By Stanley Ugagbe
Félicien Kabuga who was suspected of funding militias in the Rwanda genocide has eventually met his waterloo as he has been apprehended by French police.
According to officials, the businessman was arrested in Asniéres-sur-Seine, outside Paris, where he had been living under a false identity.
We gathered that the 84-year-old had been in hiding for 23 years after the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda indicted him on charges including genocide and incitement to commit genocide.
Reports have it that Kabuga is suspected to have been the main financier of the ethnic Hutu extremists who slaughtered 800,000 people in 1994. The arrest will bring Kabuga before the Paris Appeals Court before authorities hand him over to the tribunal.
Following the arrest, Tribunal officials expect that Kabunga will be handed over to United Nations prosecutors, who will transfer him to a court in Arusha, Tanzania, for trial.
In a statement, IRMCT’s Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz said “The arrest of Félicien Kabuga today is a reminder that those responsible for genocide can be brought to account, even twenty-six years after their crimes”.
Brammertz described the development as the most important capture by an international tribunal since the arrest of Gen. Ratko Mladic, the Serbian military leader who was charged with genocide during the Bosnian war in the 1990s.
He credited coordination between France, the United States, Rwanda and other European nations for the arrest.
It would be recalled that the United States had previously offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Kabuga’s arrest.
