A Rwandan man (67) suspected of involvement in the genocide in Rwanda was arrested in Ermelo on Tuesday, reports the Public Prosecution Service. The man, a former army officer, had lived in the Netherlands for twenty-five years and held Dutch nationality until 2013. That was taken away from him by the Immigration and Naturalization Service because of the genocide suspicion.
In Rwanda, some 800,000 people were murdered between April and July 1994 in an ethnic conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsis. The Public Prosecution Service writes: “Thousands of them were killed in an attack on a parish in Mugina. After this attack, dozens of women and children were chased to a house, where they were burned alive.” According to justice, the man was responsible for setting fire to the house, filled with Tutsis.
The Rwandan judiciary previously attempted to have the man extradited due to a much broader range of suspicions. For example, he himself is said to have led the civilians into the house and supplied the weapons and fuel used for the murders in Mugina. Ultimately, the Dutch Supreme Court stopped the suspect’s extradition last year because he would not receive a fair trial in Rwanda. The man was released.
The Dutch Public Prosecution Service then started its own investigation, in collaboration with the International Crimes Team. They also traveled to Rwanda to investigate the army officer’s involvement in the murder. In the Netherlands, suspects can be prosecuted if they are Dutch, have made Dutch victims or, as in the case of this suspect, reside in the Netherlands. Genocide is the most serious crime in international law.
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