Trial of Rwandan genocide financier begins at The Hague

By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) - The trial of Rwandan suspected genocide financier Felicien Kabuga began Thursday at a UN tribunal in The Hague

Kabuga refused to attend the opening of the trial. His lawyers said he was unfit to stand trial.

But the judges said the proceedings would continue. The hearing will last just two hours per day as the doctors who examined Kabuga advised.

He was arrested in Paris in 2020 after a 26 manhunt.

Kabuga, 87, was charged with genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and persecution on political grounds, extermination and murder as crimes against humanity committed in Rwanda in 1994.

He is accused of playing a role in establishing the notorious hate Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) which incited people to kill the Tutsi population.

Human Rights Watch in a statement Thursday said the opening of the trial is a significant step to “ensure accountability for planning, ordering, and carrying out the genocide in Rwanda.”

Kabuga’s primary contributions to the crimes included creating and operating RTLM and financing, arming and supporting the feared Interahamwe militia, the prosecution said in opening remarks.

Serge Brammertz, prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, said the trial offers an opportunity to remind the world of the grave dangers of genocide ideology and hate speech.

“Kabuga had a central role in provoking hatred of Tutsis, dehumanizing innocent civilians and paving the way for genocide. If we are to prevent further genocides, all of us must be vigilant against such incitement. Ethnic, national, racial and religious hate speech is not hard to identify – what is needed is the will to stop it in its tracks,” he said.

Naphtal Ahishakiye, the executive secretary of the umbrella body of Rwanda genocide survivors’ organizations, said because of his advanced age there is a need to expedite the trial in the interest of justice during his lifetime.

In August 1998, Kabuga was indicted by the now-defunct Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and an international arrest warrant was issued for him the following year.

The genocide, in which more than 1 million people were killed, targeted the minority Tutsi ethnic group by Hutu extremists after the death of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira in an April 6, 1994, plane crash. ​​​​​​​