A report of activities by the Rwanda’s National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) presented to parliament indicates that there are genocide convicts still at large within and outside the country.
The Chief Commissioner at the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide, Dr. Emmanuel Havugimana said that the information collected by the Commission showed that more than 1500 genocide convicts are free.
“The list has already been done and it is in four categories. There are 167 genocide convicts living in known places across Rwanda who never served their court sentences. Those who fled to other local districts are 1072 and 95 of them reside in known areas while 204 convicts fled to foreign countries,” Dr. Havugimana explained.
Dr. Havugimana says that arresting the convicts is made difficult by the tactics they use to change names and when they get known relocate to different areas or flee the country.
The Gacaca convicts walk and work free in different parts of the country particularly in the City of Kigali and the Eastern Province according to Havugimana.
“Most of them live in Kigali City having changed identities. Names in their identity cards and places they live in today differ from what they were called during the genocide against Tutsi,” he said.
Between 2017 and 2018, CNLG handed 358 files to judicial organs so that the genocide convicts who did not serve their sentences could be persecuted.
Honorable Eugène Barikana, a Member of Parliament, urged CNLG to unveil a list of genocide convicts still at large to government institutions and the public to search for them.
Dr. Havugimana however noted that this would not be easily possible because the search for the convicts should be done secretly that they not flee the justice to neighboring countries.
The Gacaca jurisdictions which ended in 2012 closed after having passing 1.2 million judgments.
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