Genocide suspect faces deportation from Canada

Reports from Canada indicate that following a ruling this month, a court found that Jean Leonard Teganya, a Genocide suspect, could be deported to Rwanda. Teganya was an intern at Butare University Hospital in April, 1994, where militia killed nearly 200 Tutsi patients and staff at the hospital.

Thursday, March 31, 2011
Martin Ngoga

Reports from Canada indicate that following a ruling this month, a court found that Jean Leonard Teganya, a Genocide suspect, could be deported to Rwanda.

Teganya was an intern at Butare University Hospital in April, 1994, where militia killed nearly 200 Tutsi patients and staff at the hospital.

When contacted yesterday, Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga said it was a positive step.

"Much as it is a matter still within Canadian jurisdiction, and subject to further appeal, it is a positive step in our collective endeavor as a community of nations to deal with every detail that would help bring perpetrators of Genocide to justice and deny them safe haven anywhere in the world,” Ngoga said.

Agnes Murekatete, a Genocide survivor, said that it is unfair that suspects like Teganya remain at large.

"I just feel that life is so unfair. Many of those who made me and others orphans, many of those who killed our relatives in cold blood are sheltered all over the world.

"I have no option but to forgive, yet the continued genocide denial fills me with sorrow. And they are all out there, everywhere, she said”

At the University Hospital, in 1994, it was reported that nurses compiled lists of patients and staff to be killed, while doctors refused to treat Tutsi patients or kicked them out of the hospital where the Interahamwe militiamen were waiting.

Teganya’s father was a regional leader of the extremist Mouvement Révolutionaire National pour le Développement (MRND) party.

In 2002, Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board asked Teganya why he wasn’t killed at the hospital, and whether that meant militiamen identified him as someone sympathetic to their cause.

Ends