DNA Analysis Confirms Rwandan Genocide Fugitive Died 20 Years Ago

Posted by African Examiner African News, Featured, Latest Headlines, News Around Africa Saturday, May 23rd, 2020

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), said on Friday that Augustin Bizimana, one of the most wanted fugitives for complicity in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide died 20 years ago.

The remains of Bizimana, the former minister of defence, were discovered in a grave in Pointe Noire in Congo-Brazzaville and positively identified with DNA analysis.

The office for IRMCT prosecutor Serge Brammertz said in a statement that team members believed Bizimana died in Pointe Noire in 2000.

The announcement comes a few days after Felicien Kabuga – another of the genocide’s nine most-wanted fugitives – was arrested in Paris at the weekend.

According to MICT, Bizimana was called by the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal (ICTR) for Rwanda in 1998 to answer 13 charges – including those of murder, rape, torture, and other inhumane acts – linked to the genocide, in which almost 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

Bizimana was alleged to have been responsible for the murders of former prime minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, 10 Belgian UN peacekeepers and numerous Tutsi civilians.

Kabuga, who had been called by the ICTR to answer charges related to conspiracy to commit genocide, persecution and extermination had spent 26 years in hiding before his arrest.

With the arrest of Kabunga and the death of Bizimana, the IRMCT is still pursuing six other fugitives, namely: Protais Mpiranya; Fulgence Kayishema; Charles Sikubwabo; Aloys Ndimbati; and Ryandikayo and Pheneas Munyarugarama.

Rwandan authorities arrested Ladislas Ntaganzwa in the Congo in 2015. (/NAN)