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Rwanda: Genocide Leader Hiding in Zimbabwe
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SW Radio Africa (London)
11 June 2008
Posted to the web 11 June 2008
Lance Guma
A Rwandan army officer accused of ordering the murder of that country's Prime Minister and the Belgian soldiers who protected her, is said to be hiding in Zimbabwe.
According to a UK Sunday Times article, Major Protais Mpiranya, a Hutu extremist who formerly led the Presidential Guard in Rwanda, is wanted for genocide and crimes against humanity by the UN's war crimes tribunal. Sources at the UN told the paper that Mpiranya has a US$5 million bounty on his head and has been on the run from justice for 14 years. In 1994 he is alleged to have hunted down Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana before sexually assaulting and then murdering her. Soldiers under his command then, 'hacked to death the 10 Belgian UN paratroops who had been ordered to protect her.'
The charges have apparently not stopped Mugabe's regime offering him sanctuary in the same way former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam is protected. Mpiranya is reported to have business links with former army officers close to Mugabe. The Sunday Times quoted a UN source saying he had been detected, 'sometimes in Zimbabwe and sometimes in the Congo.'
The conflict in Rwanda claimed the lives of 800 000 Tutsis and Hutus who were murdered in the space of 100 days. After fleeing to the Congo Mpiranya is said to have established business links with Zimbabwean army officers who had set up companies to plunder the mineral resources in the Congo. 'It is these links that enable him to feel secure in Zimbabwe under the Mugabe regime,' the UN source told the Sunday Times.
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The coverage of Mpiranya's presence in Zimbabwe is not likely to trigger a change of policy by the government. Even when Mengistu was sentenced to death by an Ethiopian court for crimes against humanity, Mugabe's government vowed to continue protecting him.
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