Rupiah receives names of Rwanda genocide suspects hiding in Zambia

Rupiah receives names of Rwanda genocide suspects hiding in Zambia
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sat 15 May 2010, 03:50 CAT

RWANDA-based African Rights and two other international human rights organisations have submitted names of suspects of the 1994 Rwanda genocide hiding in Zambia to President Rupiah Banda.

African Rights director Rakiya Omaar told The Post from Kigali that African Rights, REDRESS and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre submitted a dossier with detailed information about 14 individuals suspected to have been involved in human rights violation during the genocide.

“In sending the dossier, we are not simply asking the government to surrender the alleged genocide suspects, but rather to (1) establish definitively that these individuals are indeed in Zambia; (2) to carry out its own investigations into the allegations which have been leveled against them and (3) to examine the options that would enable Zambia to meet the relevant legal obligations so that the public statements which Zambia has made, saying that it will not be a haven for fugitives from justice, can be met in a timely fashion,” said Omaar.

In January this year, President Banda, during his state visit to Rwanda, told President Paul Kagame that Zambia would have to trace genocide suspects hiding in Zambia and would extradite them.

In a space of 100 days between April and June 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed. The majority of the dead were Tutsis in the massacre perpetrated by the Hutu tribe.