Prosecutor General Richard Muhumuza has appealed to his counterparts around Africa to respect the duty to extradite or prosecute all suspects of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in their countries.

Muhumuza was Wednesday addressing the latest annual General Assembly of the Africa Prosecutors’ Association (APA) in DR Congo capital Kinshasa, that is discussing international cooperation on genocide suspects.

"Our work as prosecutors is made more difficult by the fact that it is increasingly easier for suspected criminals to move from one country to another, with suspects often changing their identities and nationalities,” Muhumuza told the meeting.

"Once a suspect goes to  another country, the country on whose territory the crimes were committed cannot access him unless international cooperation and mutual legal assistance are engaged.”

Twenty years after the Genocide, he said, there should be more cooperation from African countries so as to fight impunity for the most serious international crimes.

Muhumuza’s presentation was titled: "Formal and Informal International Cooperation on Criminal Matters: The Duty to Extradite or Prosecute International Crimes, Rwanda’s Experience.”

He urged the fraternity of African Prosecutors to cooperate with Rwanda’s authorities in arresting and extraditing, to Rwanda, all suspected perpetrators of the Genocide.

The 10-year old APA, Africa’s most influential organisation of prosecuting attorneys, aims to bring closer public prosecution authorities in order to ensure that suspected criminals do not evade justice by crossing borders.

It was established to bring together public prosecution authorities from Africa in the cause of international cooperation and mutual legal assistance.

Addressing more than 300 delegates from 20 African countries on the record of the 1994 Genocide, Muhumuza briefed participants on Rwanda’s judicial reforms which have built the capacity to handle cases of fugitives upon extradition.

He said that the National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) is committed to tracking, locating and securing the extradition of all Rwandan fugitives at large, including those living in African countries.

Rwanda has so far sent 244 international arrest warrants, indictments and extradition requests to 30 countries worldwide. Some 106 of them were transmitted to African countries, including Uganda, DR Congo, Tanzania, Zambia, Kenya, Gabon, Congo Brazzaville, South Africa, Central African Republic, Swaziland, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Zimbabwe. However, only Uganda has extradited two suspects to Rwanda so far.

North American and European countries, including Canada, US, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, also, either extradited or deported suspects. Germany, France, Finland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Belgium have tried Genocide cases in their own courts.

 "We are hopeful that our African brothers and sisters will heed our call and extradite suspects to Rwanda for prosecution,” Muhumuza said.

ICTR’s high profile fugitives

As the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) winds down its work, it still has nine high profile fugitives at large.

Upon arrest, three of them would be tried by the Mechanism for International Tribunals, a residual institution set to continue the work of the ICTR and its sister court, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The nine fugitives; Felicien Kabuga, Augustin Bizimana, Protais Mpiranya, Fulgence Kayishema, Charles Sikubwabo, Ladislas Ntaganzwa, Pheneas Munyarugarama, Aloys Ndimbati and another only known as Ryandikayo are subject of a US Department of State reward of up to $5 million for information leading to their arrest. It is suspected that the majority of the suspects currently live in African countries.