Rwanda urges France to extradite genocide suspects
By Arthur Asiimwe
KIGALI, July 24 (Reuters) - Rwanda called on Tuesday for the extradition of two men arrested in France and suspected of involvement in the central African nation's 1994 genocide.
In a statement, the Rwandan government welcomed last week's arrest of Catholic priest Wenceslas Munyeshyaka and another man, Laurent Bucyibaruta, who are accused of playing a role in the slaughter of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Both Rwandans had lived in France for years, it said, but were detained because of indictments issued by Kigali and the Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which is prosecuting the top architects of the genocide.
"They should therefore be transferred to Rwanda for Father Munyeshyaka to serve his sentence since he had been tried and sentenced in absentia and Laurent Bucyibaruta to stand trial, failure of which they should be transferred to ICTR in Arusha," Rwanda's government said in the statement.
The ICTR has charged Bucyibaruta, a former top local official in Gikongoro district, with genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, extermination, murder and rape.
Munyeshyaka, the former head of the Sainte-Famille parish in Kigali, was sentenced in absentia to life in jail in November by a military tribunal for complicity in genocide and rape.
Also in November, Kigali cut diplomatic relations with Paris after a French judge called for current Rwandan President Paul Kagame should stand trial over the death of his predecessor in April 1994 -- an event that unleashed the 100-day slaughter.
Former rebel leader Kagame, and other critics, accuse Paris of covering up its role in training troops who carried out the massacres and propping up the Hutu leaders who deployed them.
France denies that and says its forces helped protect people during a U.N.-sanctioned mission in Rwanda at the time.
Kigali said it was pleased with the latest arrests.
"The government hopes this new positive trend by the new French government will continue and that it will lead to other desirable developments consistent with bringing to justice those responsible for genocide in our country," the statement said.
