The last two men, out of 93 people indicted by the now defunct United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for crimes committed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, have been confirmed dead, the chief UN prosecutor has said.
Until recently, Charles Sikubwabo and Charles Ryandikayo were believed to be on the run for their role in the Genocide against the Tutsi, which claimed more than one million lives. Each of one them had a $5 million bounty on their head, according to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), which took over ICTR's mandate.
The Office of the Prosecutor "has concluded that the last two fugitives – [Charles] Ryandikayo and Charles Sikubwabo – are deceased,” the IRMCT said in a statement on Wednesday, May 15.
ALSO READ: Who are the three ICTR-indicted genocide fugitives still at large?
The IRMCT said that the confirmation of Sikubwabo and Ryandikayo’s deaths meant that all ICTR fugitives are now "successfully accounted for.”
More than 1,000 Genocide fugitives indicted by the Rwandan prosecution are still at large.
The announcement about Sikubwabo and Ryandikayo comes barely seven months after the UN prosecution confirmed the death of Aloys Ndimbati, another Genocide suspect and former governor of Kibungo Prefecture, who died in DR Congo (former Zaire) in 1997, according to the IRMCT.
Charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity, Sikubwabo, Ryandikayo, and Ndimbati hailed from Kibuye Prefecture, in current-day Western Province, where they committed the alleged crimes.
ALSO READ: The former Rwandan Armed Forces' central role in preparation of 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi
Charles Sikubwabo
Born in 1948, Sikubwabo, a former soldier in the genocidal regime’s army who was mayor of Gishyita commune in Kibuye Prefecture during the genocide, was accused of playing a key role in the killing of the Tutsi who fled to Mugonero complex which consisted of several buildings including a church, an infirmary, and a hospital.
A former member of the extremist MDR party, Sikubwabo fled to DR Congo in July 1994 and later to the Central African Republic before arriving in Chad in late 1997. Sikubwabo died in Chadian capital N’djamena in 1998, the IRMCT said.
ALSO READ: Where are the 1,100 Genocide fugitives?
Charles Ryandikayo
Ryandikayo was a businessman in Mubuga Sector, Gishyita commune in Kibuye Prefecture.
According to his indictment, Ryandikayo was accused of instigating massacres of thousands of people in the Bisesero area of western Rwanda and participating in Interahamwe militia attacks on Murangara Adventist Church and Mubuga Catholic Church in which the Tutsi had sheltered in in 1994.
In July 1994, Ryandikayo fled to DR Congo, and later to the neighbouring Republic of Congo, before being recruited in the genocidal militia that later became FDLR.
The UN prosecutor’s office concluded that Ryandikayo died in 1998 in DR Congo’s capital Kinshasa, "most likely due to illness.”
ALSO READ: Genocide fugitive Kayishema re-arrested, to be transfered to Arusha
Two genocide suspects, Felicien Kabuga and Fulgence Kayishema were arrested in May 2020 and May 2023, respectively.
Citing the arrest of Kabuga, a nonagenarian businessman known for founding the notorious ‘hate radio’ RTLM, the IRMCT Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz said that in its three-decade work of tracking and arresting genocide fugitives, the UN tribunal had faced "political unwillingness of countries.”
ALSO READ: Kabuga was fully in charge of RTLM editorial line– witness
"[Even] as we mark the conclusion of the search for the last ICTR fugitives,” Brammertz noted, "it is critical to remind ourselves that there are still more than 1,000 fugitive génocidaires who are sought by national authorities.”
ALSO READ: UN prosecutor visits Nyange massacre grounds, interacts with Genocide survivors
"Locating them will be a challenge, as it was for the ICTR and ICTY. At the request of national partners, including the Prosecutor General of Rwanda, my Office will continue to provide essential assistance to their efforts to bring these individuals to justice,” Brammertz said.
"While we should be satisfied that there are no more ICTR fugitives, this work cannot stop until all perpetrators of crimes during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda have been brought to justice.”