Genocide fugitives use stolen passports – Interpol

KAMPALA - Interpol has said that some of the key wanted 1994 Genocide fugitives still at large could be using lost passports to elude capture.

Friday, November 02, 2007
WEu2019RE ON TRACK: Noble.

KAMPALA - Interpol has said that some of the key wanted 1994 Genocide fugitives still at large could be using lost passports to elude capture.

The International Police (Interpol) estimate that over seven million passports have been stolen from 129 countries.

The organisation, which has intensified the hunt for Genocide suspects, believes some of those stolen passports are in the hands of top Genocide fugitives and other wanted criminals.

Interpol’s Secretary General Ronald K. Noble who addressed reporters in Kampala, Uganda this week said that scores of Genocide fugitives have continuously eluded capture because they use stolen travel documents.

Noble said the sought-after passports would be verified using Mind-and-Find technology.

The Interpol had issued red notices for the apprehension of alleged 1994 Genocide masterminds to various governments around the world. Since June, Interpol has led to the arrest of three Genocide fugitives in France.

"We have given all the necessary information about wanted suspects to individual countries, and we hope national police forces will act accordingly,” he said during joint press conference with Uganda’s Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura.

Kayihura said: "We know terrorists with stolen travel documents can move faster and easily.”

Some Genocide suspects have adopted new names and are in possession of other countries’ passports.

For instance, Isaac Kamali, who was arrested in June after Interpol blocked him from entering the US, was found in possession of a French passport.

Dr Vincent Bajinya, who was arrested along three other Genocide suspects in London last December, had changed his name to Dr Vincent Brown and was in possession of a British passport.

Another Genocide suspect, Charles Munyaneza – who was arrested in the same group – had named himself Charles Muneza, to disguise his identity.

And scores of others are believed to have changed their names, obtained foreign passports, and learnt new languages to cover up their connection to the slaughters that claimed at least one million people.

Meanwhile, RNA reported yesterday that French campaigners along with Genocide survivors have submitted another set of charges pinning detained suspect Dominique Ntawukuriryayo.

Ntawukuriryayo was arrested on October 16 in France after concerted efforts between Interpol and French authorities.

Like many key Genocide suspects, he was a subject of an Interpol Red Notice.

The hearing of his extradition (on request of the Arusha-based ICTR) case is due next Wednesday before a Paris court.

Quoting the head of the umbrella organisation of civil parties campaigning for Genocide justice in France (CPCR), Alain Gauthier, the agency said that 27 Rwandans had compiled the latest charges.

The fresh accusations handed in on Tuesday are an addition to three charges levelled against the man, Gauthier said.

All these charges were submitted to the head of the judges of instruction of the Paris Grand Instance Tribunal Ms. Pous, who is already in charge of other dossiers concerning the Tutsi Genocide in Rwanda, he said.

He said the dossier now comprises charges filed in 2006 at Carcassonne, France but which the court there declared its incompetence.

The prosecuting judge ruled that the address that CPCR claimed was the hiding place for Ntawukuriryayo turned out to be false.

The organisation has already protested to the fact that the same address is where the fugitive was arrested last month. CPCR described the actions of the Carcassonne judicial and police officials as dysfunctional and negligent.

Interpol and French police arrested Ntawukuriryayo on a 2005 indictment from the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and is awaiting a judicial decision this month that could result in his transfer to the Tanzania-based court.

Ntawukuriryayo is accused of massacres of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the Genocide in southern Rwanda where he was senior official.

He is accused of coordinating the massacre of up to 25,000 people in one incident.

The 12-page UN indictment holds him responsible for Genocide, complicity to Genocide and direct and public incitement to commit Genocide.

As sub-prefect of Gisagara - in Butare (now in the Southern Province), the court says he controlled an area with a large Tutsi population and where the massacres were particularly brutal.

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