Arusha
Rwanda is known as the country of one thousand hills, but there are 1000 renegades who took part in the country’s genocide that are yet to be apprehended.
But the Prosecutor of the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, Serge Brammertz, and the Prosecutor-General of Rwanda, Angélique Habyarimana, have announced increased cooperation is achieving results in justice for crimes committed during 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
Responding to a compelling appeal by the Government of Rwanda, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) has in recent months significantly increased its efforts to assist the National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) to locate more of the over 1000 genocide fugitive still at large.
This increased operational cooperation recognizes the successful completion last year of the OTP’s work to account for the remaining fugitives indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Working together, the OTP and National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) have identified priority targets, collated information and begun investigations to determine the whereabouts and status of fugitives.
Initial efforts have already yielded results, and in an important development, 65 genocide fugitives can already be accounted for and their fugitive files closed.
Prosecutor Brammertz explained that he was very satisfied with the intensified bilateral cooperation with the NPPA.
“After my Office closed all remaining International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) cases, our Rwandan partners asked us to continue this work by helping them arrest more fugitives. And so, over the past eighteen months, my Office has been working hand-in-hand with the NPPA and other Rwandan authorities,” he said.
According to the prosecutor, together, they have been successful in closing 65 fugitive files and are confident that the joint effort will lead to additional important results and that the partnership is a demonstration of international assistance to national justice for genocide crimes.
“Rwanda is today responsible for the accountability process. My Office developed unique expertise in tracking down the remaining ICTR fugitives. Now we are applying the same successful methodology to support the NPPA and continue achieving results,” added the Prosecutor.
He said tracking fugitives is immensely difficult but working together, as this example shows, national and international prosecutors can overcome challenges, locate fugitives and bring them to justice.
“My Office is committed to continue this cooperation with the NPPA for as long as possible. Our common objective is to ensure more genocidaires are punished for their crimes. I am grateful to the United Nations and the Government of Rwanda for their steadfast support to this partnership and the accountability process”.
The progress achieved in recent months by the OTP and the NPPA, with the support of international partners, highlights the importance of increased cooperation.
Commenting on the joint results achieved with the support of the OTP, Prosecutor-General Habyarimana stated: “At the NPPA, we address cases of genocide fugitives with high priority. We are committed to working with our key partners, notably the OTP as well as countries where genocide fugitives reside.”
“Fighting impunity is our shared common goal. Although we know that tracking fugitives is not an easy job, our cooperation with OTP and support from countries around the world makes it easier.”
“Thirty-one years after the 1994 genocide perpetrated against Tutsi, there is an urgent need to speed-up tracking fugitives and liaising with host countries so that they can either prosecute the fugitives or extradite them to Rwanda as some countries have done in the past years and continue to do.”
“The 65 fugitives whose cases were closed in recent months include some located in other countries and either extradited or prosecuted, as well as fugitives who were determined to be deceased or who could otherwise be accounted for.”
Building on the OTP’s successful work accounting for major fugitive genocidaires, the OTP and NPPA conducted analysis-driven investigations to obtain information on the current whereabouts and status of the 65 fugitives.
This work exploited multi-source evidence with both traditional and leading-edge methodologies, including through open source, telecommunications and financial analysis.
Many international partners also played a key role, ranging from providing information and evidence, confirming identities, extraditing suspects, and prosecuting fugitives in their domestic courts.
This ongoing partnership between the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) and NPPA serves as a vital demonstration of the international community’s continued commitment to ensuring justice for the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
The OTP and NPPA will also continue to work together to safeguard the justice process by investigating and prosecuting interference with witnesses, as they successfully did in the Turinabo et al. case at the IRMCT.