KIGALI – Kigali administration has accused Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo of hosting the largest number of fugitives wanted in Rwanda for their role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
The accusations are contained in Rwanda’s National Public Prosecution Authority.
Rwanda claims that DR Congo is home to 372 while Uganda hosts 260 fugitives.
The authority also alleges that Malawi is also home to 47 Genocide fugitives.
Other regional countries with a high number of Genocide fugitives, the prosecution says, include Tanzania, 37, Kenya, 30, and Congo-Brazzaville, which hosts 16 indicted suspects.
The US hosts 23 indicted Genocide suspects, while The Netherlands has 15 on its territory.
The document adds that a total of 19 fugitives were returned to Rwanda, through extradition or deportation, by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Uganda, US, Canada, The Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway.
NPPA says that 22 suspects were tried abroad, resulting in 21 convictions. Belgium tried eight suspects, France three, Canada two, Sweden three, The Netherlands two, while Switzerland, Norway, Finland, and Germany tried one each.
Rwanda has now called on countries with any sort of reservations on any indictment or those that choose to try the suspects themselves to carry out their own investigations in Rwanda.
Uganda and Rwanda have deep historical links going back decades with citizens on either side of the border sharing family ties, friendships; comradeship and business ventures that should be consolidating, not undermining ties.
A diplomatic feud between Rwanda and Uganda stopped most cross-border movements between the two countries, a situation that has had a huge effect on daily life for families in both countries.
A row between the two neighbouring countries has been simmering for the past two years but seems to have escalated when Rwanda closed its borders recently.
Both countries have traded accusations of interference in each other‘s affairs.
And as many analysts have argued, it’s in the national interest of both nations to cooperate since, economically; the relationship is profitable and politically advantageous to the fortunes of the ruling party in each country – with doing otherwise leading to an unknown dark place.
