Rwandan Genocide Fugitive Arrested in South Africa

Facts

• A suspect in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Fulgence Kayishema, has been arrested after over 20 years on the run in South Africa, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) said on Thursday.¹
• Kayishema — accused of killing over 2K Tutsi refugees at Nyange Catholic Church during the genocide — was arrested by South African authorities alongside UN investigators, who believe he used multiple identities and forged documents to evade detection.²
• Kayishema was a police inspector when he allegedly planned the massacre by acquiring petrol to burn down the church with people trapped inside. When that failed, he and co-conspirators reportedly bulldozed the church, burying the refugees — including women, the elderly, and children — underneath.³
• Kayishema was indicted by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 2001, on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity before leading authorities. The indictment was part of a search that IRMCT prosecutors say spanned multiple countries in Africa and beyond.⁴
• The US War Crimes Rewards Program offered up to $5M for information on Kayishema and the other fugitives involved in the massacre, which reportedly killed an estimated 800K Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 90 days.²
• With Kayishema set to appear in a Cape Town court on Friday before his likely extradition to Rwanda, the IRMCT says it has tracked down five Rwandan genocide suspects since 2020, and that the search is on for three more.⁵

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²CNN, ³ABC News, ⁴Irmct, and ⁵CBC.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by UN News. Though it's been almost 30 years since the genocide was committed, Kayishema's arrest shows that the world has not forgotten about the victims of those horrific crimes. International investigators worked tirelessly for more than two decades to bring Kayishema to justice, and it won't stop until every perpetrator is found, arrested, and prosecuted for their crimes against humanity.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Guardian. The world should know that non-African actors also contributed to the genocide. The CIA was well aware of — and ignored — the growing anti-Tutsi rhetoric spreading throughout Rwanda at the time. Moreover, the US agency supplied Uganda, which aided the genocide, with military and development aid. To make things worse, America lauded Uganda's Museveni as a peacemaker during the massacre. There is no reason those in power should not be held accountable for their failure to stop the genocide.