and said: "Contact me on Monday, please."

John Bosco Siboyintore, the acting head of the Genocide Fugitives Tracking Unit (GFTU) said the National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) indicted Barahira in October 2010.

The indictment also includes: charges of complicity in Genocide; direct and public incitement to commit Genocide; and crimes against humanity.

"We definitely commend this arrest, especially as we are going into the difficult days of commemorating our dear ones that were killed in cold blood during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi," Siboyintore said.

Some Genocide survivors, however, say they are not entirely delude by recent developments.

Evode Kalima, a Genocide survivor and lawmaker in the lower chamber of deputies, said: "This is not the first time they [French authorities] arrested genocidaires. But they have not really prosecuted any one of them."

"They have never at any one time sent these people to Rwanda. I fear he will be released especially since the ICTR is set to close its doors."

"France should follow the good example of the USA and send us Barahira Tito."

Barahira's role in the Genocide

Between April and July 1994, the suspect allegedly collaborated with others, especially the military leadership of the interim government and Interahamwe militia, in Kabarondo, to kill the Tutsi.
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As chairman of the MRND party, he allegedly chaired and participated in a number of meetings in Kabarondo, where plans to exterminate Tutsis were hatched.

It is alleged that he organized and participated in the killing of thousands of Tutsi who were fleeing the killings to Tanzania.

On April 13, 1994, the suspect allegedly led a group of Interahamwe militia armed with machetes, organized and participated in the killing of Tutsi who had taken refuge at Kabarondo Church.

Those who tried to flee the massacres were intercepted at previously road blocks and killed.

He allegedly participated in the attack that killed the Tutsi of Rugenge and Nyakabungo sectors, and personally ordered the killing of an old woman - Josephine Mukaruhigira, who pleaded to him to be spared, albeit unsuccessfully. He told her assailants to go on and finish her.

[AztecDave]

Just "necklace" him and be done with it.

[DrakeS]

Interesting.


Rwandan on trial in Kansas over 1994 genocide

By Joe Stumpe (AFP) – 1 day ago

WICHITA, Kansas — An octogenarian Rwandan went on trial in Kansas Tuesday, accused of lying about his role in the 1994 genocide in his home country to secure US citizenship.

Lazare Kobagaya, 84, a diminutive man with a graying mustache, walked with a cane into the Wichita courthouse accompanied by a half-dozen family members.

He listened to the proceedings with the aid of an interpreter, although he introduced himself at the start of jury selection in English, saying: "My name is Lazare Kobagaya."

The case is being heard in a Kansas federal courtroom because Kobagaya moved here in 2005 to join family members.

But prosecutors allege Kobagaya lied on his December 2005 citizenship application by denying he had participated in the genocide and falsifying other aspects of his background.

US immigration and citizenships forms routinely ask applicants if they have ever persecuted another person because of their race or social group, and also probe whether the applicant has committed any crime for which they have not been prosecuted.

If convicted of lying on his citizenship application, Kobagaya faces deportation.

Numerous witnesses are being brought to the central state of Kansas from Africa to testify about the events from April through mid-July 1994 when an estimated 800,000 people, most of them Tutsis, were killed in Rwanda.

"I will tell you, some of the evidence is going to be pretty grim and disturbing," US District Judge Monti Belot told potential jurors, adding that several witnesses are "people who actually participated in genocide."

Potential jurors questioned Tuesday said they had little or no knowledge of Rwanda or the events that occurred there nearly two decades ago.

The indictment says most of those who were killed belonged to the Tutsi ethnic and social group, while most of the killings were carried out by members of the Hutu ethnic group.

According to the indictment, Kobagaya was a wealthy Hutu who lived in southern Rwanda. It is alleged that he organized and incited violence against Tutsis on several occasions, including ordering Hutu to burn Tutsi homes, murder hundreds of Hutu who had tried to flee the violence, and kill Tutsi women who had married Hutu men.

Kobagaya's defense attorneys have argued in court papers that their client's name never turned up in lists of genocide suspects compiled by independent sources in the aftermath of the violence.

It was not until he gave a statement on behalf of another Rwandan convicted of genocide by a Finnish court that he was targeted by US investigators, the defense attorneys say.

In addition to denying that he participated in genocide, Kobagaya told immigration officials that he had lived in the African nation of Burundi from 1993 to 1995, the indictment states.

Kobagaya's family declined comment during a break in the proceedings.

Two translators are also being used in the courtroom as interpreters for many of the witnesses, just one of many complications that Belot said could cause the case to last for eight to 10 weeks.

Trials over the 1994 genocide have also been heard before Rwandan courts as well as the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) based in Tanzania.

And several European nations have tried Rwandan suspects over the genocide.