Rwandan genocide suspect Fulgence Kayishema was arrested in the South African city of Paarl on Wednesday. This is the UN’s International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT). announced Thursday. Kayishema had been on the run since 2001 and is held responsible, along with several others, for the murder of some 2,000 Tutsi refugees in a church during the 1994 genocide.
“His arrest ensures that he will finally stand trial for his alleged crimes,” said IRMCT chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz. “Genocide is the most serious crime known to man. The international community is committed to prosecuting and punishing its perpetrators,” said Brammertz, adding that “justice will be served however long it takes.”
In recent years, the IRMCT prosecutor has been dissatisfied with the cooperation of the South African authorities and narrowly missed an arrest of Kayishema on a number of occasions. On Thursday, Brammertz praised the efforts of the South African authorities. Kayishema would have initially denied his identity, but according to the police later admitted that he was the person the police were looking for. “I waited a long time for my arrest,” he said, according to police.
The IRMCT was established in 2010 by the UN Security Council to take over the work of the Rwanda Tribunal and the Yugoslavia Tribunal. The IRMCT’s work has led to several arrests in recent years, including that of Rwandan businessman Félicien Kabuga, who is believed to have financed the genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 people.
Also read this report 25 years after the genocide in Rwanda