A 65-year-old man from Ermelo was arrested last Wednesday. Rwanda suspects this former army officer of having been involved in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and has requested his extradition, the Public Prosecution Service reported.
The Rwandan man has been living in the Netherlands since 1994 and was granted asylum status here in 1999. Due to the suspicion of involvement in genocide, the IND decided in 2013 to revoke Dutch citizenship. That was granted to him in 2002. The man challenged this decision in court.
Last Wednesday, the Council of State lost the appeal against the withdrawal of his Dutch citizenship. According to the Public Prosecution Service, there was no longer any obstacle to the arrest and eventual extradition of the man to Rwanda. He will be arraigned today before the examining magistrate.
Mass slaughter
According to the Rwandan authorities, the man was instrumental in massacres in the capital Kigali and in Mugina municipality. He was an officer of the gendarmerie in Rwanda in 1994. In April of that year, several massacres took place. An estimated 30,000 Tutsi civilians were said to have been killed in the massacre in a parish in Mugina, which is commemorated annually.
According to the Rwandan authorities, this army officer was closely involved in the planning and execution of the massacres in Mugina, according to the Public Prosecution Service. He is said to have supplied weapons to militias that killed Tutsi refugees.
Fire
About 80 Tutsi civilians who managed to escape the massacres in the parish are said to have been led by the man and accomplices to a house that was subsequently set on fire. The man allegedly supplied the fuel. Eyewitnesses have reported this.
The man is also said to have led a rally prior to the massacres calling for the attacking and killing of Tutsi civilians. He is also accused of having participated in the murder of the mayor of Mugina.
800,000 lives
From April to July 1994, a genocide took place in Rwanda that cost the lives of approximately 800,000 men, women and children. According to human rights organization Human Rights Watch, Rwandan gendarmerie officers played an important role in directing and carrying out the massacres. Through their tactical knowledge and the use of weapons, these army officers made a significant contribution to the sizable death toll from the massacres.
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