One of the world’s most wanted war criminals has been arrested in Paarl, South Africa. The suspect, Fulgence Kayishema, was a police officer and militia leader when extremist Hutus in Rwanda attempted to wipe out the Tutsi minority in 1994.
An estimated 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis, were killed in the massacres in the African country in about three months.
Fulgence Kayishema has been on the run for decades, using a fake name all the while. Kayishema will appear before a court in Cape Town on Friday.
criminal tribunal
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is located in The Hague and Arusha in Tanzania. Kayishema had been wanted by that tribunal for more than twenty years. He is accused, among other things, of having played a leading role in the murder of more than 2,000 Tutsis in a church in Nyange. Together with the infamous Interahamwe Hutu militia, he is said to have driven the Tutsis into the church and then set fire to the church. Kayishema arranged, among other things, the fuel to light the fire and helped to hide the remains in the days that followed.
Serge Brammertz, the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, said “his arrest will finally bring him to trial for his alleged crimes.” “Genocide is the worst crime known to man.”
According to a statement from the ICTR, the arrest was successful thanks to the cooperation of several African countries, the US, Canada and Great Britain. A reward of up to $5 million (about $4.5 million) was offered by the US War Crimes Rewards Program for information on Kayishema and the other fugitives wanted for their role in the Rwandan genocide.
Over 1,000 other suspects
The tribunal indicted a total of 96 suspects, four of whom were never arrested. Kayishema may have been the last significant living suspect still at large. The ICTR only charged the main perpetrators. Rwandan authorities are also looking for more than a thousand other suspects for their role in the genocide.
Among those already convicted of the church massacre is pastor Athanase Seromba, who, like Kayishema, was charged with organizing the murders. In 2006, the ICTR sentenced him to 15 years in prison. That sentence was increased to life imprisonment in 2008.
Just over a year ago, Brammertz’s search team found the body of another key suspect, Protais Mpiranya. He was the former head of the presidential guard and lived as a fugitive in Zimbabwe, where he was later buried.
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