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Kabuga is in Kenya - Govt2006-08-07All Africa Global Mediaby Ignatius Ssuuna The most wanted Rwandan Genocide fugitive, Felicien Kabuga, is in Kenya, enjoying the protection of individual corrupt persons in the establishment, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Charles Murigande, has said. But Murigande hastened to clarify that it was a small clique shielding Kabuga and not an official design by the government. "Yes, Kabuga is hiding in Kenya and he is being protected by some elements in exchange for money," Murigande told a Parliamentary session on August 1. Murigande was responding to a question by a Member of Parliament, Henrietta Mukamurangwa, who had sought to know when the Kenyan government would arrest Kabuga for prosecution. The MP had said Nairobi's seeming unwillingness to arrest Kabuga continues to hamper the administration of justice and the rule of law in the Great Lakes Region. But Murigande said: "Rwanda enjoys good relations with the Kenyan government, but this does not mean we are in good terms with every individual in Kenya." "You know very well that corruption is a cancer and can make someone blind, but maybe when his money gets finished, he will too be arrested," he added. Murigande explained that Kenya as a government was co-operating, and that the leadership had in the past arrested genocide suspects hiding in the country. He added that each time Kabuga is sighted, his informers quickly alert him to leave the place. "These people, maybe in police or security, share money with him," he said. But Mukamurangwa demanded: "Although we have good relations with Kenya, this government should arrest this man." According to some reports, senior people in the Kenyan government have been widely accused of helping Kabuga elude arrest, but this has persistently been denied. The Kenyan Ambassador to Rwanda, Alex Keter, could not be reached for comment by press time as calls to his cell phone went unanswered. Last week Amb. Keter had told The Sunday Times in an interview at the Embassy that his government and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) officials were trying to track down Kabuga though Kenya was not sure the fugitive lives within the country. Meanwhile, reports are also rife that many key genocide suspects are still at large worldwide and that they have built hit squads that eliminate whoever is suspected of vouching for their arrest. According to the ICTR agreement with regional member countries, there is an international obligation for all states to co-operate with the Tribunal in bringing the genocide suspects to justice. The 1998 indictment by ICTR indicates that Kabuga was the main supporter and financier of the Interahamwe militia, responsible for the 1994 Genocide that claimed over a million lives. The former head of a Rwandan Radio Television Mille Collines, which broadcast anti-Tutsi hate propaganda, has been on the run for 12 years., with a US$5m bounty on his head.
Channel: USHMM: International Law
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