On Wednesday, the Paris Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court decision to transfer Felicien Kabuga to Arusha, Tanzania, to be tried for his role as the principal financier of the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
Kabuga will be handed over to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), which is primarily based in The Hague but also comprises a branch in Arusha. Last month a judge in The Hague ruled that Kabuga would be tried at the IRMCT’s Arusha site, which took over for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) after it closed in 2015.
The Kabuga, who is now 84, has been on the run for 26 years. During that time, he adopted a fake identity and used his vast resources to evade international authorities in numerous countries across Europe and Africa, alongside a network of family linkages. Kabuga was once one of the richest men in Rwanda before he was indicted on a number of charges by the ICTR in 1997. In 2002 the authorities offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture during his time as a fugitive.
The seven counts against Kabuga included the charge of genocide as well as “direct and public incitement to commit genocide” by using his position as the chairman of Rwanda’s FDN national defense fund to funnel money to militia groups. Kabuga has also been accused of forming the infamous Interahamwe militia that carried out many of the massacres as well as the Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines, which is prominently recognized as having incited many to support the genocide and to commit acts of violence. It is believed that Kabuga supplied “an impressive number of machetes and other weapons to the Interahamwe militia” and may have even directly supervised Interahamwe massacres in Gisenyi, northwestern Rwanda, and in the Kigali district of Kimironko.
Kabuga was arrested in Asnieres-sur-Seine outside of Paris on 16 May in the Hautes-de-Seine department. Originally, Kabuga had requested a trial in France, citing concerns about bias in the United Nations African courts, fears that he would be returned to Rwanda and his failing health. Kabuga attended the hearing with a mask in a wheelchair, and reacted barely as it was read out.
He is supposed to be moved to Arusha for trial within 30 days however, if the current pandemic affects travel, Kabuga is likely to be tried at The Hague in the Netherlands instead. However, his lawyers plan to appeal the ruling to France ‘s highest appeal court, the Court of Cassation, which could further delay the transfer.
The 1994 genocide resulted in an estimated 800,000 people perishing. The end of Kabuga’s more than two-decade-long search, which resulted in his title as the most wanted man in Africa, marks the beginning of closure for one of the tragedy’s most significant outstanding wounds.
