KIGALI: The trial in France of a former Rwandan army captain charged with complicity in the 1994 genocide was greeted in Rwanda as a belated but “good sign”.
“It is history being made. We have always wondered why it has taken 20 years … it is late, but it is a good sign,” Rwandan Justice Minister Johnston Busingye said of the trial of Pascal Simbikangwa, a former army captain who went on trial in Paris Tuesday.
“It is not time to celebrate, it is still the beginning, the first in 20 years.
“We will watch it with a lot of interest, we will be very supportive of the process, we will cooperate,” the minister said.
But he added that “France has a big amount of suspects in its territory” who should be either extradited back to Rwanda or tried in France.
The landmark case is being closely watched, with France long accused of failing to rein in the Rwandan regime at the time of the genocide and of later dragging its feet over the repatriation or prosecution of individuals suspected of involvement in crimes against humanity.
Pascal Simbikangwa, who denies the accusations against him, appeared in court in a wheelchair after a 1986 car accident that left him paraplegic. He faces life in prison.
The 54-year-old was arrested in 2008 on the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, where he had been living in hiding for three years.
“I was a captain in the Rwandan army then in the intelligence services,” Simbikangwa, a small, bald man wearing a brown jacket and white tracksuit bottoms, told the court in an opening statement.
He is accused of inciting, organising and aiding massacres during the genocide, particularly by supplying arms, instructions and encouragement to Interahamwe Hutu militia who were manning road blocks and killing Tutsi men, women and children.
He is being tried under laws adopted in 1996 and 2010 that allow French courts to consider cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Rwanda and other countries.
The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks and, in a rare situation for France, will be filmed for posterity, with recordings available once the case is concluded. — AFP