This news puts a different spin to the Kenyan crisis. Genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga has been in hiding in Western Kenya, the last time i heard. He is also reportedly ill and many times confined to his home ( allegedly near a hospital in one of the provinces). More specifically information available to me was that he held out in or around Nakaru or within the remote district of Marsabit. Despite the fact that he has been at large, Kenyan security under Arap Moi created a network to protect him. Many organisations including the US government have urged the Kenyan authorities to arrest Kabuga and hand him over. Lives have been lost in the hunt for him because of a corrupt Kenyan system. Hopefully this man can stand trial before he expires as a reminder for those whose ambitions are above human life and dignity- in his case the blood of thousands.
In recent years the hunt for Kabuga has cooled down. I guess he still has support in sections of Rwandan society who believed the genocide was an act of self defense. A trial will however be a huge victory for the Rwandans and the world that extreme agendas will not go unpunished. As Kenya remodels, hopefully Kabuga will find himself before a court.
From the New Times of Rwanda.
The head of International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) said on Thursday that his office is highly optimistic that Félicien Kabuga will be arrested before the department’s mandate closes at the end of this year.
The Chief Prosecutor, Bubacar Jallow, emerging from a meeting with Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga in Kimuhurura, Kigali on January 31, told journalists that there is new information on Kabuga.
Kabuga is charged with financing the 1994 Genocide. There is a US$5m bounty on Kabuga’s head placed by the US State Department but he has managed to elude arrest for over ten years.
The ICT, which has been trying suspects linked to the 1994 Genocide in Arusha, Tanzania, is set to complete its work by December 2008.
Utmost efforts are being made to bring the most sought-after fugitives like Kabuga, to justice before the end of the year. Jallow said the tribunal had renewed its appeal to all UN member states to help track down and arrest Kabuga and other fugitives still at large.
Kabuga’s Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (Thousand Hills Independent Radio and Television) called for the mass murder of Tutsis and others.
He is a wealthy businessman believed to have vast interests in Africa, including transport, real estate, hotels and farming.
Kabuga is also charged with supplying machetes, hoes and other weapons used by Interahamwe mobs. Last year, ICTR officers quizzed a Kenyan heart specialist, Dr Gerald Yonga, whom they suspected of having treated Kabuga in his clinic at Hurlingham in Nairobi between 2001 and 2003.
In 2005, an ICTR official said the tracking team was closing in on Kabuga when leaks from the police compromised their work.
Born in 1935, the fugitive has used the names Idriss Sudi, Faracean Kabuga, Abachev Straton, Anathase Munyaruga, and Oliver Rukundakuvuga.
Justice Jallow held discussions with justice Minister, Tharcisse Karugarama, and Attorney General Tharcisse Karugarama at the Minister’s office in Kimuhurura on Thursday. Although details of the discussions were not revealed, sources told The Sunday Times that they involved the transfer of Genocide fugitives from Tanzania to Rwanda.
Security Council Ngoga reports that the government had asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to request that the Security Council take charge of hunting down Genocide suspects when the ICTR ends its term.
Ban Ki-Moon had said early this week that he supports Rwanda’s bid to receive and try Genocide suspects from the Arusha based ICTR.
“I support the efforts by the Rwandan government in preparation for these suspects for instance the improvement of detention facilities and the judicial reforms the country has undergone,” Ki-moon said.
