The man responsible for the deaths of former Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and ten Belgian peacekeepers who were part of her security detail is out of prison. The morning the Genocide began, Uwilingiyimana was the first target and the task to get rid of her was given to Major Bernard Ntuyahaga. But first he had to get rid of the Belgian soldiers who were disarmed and taken to be killed at Camp Kigali. The Prime Minister and her husband were tortured before being killed. After the Genocide, Ntuyahaga went into hiding only to resurface in 1998 when he gave himself up to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Mysteriously, the ICTR released him without pressing any charges. Tanzania arrested Ntuyahaga for being in the country illegally, both Rwanda and Belgium filed for his extradition and a Tanzanian court ruled in favour of the latter. Now he has completed his sentence and is seeking asylum. Denmark, where his family lives, has refused to let him in so he has applied to – of all places – Belgium, and it is considering the application! There is a standing indictment against Ntuyahaga for Genocide committed in both Kigali and Butare. It beats logic that Belgian authorities would think twice on what to do with the man. Taking time to even “study”his request is an insult to the millions of people who died at the hands of a man such as the one the Belgian authorities have just released. Even the ten young peacekeepers must be turning in their graves on the possibility that the man responsible for their horrendous deaths could end up being their families’ neighbor. If Belgium really wants to serve justice, they should extradite him to Rwanda and save themselves the burden of what to do with Ntuyahaga.
