Rwanda: Callixte Mbarushimana - Just Who is the Fugitive Arrested in German
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Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
COLUMN
10 July 2008
Posted to the web 10 July 2008
Kigali
When Mr. Calixte Mbarushimana presented his passport at the Frankfurt airport in German on Monday afternoon on his way to Saint Petersburg, immigration officials told him he would not be allowed through. He was arrested on Genocide and war crimes charges, according to Mr. Peter Rueckert, a state prosecutor in charge of extradition cases at the Frankfurt court of appeal.
Rwandan authorities were informed of the arrest immediately and have described it as "victory against impunity". The exiled Executive Secretary of the DR Congo based Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) has been under criminal investigation in France for atrocities committed during the 1994 Genocide.
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His boss Dr. Murwanashyaka Ignace has been living in Bonn for several years. President Paul Kagame was in German early this year just days after his German counterpart had visited Rwanda. Mr. Kagame raised the issue of Genocide fugitives in Europe with German Chancellor Angela Markel but clear on mind was the FDLR leader - who however, according to available information does not seem to have any Genocide case.
Just who is this man who has also worked with the UN in several appointments? French authorities opened the investigation on him in February after a group of Genocide victims and French campaign groups lodged a complaint.
As number 4 on the FDLR hierarchy, Mr. Mbarushimana is the one who often signs press statements and speaks for the group in the media, along with Dr. Murwanashyaka. The most recent press statement from him - to RNA as well - was as recent as last week.
Mr. Mbarushimana was first arrested in Kosovo in April 2001 while he was working for the United Nations, handed over to the UN court in Tanzania. The charges against him were dropped in September 2002 due to lack of evidence. He was given refugee status in France in late 2003.
The fluent French and English speaking Mr. Mbarushimana filed a complaint of unfair dismissal and a UN administrative panel in 2004 awarded him 12 months' back pay as the allegations against him had never been tested in court.
The serious and consistent allegations against Callixte Mbarushimana have been a source of considerable embarrassment for the UN for many years, African Rights says in its recent report. The London-based campaign group has documented Genocide crimes for years - some of whose reports have been basis for numerous convictions.
After the evacuation of foreign staff as the massacres had started, the then 44-year-old computer technician is said to have appointed himself as Officer- in-Charge of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Rwanda - from April 10 to 4 July 1994.
He is accused by dozens of witnesses, including former colleagues, militiamen and local administrators, of using his position, and the resources, of the UN Development agency - UNDP - to advance the policy of massacres, including the murder of Tutsis who worked for the agency.
Dressed in military fatigues, armed with a gun and carrying grenades in his belt, according to African Rights, witnesses say that Mr. Mbarushimana lent vehicles and satellite telephones of the UNDP to military officers, that he also used the UNDP vehicles to facilitate his own contribution to the killings.
He did not hide his collaboration with officers who were fully engaged in the Genocide - they visited him at work, he took part in meetings at the army staff quarters and he traveled to Mont Kigali to hold discussions with Major Faustin Ntirikina. The Major is now a brigadier-general in FDLR.
Since French President Nicholas Sarkozy swept to power, and later briefly met with President Paul Kagame, a court in Paris has been probing Mr. Mbarushimana as well as the widow of deceased former President Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana. In total, French prosecutors are investigating 9 fugitives that government in Kigali says have Tutsi blood on their hands.
Strong militia ties
Mr. Mbarushimana, who comes from Ndusu in Ruhengeri prefecture (now part of Northern Province), started working at the UNDP in 1992. The same year, he settled in Kigali, and formed close ties with a group of extremists, all of who would distinguish themselves in the Genocide in the capital, African Rights alleges.
In the spotlight includes Stanislas Simbizi, the general secretary of the ultra extra extremist party - the Committee for the Defence of the Republic (CDR), Robert Kajuga - the president of the interahamwe militia, and Georges Rutaganda, Kajuga's second vice president.
Others, as African Rights details them include Phéneas Ruhumuliza, the first vice president and other well-known interahamwe leaders like Jean Marie-Vianney Mudahinyuka, alias Zuzu and François Nambajimana, alias Mucacu and Mugimba, president of the CDR in Kigali.
The fact that Zuzu, Mucacu and Mbarushimana all lived in a Kigali suburb called Nyakabanda reinforced their ties. Long before the Genocide, African Rights says Mr. Mbarushimana was already encouraging young Hutu men to join the interahamwe.
"His important network of contacts, and the fact that he was working for the UNDP, gave him standing and influence among his neighbours, which in turn made it easier for him to enlist militiamen" the Campaign group claims.
Augustin Habinshuti, the dedicated leader of the interahamwe in Nyakabanda, is said to have been brought there by Mr. Mbarushimana.
Carnage in Kigali
As early as April 8 1994, the FDLR counterpart Major Ntirikina is said to have brought a jeep full of guns and grenades to Mbarushimana's home.
Witnesses that survived the attacked places allege that Mr. Mbarushimana lost no time in giving them out to the militia, for example those manning the checkpoint below the Hotel Baobab in Kigali.
The guns were soon put to use, on 9 April, when more than 20 people were murdered at a roadblock near a medical clinic close to Zuzu's home - another FDLR comrade. They had been rounded up from their homes and assembled there.
Zuzu, Mucacu and Mbarushimana arrived at about 10 a.m., all of them armed with guns and grenades, witnesses claim. The captives were ordered to lie on the ground, and Zuzu then opened fire as a signal for the carnage to begin.
A number of the women were apparently taken away to be raped, and some were subsequently murdered. Many of the corpses are said to have been dumped in a mass grave below the stadium in Nyamirambo - Kigali, in a place referred to as the "tapis rouge" (the "red carpet").
Witnesses claim that Mr. Mbarushimana was also physically present at the massacre, on 7 June, at the monastery of the Josephite Brothers in Nyamirambo.
The operation is alleged to have been planned and supervised by fugitive Genocide militia officers Major Pierre-Claver Karangwa and Col. Edouard Hakizimana. Witnesses say these were working closely with one of the most notorious militiaman in Kigali - Habyarimana - better known as Kigingi.
Along with other militia officers, Mr. Callixte Mbarushimana who was armed brought a group of gendarmes to back up the militia who numbered about 100 for a killing spree that began at around 5:00 p.m., leaving more than 80 victims, survivors from the carnage narrate.
In the Biryogo suburb, Mr. Mbarushimana acted as the right-hand man of Stany Simbizi, one of the chief architects of the genocide in Biryogo.
Col. Tharcisse Renzaho link
The two men converted a house into a training ground for the pro-CDR militia known as 'impuzamugambi. Mr. Mbarushimana was a frequent visitor while soldiers taught them, from 8 April to May, the manipulation of guns and grenades.
"They were plied with drink and then encouraged to form groups to kill Tutsis", narrates witness Karekezi.
During the genocide, Mbarushimana also maintained good relations with the préfet of Kigali - ICTR detainee Col. Tharcisse Renzaho, and went regularly to the office of the préfecture to obtain petrol.
Mr. Mbarushimana fled Rwanda and continued to work for the UN after the Genocide, in Angola and then in Kosovo.
He was eventually forced to stand down, after widespread publicity about his bloody hands. The UN carried out an investigation in 2001 in a probe based on 24 witness statements.
The UN probe concluded that he was suspected of directing and participating in the murder of 32 people, including Tutsis who had worked for the UNDP.
Based on this investigation, Tribunal lawyers concluded that he had a case to answer on charges of genocide drew up the indictment, but the Prosecutor at the time decided not to proceed, arguing that he was not "a big fish." In 2005, the UNDP asked the French government to initiate proceedings.
However, in November 2006, Rwanda severed all ties with France accusing the political elite there of hiding behind their rowdy role in the Genocide to torment some officials here. For the past few months however, relations are warming.
No return
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The FDLR forces in the jungles of eastern DR Congo have regularly defected and surrendered to Kigali. High profile among them is its former commander Major General Paul Rwarakabije in 2003 - now member of the demobilization commission. Since then, some 20,000 combatants have abandoned the group that is subject to planned military campaigns by UN forces in DRC and the government there.
The group stands accused of harbouring Genocide criminals, has been encouraged to return to Rwanda but they maintain that has to be part of wider reforms in the administration of Rwanda - essentially meaning power sharing. In an interview given to Australian television last year, Mr. Mbarushimana ruled out returning to Rwanda to face charges.
"There is no justice in Rwanda. So to go to Rwanda to face justice is just like to hang (one)self, or to suicide (one)self. So that's not my case," he said.
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