allAfrica.com: Rwanda: Government Contacting Genocide Financier 'Secretly'

About a week ago Norway-based online agency African Press International (API) published the much publicized interview with suspected Rwandan Genocide financer Mr. Felicien Kabuga.

Government of Rwanda and the UN tribunal for Rwanda are believed to have been caught off-guard - suddenly that a man with a $5million bounty on his head surfaces in an interview seeking to surrender to Rwanda. RNA put the different issues that the interview has raised to API Chief-Editor Kipter Korir, and below are the excerpts in which he reveals that government is secretly seeking to contact the man they have hunted for years.

Mr. Kipter Korir, could you just describe the circumstances leading up to the much publicized interview with Rwandan Genocide fugitive Felicien Kabuga and how you managed to secure it anyway.

Many media outlets and other institutions have treated our story on Kabuga and his presence in Norway at the time of interview with caution. It is not difficult to understand why many find it difficult to see the real picture in all that has happened, the fact that API met Mr Kabuga and even managed to secure an interview. Mr Kabuga travelled to Sweden in an effort to meet an elderly Sudanese man who is refugee in that country. While in that country, he discovered that the man he was looking for was not there. He managed, one way or another, to get information that a South Sudanese delegation led by the South Sudan President Salva Kiir was going to be in Norway for a conference.

It was at that time Mr Kabuga chose to travel to Oslo hoping the old man he was looking for in Sweden had found his way to Norway to meet his colleagues from South Sudan.

As things turned out, the Sudanese old man was not in Norway but had travelled to South Sudan. Those close to Kabuga, who met him in Norway, directed him to API's Chief Editor who happens to be a friend to the Sudanese old man. After discussions on what Mr Kabuga wanted, the parties agreed on an interview on condition, API assisted Kabuga to connect with the Sudanese old man and another man of Ugandan origin now resident in the UK, so that the two men may initiate talks with the Rwanda Government for the purposes of reaching an agreement on a conditional surrender. Both men are close contacts of API's Chief Editor.

The ICTR and Rwanda government are treating your purported interview with Mr. Kabuga as a 'hoax'. There does not seem to be anything tangible evidence to back up the interview.

API has noted that several media outlets have focused on the behaviour of the ICTR and the Rwanda government on how they have reacted to the story. As a media outlet, API does not go around distributing prove to institutions in order that those who read API articles may believe what is being written.

The Rwanda government and the ICTR has the opportunity to get in touch with API and find out the truth. The Rwanda government could have been satisfied if the Minister for Justice had taken contact and received the document that is supposed to be handed over to him in an effort to find ways and means to start talking.

When the government categorically spells out publicly that they will not talk to Kabuga, while at the same time allowing their embassy to engage in secret contacts, such public move by the government serves to destroy the spirit of the intended talks. The government should have taken time to receive the document containing important information, thereafter decide whether or not to engage in formal talks.

By doing so, the government will be showing a will to listen to Kabuga's story and make a fair judgement on whether to accept his conditions or not.

Mr. Kabuga has rarely spoken in the media directly, the only journalist who met him died later, how would he have trusted you?

API has noted that some media outlets do not have time for Kabuga because he has been accused of genocide. And yet many people tend to say an accused person is innocent until proven guilty. API has been contacted by many media outlets and other international government branches who emphasize that the only journalist who met Kabuga in Kenya died later. As far as API is concerned, nobody has come forward with clear evidence that the journalist who died was killed by Kabuga. API has understood that the murdered journalist had plans to lure Kabuga to a police trap. API has no intention to lure any accused person or persons to police traps. API will remain professional in interviews and will not be party to colluding with others to net people being searched for by any international body.

This, however, does not mean API condones any form of crimes, be it genocide or any other. We are now dealing with a man who has decided to reach out and surrender. The fact that API has become the only media to break the story does not make the story to be a hoax as some would like to have it fall into that category. Many have asked how Kabuga could have trusted API. This only leads API to believe that some have taken the narrow path that has led to underestimate Mr Kabuga. API chooses to believe that a man who has managed to hide for many years, having many friends, and buying his way for safe hiding, knows when to trust and who to trust depending on the place and timing.

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