The UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has pledged to liaise with his country’s Metropolitan Police on the question of five Rwandan genocide fugitives living in his country. Sixteen years have passed with a decision still pending on the extradition of five Rwandan genocide suspects – Dr Vincent Bajinya, Célestin Ugirashebuja, Charles Munyaneza, Emmanuel Nteziryayo and Célestin Mutabaruka – in the UK. For all these years, these suspects were neither extradited to Rwanda nor put to trial before British courts. Responding to a related question by The New Times during a press briefing in Kigali on Friday, June 24, Johnson acknowledged the fact that justice delayed is justice denied. The UK Prime Minister was in Kigali attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). “I went to the Genocide Memorial the other day. No one can go (there) without being harrowed by what happened here in Rwanda (during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi) and I understand people’s feelings,” he said. During his stay in Rwanda, Johnson took time to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. “What I said to President Kagame yesterday (Thursday, June 23) is; I would do everything I can to try to expedite this. It’s in the hands of the Metropolitan Police. I can’t intervene directly. But I will certainly be liaising with them.” Reminded that Genocide is a crime against humanity, Johnson said: “I do completely agree and that’s why I said what I said to you and President Kagame.” “If we can do anything more to bring genocidaires to justice then we will certainly do that.” Johnson said the Metropolitan Police is set to have a new head soon – but did not clarify when – after Dame Cressida Rose Dick who served as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2017 to 2022 was recently forced to leave office. In February, Dick announced she would leave office after losing the confidence of Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, reportedly over her response to racism and misogyny in the force. Dick left office on April 10. Activists and survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda earlier urged leaders arriving in Kigali for CHOGM to help arrest all suspected perpetrators of the genocide hiding in their countries. Egide Mutabazi, a genocide survivor from Ngoma District, said it’s a shame for UK to still harbour the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide. “It’s unbelievable that the UK cant neither try them nor transfer them [to Rwanda] for justice. Justice delayed is a justice denied.” Earlier this month, Conservative Party MP, Andrew Mitchell, a member of the British House of Commons reiterated the call to his government to arrest and extradite or try the men who continue to live in the UK despite indictments issued against them 16 years ago. In April, Rwanda’s High Commissioner to the UK, Johnston Busingye, called on the country’s government to invest more efforts in bringing to court Genocide fugitives who are at large. According to Ibuka, the umbrella body of Genocide survivors, justice is not served when the fugitives die before they have their day in court to answer for what they did.
