Fulgence Kayishema, a former police officer accused of ordering the murder of some 2,000 people identified as Tutsi during the Rwandan genocide, was captured last Wednesday in South Africa. Despite international accusations, the South African court charges him with falsifying immigration documents. The session is expected to resume next Friday to gather more information on his process and the Cape Town court decide on his possible extradition.
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Slowly and since 1994, the genocide in Rwanda in which some 800,000 people were murdered continues to generate glimpses of Justice.
Fulgence Kayishema is a former police officer accused of ordering the murder of dozens of Rwandans identified as Tutsis in the context of the massacre carried out by the extremist Hutu regime.
Captured last Wednesday in South Africa, Kayishema he would have participated in the death of 2,000 people, including children and women, who took refuge inside a church in the first days of the genocide. Due to the facts, the former uniformed man was one of the most wanted by international justice in the context of the Rwandan genocide.
The ex-policeman tried to set fire to the building that served as a hideout and, unsuccessfully, used an excavator to demolish the structure. According to the international indictment, he crushed and killed the people inside.
Kayishema is also linked to the transfer of the bodies to a common grave.
Fugitive for years, now on the bench
Until this May 26, his presence before the Cape Town Magistrates Court became effective. In a short session, Kayishema, with a calm countenance, even smiling at times, He defended his innocence, claiming that he was not fleeing the nation in the south of the African continent, but that he is a “refugee from the civil war.”
The man also argued that he changed his name to be able to enter that nation.
The defendant requested that he be granted bail, a request postponed for discussion by the court until next Friday. During that time, the case will be studied and the details will be consulted to define the charges he faces.
However, officially the five criminal responsibilities that the South African justice presented against him are not related to the deaths caused in his country of origin, but accuse him of falsifying immigration forms 23 years ago in order to enter and remain in the territory.
But it is singled out for mass murders by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, created by the United Nations to investigate the genocide. Fulgence Kayishema He was located by a special fugitive tracking team from the genocide court and Interpol, supported by seven nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.
The European Union welcomes the arrest
One of the most prominent international reactions came from the European Union. Brussels affirmed that the end of impunity for Rwandan genocides was “essential for peace, security and justice”.
#Rwanda: the EU welcomes the arrest in South Africa of Fulgence Kayishema, one of the last fugitives indicated in connection with the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Ending impunity for genocide is indispensable for peace, security and justice. #AUEU https://t.co/mLAE2ATP5U
— Nabila Massrali (@NabilaEUspox) May 26, 2023
According to one of the spokespersons for the European External Action Service, “the international community is committed to ensuring that the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi are brought to justice and punished.”
The event began with the intentional demolition of the plane that was carrying the then president of the country Juvenal Habyarimanaconsidered a Hutu, on April 6, 1994. The government accused the Tutsi rebels of planning the assassination.
These, united in the Rwandan Patriotic Front, had been waging a war against government forces since the beginning of the 1990s. The targeting was followed, in three months, by the killing of at least 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis and Hutus. moderate.
With AP, Reuters and EFE
