AFRICANEWS

Justice Must Prevail

On 13 December 1996 Human Rights Watch and FIDH (International Federation of Human Rights Leagues) called for the arrest of leaders who are suspected of having played major roles in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. With the destruction of their strongholds in refugees camps in Eastern Zaire, military, civilian and political leaders of the former Rwandan government are reported to be dispersing to Kinshasa (Zaire), to Brazzaville (Congo) and perhaps to other destinations. The two human rights organizations urged prompt action to arrest these persons before they go into hiding elsewhere.

Among these persons are:

• Augustine Bizimungu, a major general in the former Rwandan army (FAR), who reportedly fled the defeat of his forces in eastern Zaire and now is believed to be in Kinshasa. Named chief of staff of the FAR ten days after the start of the genocide in 1994, Bizimungu commanded the army and the national police force that both participated in genocidal massacres and directed killings by civilian militia.
• Mathieu Ngirumpatse, president of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND), who is said to have fled from Kinshasa and to be in Brazzaville. He headed the MRND, party of the late President Juvenal Habyarimana, during the time when its militia, the Interahamwe, was trained and armed. The party organization as well as the militia led the campaign to exterminate the Tutsi minority and Hutu moderates. Ngirumpatse represented the MRND on the committee that installed the government that carried out the genocide.
• Theodore Sindikubwabo, president of Rwanda during the genocide, who was first reported to have been killed in the attack on Bukavu last November, but who has more recently been reported in Kinshasa. During the week of April 17, 1994, Sindikubwabo incited the people in the southern part of Rwanda to "get to work", meaning to kill Tutsi. He visited the commune of Nyakizu, where local groups were massacring Tutsi who had taken shelter in Cyahinda church, and reportedly encouraged the killers. In a famous speech in the town of Butare, he insisted that everyone must be involved in ridding Rwanda of the enemy. His government then removed the prefect of Butare, who was opposed to the slaughter, and widespread massacres followed immediately throughout the region.

Human Rights Watch and FIDH insisted that authorities in Zaire, Kenya and the Congo detain all Rwandans with such known criminal records and hold them for investigation by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

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