Paris nabs ‘financier’ of Rwanda genocide
PARIS: Felicien Kabuga, one of the last key fugitives wanted over the 1994 Rwandan genocide, was in French custody on Saturday after a quarter of a century on the run, and now faces likely trial at an international tribunal.
French police arrested Mr Kabuga, once one of Rwanda’s richest men, in a dawn raid in the Paris suburbs, where he had been living under a false identity, the prosecutor’s office and police said in a joint statement.
Officers found an 84-year-old man “who has been sought by the judicial authorities for 25 years”, the statement said.
Around 800,000 people — Tutsis but also moderate Hutus — were slaughtered over 100 days by ethnic Hutu extremists during the 1994 genocide.
Mr Kabuga was arrested at his home in Asnieres-sur-Seine north of Paris, where he had been hiding with the help of his children.
The police statement described him as “one of the world’s most wanted fugitives”.
The news was hailed in Rwanda. “Capturing Felicien Kabuga is very welcome and a commendable act that serves justice... our wish as the umbrella body for genocide survivors is for him to be deported and tried in Rwanda where he committed the crimes,” Jean Pierre Dusingizemungu, head of the Ibuku association said.
Mr Kabuga is accused of creating the notorious Interahamwe militia that carried out massacres during the genocide. He also helped create Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines which, in its broadcasts, incited people to murder.
During his years on the run, Mr Kabuga spent time in Germany, Belgium, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Switzerland.
Eric Emeraux, the head of the OCLCH, France’s agency for fighting crimes against humanity, said renewed efforts were made to track down Mr Kabuga two months ago after new intelligence emerged.
Olivier Olsen, head of the association of homeowners in the building where he lived, described Mr Kabuga as “someone very discreet... who murmured when you said hello”.
He said Mr Kabuga had lived there for three or four years.
Mr Kabuga is accused of using his wealth and influence during the genocide to funnel money to militia groups as chairman of the Fonds de Defense Nationale (FDN) fund.
According to the US State Department, which has offered a US$5 million (160 million baht) reward for information about him, Mr Kabuga through the FDN “is alleged to have provided funds to the interim Rwandan government for the purposes of executing the 1994 genocide”.
Mr Kabuga was indicted by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 1997 on seven counts, including genocide.
Among other things, it accused him in its indictment of having arranged the shipments of “an impressive number of machetes and other weapons to the Interahamwe militia, which were used in the massacres.
The tribunal formally closed in 2015.