Fr Munyeshyaka must face the law, CNLG tells France

The National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) has strongly condemned the French prosecutors’ decision to drop charges against Fr Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, arguing that the Rwandan Roman Catholic priest must be brought to account for his documented role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. On Thursday, last week, French prosecutors requested to have Genocide charges against Munyeshyaka dropped, saying there was no concrete evidence that implicate him. But in a statement issued yesterday, CNLG detailed the priest’s crimes during the 1994 Genocide and urged French judges to ignore the prosecutors’ request and commission further investigations where necessary. “We request that French judges ignore the prosecutors’ request. The prosecutors’ decision contradicts the nature and scale of the crimes that Munyeshyaka committed,” said Dr Jean Damascène Bizimana, the executive secretary of CNLG. Munyeshyaka, who has continued his pastoral duties in France for over two decades despite an indictment against him by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), has been heavily implicated in killings in different parts of Kigali, mainly at St Famille Church, where he was the vicar. In the ICTR indictment, Munyeshyaka is accused of genocide, rape as a crime against humanity, conspiracy to genocide, complicity in torture and ill-treatment of Tutsi refugees by depriving them of food and water, delivering Tutsi refugees up to the militia, and forcing Tutsi women to have sexual intercourse with him in exchange for protecting their lives. Besides the indictment by the ICTR, which has referred the case to France, Munyeshyaka was convicted in absentia by a military tribunal in Rwanda where he was a jointly accused in the case that involved the late Maj Gen Laurent Munyakazi. Apart from killing the Tutsi and raping Tutsi girls himself, he was convicted for having delivered hundreds of Tutsi adults and children who had sought refuge at the church to the interahamwe militiamen, who killed them. But, according to French prosecutors who investigated the case, “the investigation did not ultimately allow for the formal corroboration of specific and certain acts of active participation, on the part of the suspect in the acts, either as a direct perpetrator or as an accomplice”. The attitude of the French prosecutors towards the priest’s case shocked CNLG officials, who insist that there is enough evidence to prove that Munyeshyaka committed genocide and crimes against humanity. “Damning testimonies from survivors and Genocide convicts have indicated that Munyeshyaka committed and abated massacres and rapes against Tutsi refugees from Ste Famille Parish and Saint Paul. In this sense, the analysis of the facts shows that there’s enough evidence about the charges for him to stand trial before the court,” CNLG said in a statement yesterday. CNLG officials warned that French prosecutors’ decision to drop charges against Munyeshyaka reinforces the impunity that the priest has enjoyed until now, denying all the charges levelled against him and enjoying the support accorded to him by the Catholic Church and some religious based organisations in France. “The National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) requests that investigating judges do not follow the Paris prosecutor in his indictment of a dismissal for Munyeshyaka, and further requests to override this requisition and requests for a trial to proceed as it was expected,” CNLG added. CNLG officials have also described French prosecutors’ attitude in Munyeshyaka’s case amounted to denial of the Genocide against the Tutsi and called for justice to be done to end impunity for all Genocide masterminds still roaming free on the French soil. France remains one of the main havens for wanted Genocide suspects, and despite the dozens of indictments that have been sent by the Rwanda judiciary, little has been done with only one case being tried – Pascal Simbikangwa, who was sentenced to 25 years. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Fr Munyeshyaka must face the law, CNLG tells France