By EDMUND KAGIRE
In Summary
- The extradition of Mr Seyoboka by Canada comes hot on the heels of two more extraditions last week by The Netherlands.
- Rwanda has over the past two years made positive progress in its pursuit for genocide suspects scattered across the globe. There are over 500 indictments issued by Rwanda and dozens of extradition requests are pending.
- There has been little progress in some countries such as France, which Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Louise Mushikiwabo accused of sitting on genocide cases.
Rwanda sees the current wave of deportations of genocide
suspects to the country as a boost to the move to pursue hundreds of
pending extradition requests in Europe and North America.
The country has over the past two years made positive progress
in its pursuit for genocide suspects scattered across the globe. There
are over 500 indictments issued by Rwanda and dozens of extradition
requests are pending.
There has been little progress in some countries such as France,
which Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Louise Mushikiwabo accused
of sitting on genocide cases.
“There is not a single case in France that has been tried and concluded,” Ms Mushikiwabo said.
Observers however say the wave of extraditions is likely to
evoke a positive response from countries that have been reluctant to
send suspects to Rwanda.
According to Dr Phil Clark, a scholar of genocide based in the
UK, the recent extraditions of Rwandan genocide suspects from Canada,
the US and the Netherlands, as well as transfers by the ICTR, highlight a
growing international consensus that Rwanda is capable of holding fair
genocide trials.
“In all of these cases, foreign courts rejected vociferous
arguments by defence counsel that genocide suspects would not get a fair
trial in Rwanda.”
“This highlights the reality that reforms to the Rwandan
judiciary over the last decade have enabled the system now to handle
these contentious cases in a fair and transparent manner,” Dr Clark
said.
Seyoboka extradition
Last Thursday, Canada deported Henri Jean-Claude Seyoboka, a
former government soldier during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi who
had sought asylum in the country in 1996.
Mr Seyoboka, who is accused of failing to mention his military
links as he sought refugee status, is the second genocide suspect Canada
has extradited, after the 2012 deportation of Rwandan scholar Dr Leon
Mugesera.
His case came to light in 1998 after he was interviewed by the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). He had been handed a
jail sentence of 19 years in absentia by the traditional Gacaca courts,
prompting Kigali to follow up with Canadian authorities earlier this
year.
In May, during his deportation hearing, he alleged that he would
not be accorded a fair trial if sent back to Rwanda. Federal Court
Judge Danièle Tremblay-Lamer said that Mr Seyoboka needed to face
justice in his home country.
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