Rwandan Ex-Police Chief Arrested for Role in 1994 Genocide

What's the story?

• One of the world's most wanted perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, former police chief Fulgence Kayishema, has been arrested in South Africa after a years-long search.
• Over half a million people were killed within 100 days during the Rwandan genocide, one of the most dramatic examples of ethnic cleansing in modern history.

What was Kayishema's role in the genocide?

• In April 1994, Kayishema was a Hutu police inspector in the Kivumu commune. Kayishema, now 62, was charged with his role in the mass murder of over 2,000 people in a church in April 1994.
• He is accused of helping to round up Tutsis in the area before confining them in a parish church compound in the settlement of Nyange, where the extermination was carried out.
• The police and the Hutu Interahamwe militia hacked the assembled Tutsis with machetes and threw grenades into the crowd.
• The survivors, mostly women, children, and the elderly, were besieged for three days, after which point the Hutu militia bulldozed the church and killed anyone still alive. 

Where was he found?

• Kayishema had lived as a fugitive for over two decades under a false name in South Africa. He was arrested on Wednesday afternoon in Paarl, 35 miles northeast of Cape Town, where he was found working as a security guard on a farm.
• He was going by the name Donatien Nibasumba and told people he was a Burundian refugee.
• Following the genocide, he crossed into the Democratic Republic of Congo and then Tanzania with his family. He eventually settled permanently in South Africa in 1999.
• He was tracked down when the task force identified someone who knew him. They threatened the person with deportation if they did not cooperate with police in providing Kayishema's last known alias.  
• After his arrest, he said:

"I have been waiting a long time to be arrested." 

The role of the Rwandan war crimes tribunal

• Kayishema was one of four leading perpetrators indicted by the Rwandan war crimes tribunal based in Arusha, Tanzania, who were not accounted for out of 96 indicted. 
• The tribunal is only indicting leading perpetrators and architects of the genocide, but over 1,000 other participants are still wanted by Rwandan authorities. 
• The parish priest Athanase Seromba who was involved in the church massacre, surrendered in 2002 after hiding in Italy with the help of the Catholic church.
• Serge Brammertz, the chief prosecutor of the tribunal, said:

"Genocide is the most serious crime known to humankind. The international community has committed to ensure that its perpetrators will be prosecuted and punished. This arrest is a tangible demonstration that this commitment does not fade, and that justice will be done, no matter how long it takes."

• Brammertz said:

"The investigation leading to Kayishema's arrest spanned multiple countries across Africa and elsewhere. During his flight from justice, Kayishema utilised many aliases and false documents to conceal his identity and presence."

What's next?

• A South African court will decide whether to confirm Kayishema's transfer to the tribunal's custody.
• He will then be deported to Arusha before finally being transferred to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, to stand trial.

 For education on the massacre

• The award-winning book "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families" by investigative journalist Philip Gourevitch memorializes the horrors of the church massacre.

Should we put more resources into finding international war criminals?

—Emma Kansiz 

(Photo Credit: Flickr/British Red Cross)