Campaigning to END 8 decades of IMPUNITY from justice by war criminals & genocide suspects living in the UK

BREAKING NEWS – December 2024 – 30th commemoration

UK Genocide suspects to finally face trial in 2025? – UK police were back in Rwanda this autumn and now gain in December gathering yet more evidence, while the CPS is preparing for a trial (the first) at the Old Bailey in August 2025. It seems the genocide suspects will be facing justice one at a time – one can only hope they all live long enough to have to answer the highly serious charges against them. Rj4G will be closely following every step…

FELICIEN KABUGA: 29 October, The UN Mechanism has officially refused to give the alleged financier of the genocide a pleasant retirement at a ‘safe house’ in The Hague. After UN judges aborted Kabuga’s trial in August 2023 amidst claims the 88 (or 90) year old was too senile for it to continue, his family have been expending much energy on getting him released from the – admittedly comfortable and expensive – UN detention families where is currently stays. The problem being the countries they want to take him in are, unsurprisingly, not wanting anything to do with such an individual, or one suspects the types of people associated with him.

PHILIPPE HATEGEKIMANA – 4 Nov – 20 Dec Appeal hearing in Paris; sentenced to life for genocide by the Paris Assize Court in 2023, former gendarme HATEGEKIMANA is appealing the verdict and sentence. RJ4G will be bringing regular updates from the court.

Eugene RWAMUCYO 31 October, Paris: GUILTY!! The former Butare doctor, who fled to France in 2001, was sentenced last night to 27 years for complicity in genocide and participation in an agreement to commit genocide… Having avoided justice for 17 years, Rwamucyo will finally have time in prison to contemplate the immense suffering his actions caused.
A daily report from the trial available HERE and the trial summing up and verdict account HERE
Survivors HERE speak of their need for justice. Thanks to the French NGO the CPCR whose tireless efforts have brought Rwamucyo to book and who cover the trial in detail as well as taking part in the legal action.

Autumn Move to live in the DRC? Monsieur Z and the 5 other former ICTR detainees living at UN expense in Niger and still searching for a country willing to take them in, may have finally found a solution. The UN confirmed in July an ‘unnamed state’ had indeed expressed a willingness to have these individuals – and a ‘fake-or-not-fake-document’ from the DRC Presidency was doing the rounds on social media in early September purporting to show Félix Tshisekedi proposing this act of ‘benevolence.’ Perhaps – if it’s true – it’s more a case of ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend…..’ One thing is for certain, the 6 are refusing point blank to end their sorry days back where they were born, in Rwanda. Better, maybe they feel, to return to the DRC – after all this is where they first fled for protection after the genocidal regime they worked for collapsed 30 years ago… More on the story HERE

UK JUSTICE? – the wheels are turning, but only just…. Met police were back in Rwanda again during May – for yet more evidence collection – will the new UK (Labour) government actually deliver this justice – especially under Sir Kier Starmer who himself defended one of the 5 UK genocide suspects (Celestin Ugirashebuja, who lives comfortably in Walton-in-the-Naze, Essex) in their successful bid to avoid extradition in 2008? … Did Sir Kier really think his client would still be justice-free 16 years later? Is the new UK government intent on repeating the impunity for genocidaire given for the last 80 years which IS the default policy position on this crime of crimes…..

Emmanuel NKUNDUWIMYE, Brussels Assize Court, Belgium, 10 June – GUILTY: Nkunduwimye, a close friend of Paul Rusesabagina (who refused to come and testify from his luxury home in the USA) and interahahmwe deputy leader Georges Rutaganda, was found guilty on Wednesday 5 June of war crimes, genocide, attempted murder and rape. He was sentenced to 25 years prison on Monday 10 June. The court heard testimony read out against him by former interahahmwe treasurer Dieudonne Niyitegeka (now in Canada) who described Nkunduwimye as a ‘thief and rogue’ who organised killings, attacks on women and stole property to make a quick profit.

FULGENCE KAYISHEMA – Cape Town, South Africa, 4 June. Kayishema’s lawyers have made another attempt to prolong his illegal stay in South Africa and avoid his being transferred to the UN Mechanism in Arusha from where he faces being sent to Rwanda to stand trial. Mechanism prosecutors have cited South Africa for failing to transfer him – as is their obligation as a member of the UN. He has now spent over a year in South African custody and clearly aims to avoid justice – especially if it is in Rwanda. In Kayishema’s previous court appearances the focus has been on the 56 counts of immigration fraud against him. Kayishema is accused of killing of 2,000 Tutsi refugees at Nyange church in collusion with the Catholic priest Fr Athanase Seromba, who is already serving life prison for the horrific crime.

GATESHEAD, UK, 25 January, UK Counter Terrorism Policing War Crimes Team arrested a 69 year-old Rwandan on suspicion of involvement in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi – he is the first UK suspect to be arrested for more than 10 years but is yet to be named officially. The suspect has been bailed while investigations continue after being questioned in Newcastle. One can only hope that the Met Police do not take countless years investigating as they have done with the case of the 5 alleged genocidaire who have avoided justice for nearly two decades…The suspect is still to be named officially, though his identity is well-known locally and to RG4G..

Anatole NSENGIYUMVA, Niamey, Niger 7 May, – the butcher of Gisenyi is dead! The 74 year old former Lt. Col, Nsengiyumva was admitted to hospital on 6th May but died the following day. The convicted genocidaire, known for headlining the leadership of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in collusion with Col. Theoneste Bagosora, had been one of seven former ICTR detainees living in UN-funded retirement in Niger having failed to convince any other country – notably France or Belgium – to allow them a residence permit. Few will shed tears for a man whose life’s work was to bring innate sorrow, grief and horror to hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

FABIEN NERETSE – Liege, Belgium, 9 April 2023 – Time has finally run out completely for the unrepentant convicted killer, who has died in hospital, having been transferred there from prison where he was serving 25 years for genocide/murder committed in 1994 after a much-delayed trial in 2019. Neretse had fled initially to France under an assumed name, before moving to Belgium. In a final act of viciousness to his many victims, his family chose to quote the (wrongly attributed) biblical verse from 2 Timothy 4, 7 on the death notice that pictured the smiling killer: ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness,’ Readers can make up their own mind on the current destination of this ‘unspeakable’ man.

FRODUALD RUKESHANGABO AND CELESTIN MUNYABURANGO, Brisbane, Australia, 25 February – two suspected genocide killers have been identified as living happily in Australia after media there tracked them down. RUKESHANGABO, now working as a driving instructor in Brisbane, is alleged to have been part of Hutu militia that tracked down Tutsi before hacking them to death. Former head teacher MUNYABURANGO is said to have killed 21 Tutsi – his whereabouts in unknown but he is thought to be in Brisbane too where his relations live. A documentary by ABC ‘The Wanted’ on how the media tracked down the two suspect is available HERE

ANATOLE NSENGIYUMVA, Protais Zigiranyiazo et al... Niger, 4 January 2024: It’s raining free UN cash again for the seven former UN detainees. The now annual $10,000 UN handout to the ‘butcher of Gisenyi’ and each of the six other former ICTR detainees has been ordered by a UN judge – the third such $10,000 grant. Living in UN funded accommodation in Niamey, Niger and enjoying UN medical care and in some cases highly expensive legal fees, the UN ‘duty of care’ to these men has left survivors and victims totally bereft. One can only wonder why the UN pays while the extensive families of the former detainees living in Europe seem unable to muster a dime to support their ‘nearest and dearest’.

PIERRE BASABOSE and SERAPHIN TWAHIRWA – Brussels Assize Court, 21 December, GUILTY! The ‘King of Evil’, Seraphin Twahirwa, has been sentenced to life in prison after a two month trial for acts of unfathomable cruelty and depravity, including the mass rape of Tutsi women, murdering babies and whole families. Witnesses gave truly horrific evidence, recalling how this butcher personally killed a woman pregnant with twins, His ‘boss’ Basabose will be held for life in a secure unit for his own terrible crimes – senile dementia having saved him from prison.

SOSTHENE MUNYEMANA – Paris Assize Court, 20 December – GUILTY! Twenty-eight years after the first criminal complaint was made in France against him, the former gynaecologist from Butare and Bordeaux – the so-called ‘Butcher of Tumba’ – has been pronounced guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. Munyemana was sentenced to 24 years. The court President noted Munyemana had ‘prepared, organised and steered the genocide of the Tutsis in Tumba on a daily basis’. More on this story here. Daily trial reports can be read HERE.

Laurent BUCYIBARUTA: Saint-André-les-Vergers, France, 6 December. The 79 year-old convicted genocidaire and former Prefect of Gikongoro, is dead. Despite being found guilty of horrific crimes at his trial in Paris in July 2022, he was enjoying freedom again awaiting his appeal. It took 22 years for French justice to catch up with him.

UN SECURITY COUNCIL, 12 December 2023 – The yearly report of the UN Mechanism President Graciela Gatti Santana to the UNSC members, and surrounding debate, took place with Prosecutor Serge Brammertz expressing his ‘immense dissatisfaction’ that Felicien Kabuga has avoided judgement for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Rwanda’s delegate noted that help was needed by the international community to bring more than 1,000 suspected genocidaire to justice – many of them still free and living happily in the west.

MIKAELI MUHIMANA, Mali, 26 October: 2023 The 62 year old former counseiller of Gishyita commune, Kibuye, has died while serving his life sentence in Mali. His trial in 2005 at the ICTR heard how Muhimana raped and tortured many Tutsi girls – including disembowelling a pregnant woman, removing the baby which cried for a time before dying – also beheading a man whose head he then publicly paraded. He was found guilty of genocide, rape and murder.

PIERRE KAYONDO: Paris, 19 September 2023: The former prefect of Kibuye and deputy prefect of Gitarama was arrested and put in investigative detention as French authorities look into charges he committed genocide. It follows a complaint by survivors and the NGO CPCR against him in 2021.

SYLVESTRE GACUMBITSI, Mali, 10 September: 2023 the 80 year old died in prison where he was serving life for his horrific crimes – notably at Nyarubuye church – where the aftermath of the massacre of thousands of Tutsis was filmed by BBC journalist Fergal Keane. On 4 July ALOYS SIMBA, convicted for genocide but controversially released early after serving just 18 years for his genocidal role, died in Porto-Novo, Benin.

FELICIEN KABUGA: The Hague, 7 August: UN Appeal Court overrules its trial court and decides that no trial of any form can go ahead and the man accused of playing a leading part in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi should be free to die happily in his own bed – the question now is to find a state that will take him.

PHILIPPE HATEGEKIMANA – Paris, 28 June 2023 – is found guilty of genocide at Assize Court and sentenced to life in prison. His trial heard horrific, heart-breaking testimony over 6 weeks of his murderous crimes that took place in and around Nyanza in April/May 1994.

THARCISSE MUVUNYI, Niger, 11 June at his UN-funded accommodation in Niger. He was the only suspect ever to be extradited by the UK. Muvunyi had been freed early by the ICTR from his 15 sentence for inciting genocide, and was one of 8 former detainees currently living at full UN taxpayer expense in Niger.

Major JEAN-PIERRE KARANGWA: on 6 June the Netherlands Supreme Court, refused his extradition – after 25 in the country will they now put him on trial themselves or continue impunity?

French paper Liberation uncovers the alleged role of Col. JEAN-MARIE VIANNEY NZAPFAKUMUNSI – free in France for 25 years – in horrific genocidal attacks in Nyange.

Westminster, UK: 6 June: Parliamentarians hear the Rwandan High Commissioner tell them that the UK’s ‘man-made impunity’ needs to be defeated – politics and words must give way to justice after 17 years of legal failure.