As people who survived the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, at Gatagara gathered at the Centre, last week, to commemorate their colleagues, an appeal was made to apprehend the man believed to be the mastermind behind the killings in the area.

Most of the atrocities took place at the Brothers of Charity centre for the physically handicapped, and one of the monks who worked at the Centre was identified by the survivors as the individual primarily responsible for the murder of thousands of Tutsi at Gatagara.

According to the survivors’ accounts, Jean Baptiste Rutihunza, who was the legal representative of the Centre, at the time of the Genocide, is currently employed at the Order’s headquarters in Rome as a receptionist.

It simply boggles the mind that his employers did not carry out a background check on the person they hired, prior to offering him the job that appears to have given him the sanctuary that has helped him elude justice for the last 17 years.

Other clergy especially from the Catholic Church have been rewarded with lucrative jobs especially in European cities notwithstanding their role in the Genocide that left over a million Tutsis dead.

A case in point is Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, whose role in the killing of thousands of Tutsis at St Famille Church is well documented and was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Indeed, Munyeshaka has already been tried in absentia by a Rwandan court, but is still at large and has remained in active service with the church in France.

The church should take the initiative to help expose these characters that have for years, eluded justice, to the detriment of the survivors.

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