Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
12 June 2008
Kigali — Top Genocide fugitive Major Mpiranya Protais who the U.N. claims is hiding with protection in Zimbabwe could be no more - probably dead, a source has revealed to RNA.
On Monday, the UK's The Sunday Times reported that the former head of the Presidential Guard wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and has a $5 million on his head for Genocide is in Zimbabwe.
Quoting UN sources, the paper said Major Mpiranya is being protected by senior officials in Zimbabwe's highest echelons of the military and intelligence. The relationship stems from Zimbabwe's involvement in DR Congo - to where he had also fled.
The revelation that the man Rwanda blames for the assassination of the former Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana is moving free and comfortable may have taken fugitive search teams by surprise.
The Zimbabwean government - which maintains strong curbs on the media - and has even expelled critical foreign reporters, has not commented on the issue.
Now a source very familiar with the frantic search for the thousands of alleged criminals wanted in Rwanda for the mass killings tells RNA that Major Mpiranya could have died of the Aids virus.
"Well, I've always heard that Mpiranya was in Zimbabwe, but last year I also heard that he had died of HIV/AIDS, but I don't know how true that was", the source said on Thursday.
"So I really can't say and wouldn't like to be quoted on this, but if he is alive, then I think he is most likely in Zimbabwe."
During the Genocide, thousands of women were targeted by the rampaging army and militias at roadblocks 'in a deliberate plan' to use HIV/AIDS as a weapon that could go on killing, according to campaigners.
Available figures show that several jailed Genocide suspects have HIV/Aids. There is actually an ongoing campaign by survivors' groups demanding that the U.S. funded ARV program puts HIV+ survivors on its 'Priority" list - bitter that it instead features the former militias that infected them in the first place.
Last month, the U.S. government extended its 'Reward for Justice' Program targeting 5 from the 13 most wanted fugitives. The U.S. has moved its $5 million for each of the five including Major Mpiranya and alleged Genocide financer Felicien Kabuga to DR Congo.
The country's Defense Minister Mr. Chikez Diemu welcomed the U.S. move on Thursday saying DR Congo had tracked down and handed some other fugitives to the UN court. He said that his country would cooperate.
Major Mpiranya apparently "tracked down, arrested, sexually assaulted and killed" Agathe Uwilingiyimana, the ICTR alleges. She was assassinated with her 10 Belgian guards that were part of the Belgian contingent on the UN mission.
The UN war crimes court on Rwanda wants the fugitive on Genocide, complicity to commit mass murder and several other counts. The trial for the four of his co-accused in the ICTR case Military II has been painstakingly ongoing.
They are General Augustin Ndindiliyimana; the former chief-of-staff of the FAR, General Augustin Bizimungu, and two commanding officers in the reconnaissance battalion, Major François Xavier Nzuwonemeye and captain Innocent Sagahutu.
The Tribunal also claims that Major Mpiranya 'supervised trainings' of the interahamwe militia in northern Rwanda - with collaboration with senior army officers including his co-accused.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
