French rights group, local partner in renewed efforts to bring Genocide suspects to book

France-based Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR) working to see Genocide suspects living in France brought to book is optimistic that its new Rwandan partner will go a long way in helping carry on with its protracted crusade against Genocide fugitives. The group on Monday launched a new Rwanda-based nongovernmental organisation, “Les Amis du CPCR,” (ACPCR) (Friends of CPCR, in Kigali). “More than 100 people responded to the invitation of the ACPR launch last night. The task at hand now is to concretise the donations to help the CPCR fund trials in France,” said Alain Gauthier, the CPCR President. The objective of the new NGO is to morally and financially support the CPCR in court cases against people living in France and suspected of involvement in the Genocide against the Tutsi. The CPCR has so far filed 28 complaints with the investigating judges of the “pôle crimes contre l’humanité” established in January 2012 in the Tribunal de Grande Instance (TGI) of Paris to investigate cases of Rwandans implicated in the Genocide. According to Gauthier, in less than a month’s time, the CPCR expects the commencement of the trial involving Octavian Ngenzi Tito Barahira, two former bourgmestres (mayors) of the former Kabarondo commune now (Kayonza District) between 1977 and 1994. The duo is accused of actively participating in the killings of Tutsi refugees hiding in Kabarondo Catholic Church in April 1994. Ngenzi and Barahira’s trial will be heard before Paris’ Cour d’assises from May 10 to July 1. Ngenzi is particularly accused of supervising the killing of over 1,200 people in the church. Before his arrest in April, 2013, Barahira disguised himself by changing his name to Barahirwa. Like Simbikangwa, Ngenzi was arrested in Mayotte islands in 2010. In 2013, Barahira was arrested in Toulouse, a city in southwestern France. Gauthier said: “We still do not have the sum necessary to pay our lawyers. This trial will last two months and will be followed by, at year-end, the appeal trial of Simbikangwa.” In March 2014, French prosecutors sought a life sentence for Pascal Simbikangwa – intelligence chief of the genocidal regime that planned the massacre of an estimated one million people – at the conclusion of his trial, the first of its kind in France. Simbikangwa’s trial started on February 4, 2014. He was arrested in 2008 on France’s Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, where he lived disguised under an assumed name, Safari. He was handed a 25-year prison sentence for genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity but he appealed. The appeal hearing is set for October 25 to December 9 at the Cour d’assises de Bobigny, in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. France is home to several Genocide fugitives, including Agathe Kanziga, widow of former President Juvénal Habyarimana; Sosthène Munyemana, nicknamed “the butcher of Tumba”; and Dr Eugène Rwamucyo, suspected of involvement in the Genocide in southern Rwanda. Jean-Damascène Bizimana, the executive secretary of the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), was at the launch of the ACPCR and, he thinks the new NGO will especially help make Rwandans in the country more active in “playing a role in the justice activities taking place in France.” Bizimana told The New Times that only witnesses from Rwanda have been involved but the new organisation would, among others, mobilise Rwandans to participate and better understand the nature of the legal setbacks involving the Genocide trials in France. Bizimana said: “This is a big step. And then, there will also be the very important aspect of mobilising financial support to the CPCR too. Lawyers are expensive and you know, the one who sues is the one who has to pay for the lawyers.” Bizimana explained that being a governmental organisation, the CNLG does not, and cannot provide any financial support to NGOs. Last week, Gauthier admitted that “the primary emergency” is financial support. Former lawmaker and cabinet minister, Dr. Ezéchias Rwabuhihi, is heading the ACPCR. The other 12 ACPCR founder members include vice president Francois Sebatasi, a retired economist formerly based in Belgium; Gasana Ndoba, the first president of the National Human Rights Commission; and Ignace Beraho, former head of what was previously known as the National Tender Board (NTB). editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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French rights group, local partner in renewed efforts to bring Genocide suspects to book