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FRANCE IN RWANDA
"In These Countries, Genocide's No Big Deal."
François Mitterrand, Fourth President of the French Fifth Republic,
architect of French policies before, during, and after the Rwandan genocide

RWANDA GENOCIDE SURVIVORS
AGAINST PROSECUTING SUSPECTS IN FRANCE

July 2, 2007 (People's Daily/Xinhua) - Survivors of the 1994 Rwanda genocide have opposed the suggested prosecution of two genocide suspects in French courts.

Theodore Simburudali, president of Ibuka,* has made a formal request to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to demand not to trial suspects in France, according to reports reaching Dar Es Salaam on Monday.

ICTR prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow has announced plans to transfer the cases of suspects Laurent Bucyibaruta and Abbot Wenceslaus Munyeshyaka to France. Both suspects are presently exiled in France.

Ibuka, an umbrella organization for all the survivor associations in Rwanda, represents the genocide survivors at national and international levels. The word Ibuka means "remember" in Rwandese.

Mr. Simburudali told a press briefing in Arusha, where the United Nations tribunal sits, that the survivors were against the plan to move suspects to France in that the European country was not neutral during the conflict in Rwanda...[and] allegedly played a part in the 1994 genocide.

And why might survivors object? Perhaps it is France's promotion of an obnoxious double-genocide theory. Perhaps it is France's manifest resistance to justice that risks exposing French perfidy.

CALL TO END EUROPEAN SAFE HAVENS
FOR RWANDAN PERPETRATORS

April 3, 2007 (FIDH) - 13 Years after the Rwandan genocide, it is unacceptable that perpetrators continue to live freely in Europe , said The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH, La Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de I’Homme) and the Redress Trust (REDRESS) on the occasion of their Conference marking the 13th Anniversary of the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda, in which up to 1 million were brutally massacred.

... Inexcusable delays in following up on allegations. Whilst many countries have failed to conduct investigations into the presence of genocide suspects this failing is most evidenced in France where not a single trial has resulted despite numerous investigations and prosecutions. Several organisations, including FIDH, LDH (Ligue française des droits de l’Homme et du citoyen), the Communauté rwandaise, Survie, and individual victims, are involved in the following cases: Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, Laurent Bucyibaruta, Laurent Serubuga, Cyprien Kayumba, Sosthène Munyemana. Despite the opening in France of proceedings against Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka on 25 July 1995, the head of the Catholic Parish of Ste. Famille in Kigali, who is said to have been complicit in numerous massacres at that site, there has been a failure by French authorities to put the suspect on trial. He is currently under judicial supervision. The European Court of Human Rights condemned France for its inexcusable delays which continue to this day. Laurent Bucyibaruta, former préfet (governor) of Gikongoro, is also said to be present in France. Despite evidence pointing to his involvement in a massacre of over 50,000 Tutsis on 21 April 1994 at Murambi, a technical school in Gikongoro which is the site of official commemoration activities this year on 7th April, he has not yet been prosecuted.

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* The Kinyarwanda sub-site appears not to exist. The English sub-site cannot be found. Only the French pages are accessible. Go figure.

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