Genocide instigator Felicien Kabuga’s 26-year escape story ends in Paris



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In January 2003, US special agent Scott Gallo was preparing to end his operation in Kenya, but for 24 hours he had not been able to hear the Kenyan informant, who would have unblocked the operation he had initiated. A 27-year-old whistleblower named William Munuhe went to the US embassy in Nairobi a few weeks ago, with the effect of the $ 5 million award, and said he could provide information on Africa’s most wanted man.

Rwandan entrepreneur Felicien Kabuga was wanted on suspicion of organizing and financing the Rwandan genocide in 1994, in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by extremist Hutus known as Interahamwe in about 100 days. Munuhe had seen Kabuga and had also worked with him and helped Kenyan authorities find safe homes for Kabuga.

Scott Gallo and his team’s plan was simple. With the promise of the delivery of money, Munuhe would invite Kabuga to his home. When Kabuga arrived, the operation would begin with Munuhe’s signal, and Kabuga Kikvrak, who had committed a crime against humanity and searched for years, would be captured. However, after nearly two days, there was no sound from the house. It was necessary to watch what was happening inside.

A Kenyan policeman went upstairs of the two-story house, forced open the balcony door and managed to enter the house. The excited wait did not last long, as the police came out the front door after a short time and brought in Gallus and his crew.

Gallo recalled the situation at home: “When you entered the living room, on the table there were photos of him and his girlfriend, of his family. The group went upstairs, the policeman opened the bedroom door. Munuhe was lying face down on the bed: “It was as if all his blood spilled from his body onto the bed and then into the bed and flowed to the floor. There was so much blood that it was already forming a lake up to the door. “

KENANS SAID ‘SUICIDE’

Munuhe’s arms and legs were swollen and her wrists and ankles were squeezed. It must have been tied by his hands and arms. Kenyan forensic experts have identified carbon dioxide poisoning as a cause of death. The fireplace in the room was in front of the blood.

An autopsy on Munuhe as part of the trial carried out by US prosecutor for war crimes Pierre-Richard Prosper on behalf of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Another coin-sized hole was detected. US officials were sure it was an execution, but Kabuga was already a bird and flying.

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In 2003, when this accident occurred, he was 70 years old and had health problems at the time. How did Kabuga escape an operation on behalf of a case that the UN has fed with enormous resources? Who was he protecting? How long did you stay in Kenya and where did you go? The story of Kabuga is a story that shows how weak the international judicial system is at times and how rich and powerful criminals lose track even if they have committed crimes against humanity.

Kabuga was captured 17 years later, in a quiet suburb of Paris, on May 16, 2020. Kabuga was captured in the apartment, where he lived with a false identity at the age of 84, with the operation of agents from nine countries different.

IT WAS TREATED IN GERMANY!

The International Criminal Court has accused Kabuga, 84, of genocide and crimes against humanity. When Kabuga was captured, Interpol was looking for him with more than two dozen aliases and fake passports. A passport from the Democratic Republic of the Congo was printed in Paris. He had a Tanzanian passport when he was treated in Frankfurt, Germany 13 years ago.

The Rwandan genocide, which targeted Tutsis and killed 800,000 people in 100 days, and those who lost their lives in the clashes were thrown into mass graves. Photo: Reuters

In their statements to the Financial Times, investigators told the Financial Times that the seized passports were authentic and that many African countries, particularly Kenya, gave Kabuga some sort of opportunity with their sloppy searches.

Kabuga denied all charges against him. When he went to court in France after being caught he looked pretty weak and was speaking through an interpreter. At times he seemed to lose the ability to think. But a DNA match confirmed that he was the wanted man allegedly helping to finance, plan and organize the bloody genocide in 1994, in which 800,000 people were killed in 100 days. That man who has crossed international borders over and over again for 26 years and managed to escape all calls is Felicien Kabuga.

Kabuga’s role in the genocide

Kabuga; He was the founder and financier of the radio television channel RTLM (Radio Television Libre des Milles Collines), which provoked the Hutus against the Tutsis and called for massacre. Broadcast from July 1993 to July 1994, RTLM provoked audiences with hate speech. During the 100 days of the genocide, RTLM called for massacres and also divulged name by name of the Tutsis and reported the location of those in hiding.

In 1997, Felicien Kabuga was investigated on seven different charges related to genocide: genocide, complicity in genocide, incitement to commit genocide directly and by provoking the public, attempted genocide, genocide planning, persecution and extermination.

According to the racial discrimination policy initiated by Belgium during the time when Rwanda was exploited, the Tutsis, with a population of around 10% in the country, obtained privileges, received better education, got rich, were appointed to critical positions and they ruled the country. Belgium’s policy of discrimination turned to support the Hutus in the 1950s, and the problem became inevitable when Rwanda gained independence in 1962.

After the Tutsi-Hutu conflict that began in 1959, when the Hutu government came to power in 1962, 100 thousand Tutsis left the country. As the anti-Tutsi movement gradually reached its peak in the 1990s, the Patriotic Union of Rwanda, made up of Tutsis who left their camps in neighboring Uganda and wanted to return to their country, began an armed struggle and civil war dominated. the country between 1990 and 1992.

Wholehamwe was preparing for the response and the government turned a blind eye. While RTLM’s hate messages were on the scene, the shooting down of President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane was the last straw. When Habyarimana died on April 6, 1994, when her plane was shot down, open announcements of massacres began on the radio and 100 days of horror began. More than 800,000 people lost their lives in the period when the United Nations was almost watching and the attitude of the US and France has been questioned for years, especially France. In addition to the Tutsis, moderate Hutus were also killed, including Agathe Uwilingiyimana, the country’s first and only female prime minister.

After the start of the genocide, the Patriotic Union of Rwanda, which entered from the east of the country, captured the entire eastern part of the country until the end of April and the capital in May and moved west. While the government forces were defeated on July 4th, the genocide was completely stopped on July 18th. Kabuga, like many criminals, fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which was then called Zaire.

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WE KNOW THE NAME THAT CATCHED KABUGA

The name that captured Kabuga is the well-known name of the international crime scene, the Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz. Brammertz, head of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, managed to capture war criminals Radovan Karadzic (captured in 2008) and Ratko Mladic (captured in 2011), involved in the genocide of the Bosnian war. Appointed for the Rwanda case in 2016, Brammertz stepped up the investigation and in early 2020, British police managed to track down one of Kabuga’s daughters. It became known that the girl was traveling to Belgium.

The surviving Batutsi were also struggling with diseases in the fields in the regions liberated by the Patriotic Union of Rwanda. Photo: Reuters

Eric Emeraux, the team leader of Fight Against Humanity, Genocide and War Crimes in France, said that at the time, he felt the chase was becoming flesh and blood and nearing its end. Emeraux also said that in 2019 they determined that seven members of Kabuga’s family lived in and around Paris by analyzing cell phone signals. Family members traveled regularly to the UK and Belgium. After a year of stalking, the police finally found an apartment. While restrictions and curfews imposed due to the Corona virus have also trapped the family and Kabuga, Kabuga was captured after a 26-year fling with the May 16 raid.

Brammertz is aware of how important it is for survivors and victims to capture Kabuga. But there are many other fugitives involved in the Rwandan genocide ahead of him and his team.

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