KIGALI - At least 670 Burundians have been identified as having played a direct role in the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda, according to prosecution.

The development emerges following an appeal by IBUKA, the Genocide survivors’ umbrella organisation, to apprehend these Burundians.

"We have finished identifying these people and the list we have consists of at least 670 Burundians...we have even identified tentative locations of some of them,” the Deputy Prosecutor General, Alphonse Hitiyaremye, announced on Monday.

He said that most of these suspects are said to be in the provinces of Ngozi, Cibitoki and Bujumbura.

"We shall soon start talks with our Burundian counterparts to see how these cases will be handled and where they will be tried,” Hitiyaremye said.

According to IBUKA, Burundians participated in the mass murder of Tutsis especially in the Eastern and Southern Provinces.

The call for their arrest and prosecution was first made by IBUKA president Theodore Simburudari during the closure of the Genocide commemoration week in April.

The Burundians who allegedly participated in these killings were mainly refugees who had fled their country following the assassination of Burundian President Melchior Ndadaye.

On MFI defaulters’ cases

Meanwhile, Hitiyaremye said that cases against former managers of the now defunct Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) have increased, saying that some have been completed and are awaiting verdicts to be pronounced.

Prosecution in April this year embarked on a major crackdown on managers of over 10 MFIs who are accused of mismanaging billions of depositors’ money which led to their subsequent closure in 2006.

"Trials for most of these people have been completed and we are waiting for verdicts, while others whose investigations were complex will be tried soon,” he said.

He said that these managers, some of whom are in detention, have started paying back the money they embezzled.

"We have managed to recover Frw143 million from them but this is little compared to what was lost…it only constitutes about 7.5 percent of the total amount,” he said.

An operation of tracking down people who illegally acquired loans from MFIs and defaulted is also about to start. 

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