The Burundian suspects are said to have worked with the Interahamwe militias—backed by the then government.
In an interview with the press on this Monday, the National Prosecutor and Head of Genocide Fugitives Tracking Unit (GFTU), Siboyintore Jean Bosco said that they tried to pursue the suspected Burundians but to no avail due to lack of evidence.
“We have the Ntongwe, Rilima, Nyakizu cases and we’re still working on them. It is difficult since there are no files on some of the persons mentioned in those cases. As an example, Murundi, Nyandwi or Macumi are names you cannot be sure are real or be able to know that the person is still alive; hence, it becomes difficult to investigate with such shortage of information,” he noted.
Siboyintore added that the procedures require cooperation from both countries, so to get information which he noted to be a lot harder than in cases of Rwandans living in the country.
“It requires cooperation from the other side’s prosecution office. These are not like cases we handle in Rwanda, where we have all the information we need.”
The Prosecutor General, Jean Bosco Mutangana remarked that at a time where a foreigner is found to have committed a crime in Rwanda, diplomacy is used so that justice is done.
“More than foreigners, even Rwandan refugees are hard to bring to justice. I feel that we should start on them, and see how we can pursue them.”
He further assured that they will not fail to pursue the cases.
Last year, Mutangana announced the start of investigations but had noted that they may hit a dead end due to political tensions between the two countries.
“We cannot push the country to adhere to our requests as it has its own laws, but what we do know is that we will continue to work with prosecution offices from other countries to see that we progress.”
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