Masterminds of Rwanda genocide may face UK trial
BRITAIN: Five alleged Rwandan war criminals living in the UK could face justice in Britain more than two decades after Africa’s worst genocide.
The men, who have been described as ‘‘masterminds’’ of the 1994 massacre in which an estimated 800,000 people died, include the head of an evangelical church in Kent and a north London doctor.
Scotland Yard’s war crimes unit confirmed this weekend that it was conducting a preliminary inquiry into five suspects after a request from the Rwandan government to prosecute them in Britain.
The move follows a marathon legal battle, costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds, which saw efforts to extradite the suspects to Rwanda end in failure last year.
The High Court ruled they would not receive a fair trial if sent back.
In an interview in the Sunday Times Magazine, Busingye Johnston, Rwanda’s justice minister, accuses Britain of acting as a ‘‘safe haven’’ for war criminals – and demands that the five suspects should at least be tried in the UK . ‘‘Some of the people responsible for all these rapes and murders are on your soil,’’ said Johnston. ‘‘We’ve got people extradited from Sweden, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Canada and the US. So why does only the UK think we can’t give a fair tial?
‘‘These are masterminds ... who somehow got [UK] citizenship and are getting benefits paid by your taxpayers.’’
This month marks the 24th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide, in which members of the Hutu ethnic tribe carried out atrocities against the Tutsi minority.
As well as those killed, at least 250,000 women were raped.
- Sunday Times