FOR ANYONE conversant with Rwanda’s history, the name Col. Laurent Serubuga has a familiar but sinister tinge to it. He was the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Rwandan army (Ex-FAR) for many years (President Juvénal Habyarimana was the de-facto Chief of Staff). Serubuga’s war crimes date as far as 1990 when hundreds were massacred in Kibungo and Byumba, and on the night of October 5, 1990 orchestrated a simulated attack by the then RPF rebels in Kigali that led to the roundup of thousands of Tutsis.
FOR ANYONE conversant with Rwanda’s history, the name Col. Laurent Serubuga has a familiar but sinister tinge to it.
He was the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Rwandan army (Ex-FAR) for many years (President Juvénal Habyarimana was the de-facto Chief of Staff).
Serubuga’s war crimes date as far as 1990 when hundreds were massacred in Kibungo and Byumba, and on the night of October 5, 1990 orchestrated a simulated attack by the then RPF rebels in Kigali that led to the roundup of thousands of Tutsis.
He has been on Rwanda’s "Most Wanted” list for his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi for close to two decades, but lived in relevant ease in France until his recent theatrical arrest and semblance of trial by French authorities and subsequent acquittal.
Serubuga’s case takes one to familiar territory as far as Genocide suspects are treated in France, home to thousands of fugitives who live with impunity in the land of liberté, égalité, fraternité.
If someone like Serubuga, whose credentials overshadow the likes of Goebbel during the Nazi Holocaust can walk scot free in countries that claim to be the scions of freedom, what else can surprise?
Genocide survivors have learnt to live with the fact that there is nothing to expect from France’s judicial masquerade – or lack of it – and have taken it into their stride. Their only consolation is that Rwanda will never renounce its hunt for perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.