Félicien Kabuga

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Mug shot of the US State Department

Félicien Kabuga (* 1935 in the commune of Mukarange, then the Rwanda-Urundi League of Nations mandate , now Rwanda ) is a Rwandan businessman. He was a close confidante of former Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana . After the end of its regime, Kabuga was a suspected participant in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and was wanted with several international arrest warrants. After living under a bogus identity for years, he was arrested in France on May 16, 2020.

biography

In Rwanda

Kabuga was born during the Belgian mandate . Little is known to the public about his youth and business activities. Kabuga made a huge fortune as an entrepreneur, including as the owner of tea plantations in northern Rwanda . Although he was not active as a politician himself, he gained considerable influence due to his close acquaintance with Juvénal Habyarimana, the president of Rwanda, who served from 1973 to 1994. He largely financed his party, the Mouvement républicain national pour la démocratie et le développement (MRND). Kabuga also financed the radical Coalition pour la défense de la République (CDN; Coalition for the Defense of the Republic). In the early 1990s, President Habyarimana's Hutu regime came under pressure after the Tutsi rebel army Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), which operates from neighboring Uganda , attacked him and could only be repulsed with Belgian, Zairean and French military aid.

On April 6, 1994, President Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down near Kigali Airport. Who had shot down the plane could not be conclusively determined. The event marked the start of the genocide in Rwanda , in which incited Hutu cracked down on the Tutsi minority as well as moderate Hutu who accused them of collaborating with the Tutsi rebel army. Between 800,000 and 1 million people were murdered within about 100 days. Kabuga has been accused of having played a prominent role in this, providing financial support to Hutu militants such as Interahamwe , buying and distributing simple weapons (hundreds of thousands of machetes , picks, knives) in large quantities abroad, and in his role as the leading MRND -The functionary did nothing to stop the violence. After UN blue helmet soldiers were stationed in Rwanda to put an end to the killing (UNAMIR - United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda ), the MRND, with significant participation from Kabuga, sparked a campaign against the participation of Belgian soldiers - soldiers of the former mandate power. Hate propaganda against the Tutsi was spread on state radio RTLM , for which Kabuga was largely responsible. On April 25, 1994, radical Hutu leaders met in Gisenyi Prefecture to set up a "national defense fund" to buy uniforms and weapons for the Hutu militia Interahamwe abroad. Kabuga became the authorized signatory. Lists of unpleasant Tutsi and Hutu are said to have been drawn up and passed on to the Interahamwe. When the military situation became increasingly unfavorable and a victory for the RPF rebel army became apparent, Kabuga fled abroad in June 1994.

In exile

Kabuga first entered Switzerland in June 1994, but was expelled there on August 14, 1994 (but presumably had withdrawn large sums of money beforehand) and also had the cost of the flight tickets in the amount of 21,302 Swiss francs for the departure of his family of nine paid by the Swiss authorities. He then flew to Kinshasa (then Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo ). He later took up residence in Nairobi (Kenya), where he enjoyed the protection of higher political circles from the environment of the Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi , probably due to bribery . Since November 26, 1997, he was officially considered a fugitive, with an unknown whereabouts. Attempts to locate and arrest him have failed. In 1998 he was not found during a police raid on a house he allegedly lived in in Nairobi. In 2003 a police informant who tried to meet with Kabuga in Nairobi was murdered. In the period that followed, his trail was lost, but he was suspected to be in Kenya for at least a few years, which the Kenyan authorities denied.

On August 22, 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), established in 1994, tried Félicien Kabuga in absentia. The charges were genocide, aiding and abetting genocide, incitement and conspiracy to commit genocide, and the like. a. m. Since 2001 Kabuga has been searched via Interpol . The US State Department searched Kabuga by international arrest warrant and promised a reward of up to US $ 5 million for clues leading to his capture. On April 14, 2011, the International Residual Mechanism for the Ad-hoc Criminal Courts (MICT), the UN successor organization to the ICTR, which has now been dissolved, had Kabuga listed for international manhunt.

arrest

On May 16, 2020, Félicien Kabuga was arrested by French police in an apartment in Asnières-sur-Seine near Paris. He had lived there under an assumed name for years. In a press release, the chief prosecutor of the MICT, Serge Brammertz , thanked the French authorities and stated that the arrest had been carried out through coordinated investigative work by the authorities of Rwanda, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United States, Europol and Interpol has become possible.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e CASE INFORMATION SHEET: FUGITIVE - FÉLICIEN KABUGA. (pdf) Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (“MICT”) / International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, accessed on May 16, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Gicumbi: Félicien Kabuga property auctioned off.IGIHE, December 12, 2013, accessed on May 17, 2020 (English).
  3. ↑ a b Felicien Kabuga. Trial International, May 2, 2016, accessed May 16, 2020 .
  4. ↑ expulsion of Felicien Kabuga. The Federal Assembly - The Swiss Parliament, request by Jean-Nils de Dardel , October 6, 1998, accessed on May 16, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Fatal end to a US war criminals hunt. Neue Zücher Zeitung, January 26, 2003, accessed on May 16, 2020 .
  6. ^ Security forces step up hunt for Kabuga. Daily Nation, March 7, 2010, accessed May 16, 2020 .
  7. ↑ THE PROSECUTOR v. Édouard KAREMERA Mathieu NGIRUMPATSE Joseph NZIRORERA André RWAMAKUBA, Case No. ICTR-98-44-PT. (pdf) International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, December 7, 2004, accessed on May 16, 2020 .
  8. ^ Rwanda genocide suspect arrested in France with INTERPOL support. May 16, 2020, accessed on May 16, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Wanted: Félicien Kabuga. U.S. Department of State, accessed May 16, 2020 .
  10. ↑ INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR RWANDACase No. ICTR-98-448-I - THE PROSECUTOR V. FÉLCIEN KABUGA AMENDED INDICTMENT Pursuant to confirmation decision dated 13 April 20ll. (pdf) Retrieved May 16, 2020 (English).
  11. ↑ Simone Schlindwein: Out for Félicien Kabuga. In: taz.de. May 17, 2020, accessed August 13, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Mechanism fugitive Felicien Kabuga arrested today. Office of the Prosecutor, May 16, 2020, accessed on May 16, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Génocide au Rwanda - la France annonce l'arrestation de Félicien Kabuga, en cavale depuis 25 ans. le Figaro, May 16, 2020, accessed on May 16, 2020 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Kabuga, Félicien
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Rwandan businessman
DATE OF BIRTH 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Mukarange commune, then Rwanda-Urundi , now Rwanda