[EDITORIAL] All those convicted in absentia by Gacaca should be flagged

A Canadian court has ordered the deportation of a man of Rwandan origin because it had sufficient reasons to believe that he had taken part in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. But Jean-Claude Seyoboka would not have been shaken but for two things; when he applied for asylum in Canada in 1996, he deliberately failed to mention that he had been a member of the Rwanda armed forces that carried out the Genocide. The other reason that possibly caught the attention of Canadian authorities was that Seyoboka had been found guilty in absentia by a Gacaca court in Rwanda and had been sentenced to serve 19 years in jail. Even with his conviction by Gacaca, he had never featured in the Genocide files the Rwanda Public Prosecution Agency (RPPA) sent to Interpol for a worldwide manhunt. He was not on the Interpol Red Notice. RPPA should not just focus on the 300 or so architects and executioners of the Genocide, or the so-called “prominent” people. It should also not be discouraged that the arrest warrants it sent have been largely ignored by many countries. It must instead widen its net to include all those who were convicted by Gacaca in absentia but are on the run. This would help put them on the radar of the respective countries that host them. It could be a tough call as many live under assumed identities, and twenty years later, appearances have changed significantly which makes tracking and identifying them a tall order. But that should not be reason for not hunting down and publicising all those convicted by Gacaca, if they are not arrested and brought to book, at least they will forever live looking over their shoulders in fear that their past crimes will catch up on them.

Opinions

[EDITORIAL] All those convicted in absentia by Gacaca should be flagged