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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, may 25, 2020

Feature

Rwanda genocide: How Félicien Kabuga evaded capture for 26 years

abuga was reported to have been hiding in Kenya Wealthy businessman Félicien Kabuga outwitted prosecutors of the Rwandan genocide tribunal for more than two-and-a-half decades by using 28 aliases and powerful connections across two continents to evade capture. The 84-year-old had been on the run for so long that the international tribunal set up to bring to justice those responsible for the 1994 genocide had ceased to work. But he was eventually hunted down last weekend to a hideout in a suburb of the French capital - thanks to an investigation relaunched by Serge Brammertz, a UN war crimes prosecutor heading the body which handles outstanding war crimes cases for Rwanda and Yugoslavia. “We knew already a year ago that he was very likely to be in the UK, France or in Belgium and we concluded only two months ago that he was in France,” the chief prosecutor for the UN’s International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals’ (IRMCT) told the BBC. “The French authorities located the apartment in which he was hiding, which led to the operation.” One of the major reasons he was able to be on the run for so long was “the complicity of his children”, he said. He is known to have at least five children - two of his daughters were married to sons of Rwanda’s former President Juvénal Habyarimana, whose death when his plane was shot down 6 April 1994 triggered the genocide. French investigators spied on Mr Kabuga’s children to track him down to his third-floor flat in the Paris suburb of Asnièressur-Seine, where he had been living under a false identity using a passport from an unidentified African country. According to Col Eric Emeraux, who heads a special French police unit fighting war crimes, the coronavirus pandemic also helped as the lockdown in France paralysed many operations across parts of Europe, freeing up time to focus on the man accused of being the main financier of the genocide. In just 100 days in 1994, about 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda by ethnic Hutu extremists - who Mr Kabuga, a man who had made his fortune in the tea trade, is said to have backed. They were targeting members of the minority Tutsi community, as well as their political opponents, irrespective of their ethnic origin. The United States had offered a $5m (£4.1m) reward for information leading to Mr Kabuga’s arrest. But it was puzzling that for so many years one of the most wanted fugitives in Africa, with a $5m (£4.1m) US bounty on his head after being charged with

seven counts of genocide and crimes against humanity in 1997, managed to live in subterfuge and evade law enforcement across countries and continents. Was he harboured in Kenya? Mr Kabuga is alleged to have lived in many countries in East Africa, including Kenya, where he and his family had business interests. Kenya was for long said to be harbouring the fugitive, with powerful politicians accused of thwarting efforts to arrest him. Who is Félicien Kabuga? • Considered the richest man in Rwanda before the 1994 genocide • Made his fortune from tea in the 1970s and ventured into many other sectors at home and elsewhere • Was close to the ruling MRND party - and related by marriage to President Juvénal Habyarimana, who died in 1994 • Accused of being the top sponsor of the genocide plan and using his business and premises to organise and fund the killing • The main owner of the private radio station RTLM that was accused of inciting ethnic Hutus to kill Tutsis • The United States had offered a reward of $5m (£4.1m) for information leading to his arrest In 2006, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda said it had evidence that Mr Kabuga either visited or resided in Kenya, where he carried out business interests. Three years later, Stephen Rapp, then US ambassador-atlarge for war crimes, accused successive Kenyan governments of refusing to hand over Mr Kabuga. There was evidence that Mr Kabuga even attended functions attended by influential persons, he said - allegations Kenya has always denied. There is no dispute that the

Félicien Kabuga was found hiding in a nondescript flat in Asnièressur-Seine Kabuga family owned assets in Kenya as one property became the subject of a court case in 2015 when his wife, Josephine Mukazitoni, who co-owned it, tried and failed to regain access to it. Known as Spanish Villas, it had been seized because of a UN resolution requiring member states to trace and freeze Mr Kabuga’s assets. Wild goose chase Media reports pointed to Mr Kabuga’s presence in Kenya at different points, though they never provided proof that he or his wife lived there. He is said to have escaped police dragnets multiple times in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. In one raid in Nairobi on 19 July 1997, when police arrested seven other Rwandan genocide suspects, Mr Kabuga allegedly escaped thanks to an earlier warning from a senior officer. For journalists on his tail it proved a dangerous business. On 16 January 2003, freelance reporter William Munuhe was found dead in his apartment in Nairobi. His brother Josephat Gichuki says after his death he discovered

that Munuhe was planning a sting operation with the FBI to arrest Mr Kabuga by posing as a businessman. “To our surprise, police said Munuhe’s death was a suicide [from carbon monoxide poisoning] after inhaling fumes from a charcoal stove,” Mr Gichuki told the BBC. “While at the mortuary, I personally saw a bullet wound in his head, and blood in his room.” Image copyright Reuters Image caption The authorities had been searching for Mr Kabuga for many years Eight years later journalist John Allan Namu believes he was deliberately misled by a source in Kenya to out the wrong person, an unsuspecting businessman, as Mr Kabuga. He feels this was done because some were unhappy about what his investigations had unearthed, including evidence that Mr Kabuga had a Kenyan bank account through which he was conducting business. The whole affair became so messy that he and his family were forced to go into hiding for months because of the death threats he was receiving.

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“Where he was arrested is a proof that Kabuga survived as a fugitive for such a long time because of the connivance of people across the globe, not least in Kenya,” Namu told the BBC’s Great Lake Service. The hunt In the immediate aftermath of the genocide, Mr Kabuga fled to Switzerland but was not allowed to stay, and reportedly came back to Africa via Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most evidence points to his presence in Kenya, though Mr Brammertz says there had also been sightings of him in Madagascar and Burundi. But such information was always “reactive”, so the operation that led to his arrest took “a sophisticated, co-ordinated operation with simultaneous searches across a number of locations”, he said. It took at least two years, starting from his last known location - in Germany where he had last been sighted when he went for surgery in 2007. Extensive analysis of telephone and financial data eventually led them to Paris. “It is difficult to imagine he could have escaped into French territory without the help of accomplices,” says Patrick Baudoin of the International Federation for Human Rights. The mystery about his whereabouts for so many years has prompted Human Rights Watch to call for an investigation into how and who made this possible. Pre-lockdown walks His Paris neighbours say the elderly man had lived there for about three to four years. Olivier Olsen, head of the association of homeowners in the building where he lived, told the AFP news agency that Mr Kabuga was “very discreet” and someone “who murmured when you said hello”. Before the lockdown he was often seen going out for walks, he said. Mr Kabuga is now confined to La Santé Prison in central Paris, where he will stay until he is transferred into the custody of the IRMCT. Mr Brammertz says this could take weeks or months and it could take a year before a trial begins - either in The Hague or the Tanzanian city of Arusha, where the ICTR sat. However, Mr Kabuga’s lawyers have stated that he would prefer to be tried in France. Genocide survivors hope such procedures will not delay the justice they seek. After his arrest Valerie Mukabayire, the leader of the Rwanda widows’ group Avega, told the BBC: “Every genocide survivor is happy he is arrested. Everyone has been waiting for this news. It is a good thing that he is going to face justice.” Source: BBC

Digest

PEOPLES DAILY, monDAY, may 25, 2020

Mediterranean diet rich in fish and whole grains can keep the brain sharp, research suggests

HOW CAN YOU KEEP FIT DURING PREGNANCY?

he more active and fit you are during pregnancy, the easier it will be for you to adapt to your changing shape and weight gain. It will also help you to cope with labour and get back into shape after the birth. Keep up your normal daily physical activity or exercise (sport, running, yoga, dancing, or even walking to the shops and back) for as long as you feel comfortable. Exercise is not dangerous for your baby – there is some evidence that active women are less likely to experience problems in later pregnancy and labour. Exercise tips when you’re pregnant: • always warm up before exercising and cool down afterwards • try to keep active on a daily basis: half Participants who stuck most closely to the Mediterranean diet had the lowest risk of cognitive impairment and had a higher performance on an hour of walking each day can be cognitive tests enough, but if you can’t manage that, any amount is better than nothing • avoid any strenuous exercise in hot By COLIN FERNANDEZ associated with slower cognitive decline.’ Both groups were assessed for their weather Scientists aimed to understand whether diet, with the first set’s cognitive function • drink plenty of water and other fluids he Mediterranean diet not only helps sticking closely to a Mediterranean diet tested at five years, while the second • if you go to exercise classes, make sure you live longer but it can keep the would impact cognition, after a series were tested at two, four and ten years. your teacher is properly qualified, brain sharp too, research has found. of previous studies proved inconsistent. Participants who stuck most closely to the and knows that you’re pregnant Scientists found that those who Mediterranean foods including fruits, Mediterranean diet had the lowest risk of • you might like to try swimming consumed plenty of vegetables, whole vegetables, whole grains, nuts, fish and cognitive impairment and had a higher because the water will support your grains, olive oil and fish had the lowest olive oil were analysed, as well as reduced performance on cognitive tests. increased weight • exercises that have a risk of falling, risk of cognitive impairment in their latter consumption of red meat and alcohol. The evidence was strongest for those such as horse riding, downhill skiing, years. The researchers studied two trials of who maintained but did not substantially ice hockey, gymnastics and cycling, Cognitive impairment covers when a nearly 8,000 elderly people with varying alter their diet and those with the highest should only be done with caution. person has trouble remembering, learning severity of AMD – an age-related eye fish consumption had the slowest rate of Falls may risk damage to the baby things, concentrating or making decisions condition. cognitive decline. Exercises to avoid in pregnancy: that impact on their everyday life. The Both groups were assessed for their • don’t lie flat on your back for study, published in the Alzheimer’s and diet, with the first set’s cognitive function prolonged periods, particularly after Dementia journal, found that those with a tested at five years, while the second 16 weeks, because the weight of your diet high in fish had a slower rate of decline. were tested at two, four and ten years. bump presses on the main blood Crucially, the researchers found that Participants who stuck most closely to the vessel bringing blood back to your heart and this can make you feel faint the Mediterranean diet even appeared to Mediterranean diet had the lowest risk of • don’t take part in contact sports benefit participants with a higher genetic cognitive impairment and had a higher where there’s a risk of being hit, such risk of Alzheimer’s – those carrying the performance on cognitive tests. as kickboxing, judo or squash APOE gene which greatly increases chances The evidence was strongest for those • don’t go scuba diving, because the of developing the disease. who maintained but did not substantially baby has no protection against High fish and vegetable consumption alter their diet and those with the highest decompression sickness and gas were linked to the most protective effect. fish consumption had the slowest rate of embolism Lead author Dr Emily Chew, from the cognitive decline. • don’t exercise at heights over 2,500m National Eye Institute, in Maryland, US, above sea level until you have Dr Chew added: ‘These findings may said: ‘Closer adherence to a Mediterranean- help inform evidence-based dietary acclimatised: this is because you and your baby are at risk of altitude type diet was associated with lower risk recommendations, adding strength to sickness of cognitive impairment but not slower evidence that Mediterranean-type diet For more information, visit the NHS decline in cognitive function. However, patterns may maximise cognitive reserve website. higher fish consumption was significantly

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Both groups were assessed for their diet, with the first set’s cognitive function tested at five years, while the second were tested at two, four and ten years.

against impairment and dementia.’