Former Rwandan official by name, Laurent Bucyibaruta has gone on for trial in France for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide where more than 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were killed by Hutu militias.
Africa Daily News, New York reports that Mr Bucyibaruta is one of the most senior figures to face court in France, where activists have long campaigned for him to stand trial for his past actions.
The 78-year-old man is standing trial on charges of genocide, complicity in genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity.
The suspect was brought to the courtroom in a wheelchair as he is suffering from ill-health.
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Mr Bucyibaruta is accused of attending and participating in several security meetings when the killings were allegedly planned.
He is accused of orchestrating the killing of thousands of people in the southern province of Gikongoro. He denies the charges.
Africa Daily News, New York recalls that a report commissioned by Kigali released last year has insinuated that France ‘bears significant responsibility’ for enabling the genocide in Rwanda while still refusing to acknowledge its actual role in the 1994 horror.
‘It is our conclusion that the French government bears significant responsibility for enabling a foreseeable genocide,’ concluded the nearly 600-page report into France’s role in the pogrom that saw some 800,000 people killed between April and July 1994.
The years-long investigation by US law firm Levy Firestone Muse said France knew genocide was coming but remained ‘unwavering in its support’ for its Rwandan allies, even when the planned extermination of the Tutsi minority became clear.
The report, commissioned by Rwanda in 2017, found no evidence of French officials or personnel directly participating in the killing of Tutsis.
But it rejected the assertion that France was ‘blind‘ to the looming massacres, a conclusion recently reached by French historians commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron to probe the same historic events.
Those findings, released in March, said France bore ‘overwhelming responsibilities‘ over the genocide and acknowledged a ‘failure‘ on its part, but no complicity in the killings.
Africa Daily News, New York
