The National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), has implored Dutch authorities to bring to book a genocide mastermind currently living freely in the European country.

Charles Ndereyehe Ntahontuye is a founding member of CDR – an extremist political organization – and was part of the elite group that was at the help of genocide preparation and execution, according to a statement from the Commission.

In 1992, along with extremist intellectuals, including Ferdinand Nahimana, Dr. Eugene Rwamucyo, Dr. Jean-Berchmas Nshimyumuremyi and others, Ndereyehe created and led a criminal group called the Cercle des Républicains Progressistes, which sensitized university students to prepare for genocide.

During the Genocide, Ndereyehe was the Director General of the agriculture research institute, ISAR, which was at the time affiliated to the former National University of Rwanda.

"Upon his appointment at ISAR in 1993 as Director General of this institute, Ndereyehe drew up a plan to exterminate the families of Tutsi employees under his authority and that of the Tutsi population around,” reads part of the statement.

At the onset, he set up a committee of killers in Rubona (Huye District) as well as in its seven branches scattered throughout the country.

Ndereyehe fired or transferred non-extremist employees and retained in senior management only those who shared his anti-Tutsi extremism and who agreed to commit genocide, according to testimonies.

The fugitive is also known to have worked in cohorts with convicted genocidaire, Captain ldelphonse Nizeyimana, to organise trainings for militiamen on weapons handling at the former military school, (ESSO) in Butare.

Nizeyimana is serving a 35-year prison sentence after he was convicted of genocide crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

In April 1994, Ndereyehe conducted various genocide preparation meetings at ISAR offices, setting up an effective plan of extermination to leave no Tutsi survivors in ISAR and its surroundings, according to the CNLG communiqué signed by the executive secretary, Jean Damascene Bizimana.

"Ndereyehe's criminal example of incitement to genocide went beyond the limits of ISAR Rubona. His commitment was cited as a model in meetings organized by the Government to incite the population to involve in the genocide,” it states.

Carrying on a genocide agenda

After the Genocide, Ndereyehe left Rwanda for Democratic Republic of Congo and was among the founders of an extremist political-military movement, RDR, grounded on the ideology of genocide.

Ndereyehe currently lives in the Netherlands and is one of the leaders of the FDU-Inkingi, an unregistered political party with proven links to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

In numerous press releases of the FDU-Inkingi that he publishes, Ndereyehe fiercely denies the genocide committed against the Tutsi, preaches genocide denial and attacks the memory of this genocide by calling it a "business fund”.

In the Netherlands, Ndereyehe coordinates the activities of other extremist groups of radical Rwandan exiles, nostalgic for an ethnic ideology that led to the genocide committed against the Tutsi in 1994.

Among these groups are the FEDERMO (Federation of Rwandan Organizations in the Netherlands), CARP (Collective of Rwandan Associations in the Netherlands), RIFDP-NL (International Network of Women for Democracy and Peace), DEN HAAG, Pro Justitia, FFDR (Foundation for Freedom and Democracy in Rwanda).

Since 20 April 2010, Ndereyehe has been subject to an international arrest warrant issued by the Rwandan courts.

He is also on the list of people wanted by Interpol. However, this does not prevent him from quietly continuing his criminal propaganda activities in Europe and elsewhere, which he leads with other groups with shared vision including RNC, FDLR and FDU-INKINGI.

 Call for extradition or try

The commission has called for the Dutch government to either try to extradite Ndereyehe, who was tried and convicted in absentia by Gacaca courts.

He can seek retrial, should he be extradited.

The Netherlands has already extradited to Rwanda two fugitives; Jean Claude Iyamuremye and Jean Baptiste Mugimba who were brought in November 2016 and their trials are going on at the Specialised Chamber for international crimes at High Court.

Dutch courts have also already tried different genocide suspects, including Joseph Mpambara who, in July 2011, was sentenced to life for crimes he committed in Mugonero, in Western Rwanda, during the genocide.

Another suspect, Yvonne Basebya Ntacyobatabara was tried in the European country and sentenced to 6 years and 8 months following her conviction for crimes committed in Gikondo, a Kigali city suburb, during the Genocide.