originally published in the Daily Nation, Kenya
After a month of delays, the Democratic Republic of Congo has transferred a chief suspect in the Rwandan genocide to special United Nations courts in Arusha, Tanzania, further solidifying a détente between the two countries.
Gregoire Ndahimana is wanted for helping organise the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
He is accused of killing 2,000 ethnic Tutsi in a church they were seeking refuge.
Ndahimana was arrested in eastern Congo last month during raids by the Congolese army.
“This is the contribution of the Congolese government to stabilise the situation in the Great Lakes,” said Congo’s minister for information Lamber Mende. “We believe that this is an important gesture that is certainly appreciated at its true value by not only our partners in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), but also our neighbour, Rwanda, with which relations are to improve significantly.”
Though wanted for arrest by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Arusha, the Congolese government held Ndahimana for over a month, taking him to the capital Kinshasa for questioning.
“We wanted to get the necessary information to our national security first,” said Minister Mende.
The normal time-limit for transfers after arrests is 3 days for the ICTR, but due to the potential military intelligence Ndahimana had, Congo says, it was important to interrogate him first.
Ndahimana had been living amongst a much-feared ethnic Hutu rebel group accused of orchestrating the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi in 1994.
The arrest came amidst American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to the Congo, highlighting enormous violence and insecurity that has been brought to Congo by a myriad of different rebel groups, including Ndahimana’s.
In announcing the handover, Congo said that the goodwill must be reciprocated, reiterating their desire too see Tutsi warlord Laurent Nkunda, who is under house arrest in Rwanda be brought to justice.
“We ask that the return elevator take place,” Minister Mende said at Kinshasa’s International Airport. “It is a question that the Rwandan authorities should respond to.”
Nkunda, who many accused Rwanda of backing, tore through eastern Congo last year, nearly bringing the Kinshasa government to its knees, before Rwanda made a surprise decision to arrest him in January of this year.
While the Congo has routinely asked for his extradition, Rwanda has put his case on the back-burner.
Ndahimana’s arrest is part of this larger, new cooperation between Rwanda and the Congo that began earlier this year when Nkunda was arrested.
Since then, the two countries have gone on the offensive against the Hutu rebels Ndahimana fought with, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
The FDLR came of age after the genocide when millions of refugees fled across the border into the Congo.
Ndahimana was amongst them, and had been living in the Congo forests ever since.
Their relative safety in the Congo brought deep discord and multiple wars between the two countries for over a decade until earlier this year.
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