Rwanda ex-convicts, freed suspects stuck in Arusha

Arusha. 

Several Rwandans acquitted or released after serving sentences imposed by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) are stuck in Arusha because no country is ready to accept them.

They have nowhere else to go because they fear returning to their home country.

This despite the Rwandan government having stated last year that the ten men who had either been acquitted by the ICRT or completed their sentences were free to return home if no other country was ready to take them in.

Those still stuck in Arusha are former Transport minister Andre Ntagerura, former Rwandan army general Gratien Kabiligi, former Health minister Casmir Bizimungu and businessman Protais Zigiranyirazo.

Others are former Foreign Affairs minister Jerome Bicamumpaka, former Commerce minister Justin Mugenzi, former Civil Servants minister Prosper Mugiraneza, former Rwandan army general Augustine Ndindiliyimana and former commander of the Reconnaissance Battalion Francis Xavier Nzuwonemeye.

The group also includes ex-convicts Anatole Ngesiyumva and Tharcisse Muvunyi, both former senior officers in the Rwandan army.

Rwandan Justice minister Tharcisse Karugarama last year met with the ICTR Registrar Bongani Majola and discussed the possible relocation of prisoners from Arusha to Rwanda as part of the residual mechanism of the tribunal.

Kigali said it would willingly take back the suspects because “they remain Rwandan citizens”. But this drew an agry reaction from a section of genocide survivors.

The UN tribunal is now having problems relocating the Rwandans because countries which had initially agreed to host them have apparently made a U-turn.

Mr Majola said there were seven acquitted persons and three ex-convicts who remain in safe houses in Arusha under the tribunal’s care.

He said Benin, Mali, France, Senegal, Sweden and Swaziland gad initially indicated their readiness to take in the ten men, but so far only two countries were ready to receive the acquitted persons.

Mr Majola said the tribunal was incurring huge expenses to keep the ex-convicts and the acquitted in safe houses in Arusha, adding that Tanzania has not been a preferred country for relocation for the former suspects of the 1994 genocide.

The Citizen: