A Rwandan genocide suspect may seek asylum in South Africa. Here’s why.
Global News
The U.N. tribunal charged Kayishema in 2001 with being a central figure in the slaughter of more than 2,000 people seeking refuge at a church.
One of the last remaining suspects accused of orchestrating the brutal massacres of the Rwandan genocide nearly 30 years ago plans to apply for political asylum in South Africa, his lawyer said Tuesday.
The U.N. tribunal charged Kayishema in 2001 with being a central figure in the slaughter of more than 2,000 people seeking refuge at a church.
Now 62 years old, he was arrested last month in the small town of Paarl near Cape Town, South Africa, having been on the run for half his life.
More than 800,000 people were killed when militias made up mainly of members of Rwanda’s Hutu ethnic group turned on their Tutsi neighbors. The killings, an attempt to wipe out the minority Tutsis, were triggered on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down, killing him.
Kayishema is accused of being one of the leaders of a Hutu mob that killed Tutsi men, women and children who were hiding in the Catholic church to escape the sudden eruption of violence. Kayishema and others tried to burn down the church and, when that failed, they used a bulldozer to smash it down, crushing to death the Tutsis inside, according to the charges against him.
Ultimately, more than 2,000 people were killed in and around the church, the genocide indictment against Kayishema says.
The U.N. tribunal wants Kayishema to be sent to one of the seats of the tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, and then to Rwanda for trial, but it’s unclear how long it would take for South Africa to extradite him.
Following his May 24 arrest, Kayishema also was charged in South Africa with 54 counts of immigration offenses and fraud. He allegedly used fake names and other falsified information to acquire documents to enter and live in South Africa, where he had been for at least 20 years, according to the charges filed by prosecutors.
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