Major Pierre-Claver Karangwa, 62, a Genocide fugitive who masterminded the massacre of the Tutsi at a place called Bibungo bya Mukinga, in the current Kamonyi District 26 years ago, resides in The Netherlands unhindered.
This is noted in the latest media brief by the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) on how the Genocide against the Tutsi was executed in parts of the country on April 24, 1994.
"Major Pierre-Claver Karangwa fled to the Netherlands and he has not been brought to justice," reads the brief.
According to the Commission, on April 24, 1994, a major attack in Mugina killed the Tutsi who had taken refuge there. Some who earlier managed to get inside the church managed to survive until killers ordered them to get out and they were immediately killed.
The killers said that they would not kill women and children and hence decided to take them to Kabgayi.
When they arrived in an area called Bibungo, they met Karangwa, the then head of the National Gendarmerie Investigation Service. He asked the Interahamwe where they were taking them.
"The killers told him that they were taking them to Kabgayi. Major Karangwa prohibited them from doing so and ordered the Tutsi to be killed on the spot. They took them into nearby house of a Tutsi called Moko and others were thrown in the pit latrine alive," reads the CNLG report of events on April 24, 1994.
"Major Karangwa gave them petrol to burn those in the house as well as those in the pit latrine who were all burnt alive".
More about Karangwa
His role in the Genocide against the Tutsi is placed in the first category of perpetrators – he is accused of orchestrating massacres in his home area of Mugina sector, Kamonyi and in Nyamirambo, in Kigali.
The killer of Tutsi who now resides in The Netherlands with impunity, is a senior member of anti-Rwanda militia groups based in DR Congo, sources told The New Times.
He is a commissioner of the FDU-Inkingi and a key member of the South Africa-based fugitive Kayumba Nyamwasa’s P5 coalition.
"P5” operates in DR Congo’s South Kivu province, according to a UN experts’ report released in December 2018.
Karangwa has lived in the Netherlands for 20 years now with his family. He resides in Ermelo in the North of the Netherlands. He is the father of three adult children who also reside and work in the European country.
Karangwa, son of Paulin Ntawemvura and Nyirabujogori Genereuse, is originally from former Kigese Cellule, Kiyonza Sector in Mugina.
From 1992 to 1993, sources say, he was a military intelligence officer in Ex-FAR. In December 1993, he was liaison officer with the UN force, UNAMIR.
In April 1994, was in the gendarmerie, a para-military group that acted as the police force.
According to sources from prosecution, Karangwa is among the fugitives indicted under the Genocide Fugitives Tracking Unit.
Dutch authorities have so far extradited to Rwanda two fugitives; Jean Baptiste Mugimba and Jean Claude Iyamuremye who were both extradited in November 2016. Their respective trials are still ongoing.
Others have been domestically tried by Dutch authorities.
Joseph Mpambara was in 2011 tried and convicted for his role in the Genocide against the Tutsi, which earned him a life sentence.
Another fugitive, Yvonne Basebya, was convicted for the crime of incitement to commit genocide which earned her six and half years of imprisonment.
In March last year, the Dutch police arrested Venant Rutunga, who is wanted on charges related to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.