US News Genocide in Rwanda: Protais Mpiranya, last senior official on the run

© - Protais Mpiranya, former head of the presidential guard in Rwanda during the genocide. Photo provided by the United Nations.

On the run since 2000, Protais Mpiranya has been the most wanted Rwandan fugitive by justice since Félicien Kabuga's arrest, for his alleged involvement in the 1994 genocide, where he then commanded the very powerful presidential guard.

Accused of crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the Hutu major Mpiranya is said to be currently 60 years old and he is considered the most important of the six personalities still at large and indicted by the former International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

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Discipline among Rwandan army troops, lax for some time, has crumbled further in the last month Military Officers: General Bizimungu Colonel Bagosora Colonel Nkundiye Colonel Mpiranya Colonel $ The international community must clearly and forcefully condemn genocide in Rwanda calling the

The Rwanda -backed rebel groups eventually marched on DR Congo's capital, Kinshasa, and A total of 93 people were indicted and after lengthy and expensive trials, dozens of senior officials in The genocide is obviously still a hugely sensitive issue in Rwanda , and it is illegal to talk about ethnicity.

The one who preceded him until recently on this list, Félicien Kabuga, regularly presented as the financier of the genocide, was arrested on May 16 in France. The judicial authorities of this country decided on Wednesday to hand him over to international justice.

Protais Mpiranya is notably accused, along with others, of having killed on April 7, 1994, in the early hours of the Tutsi genocide, the moderate Hutu Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, ten Belgian peacekeepers in charge of her protection and several political figures. prominent people, as well as their families and servants.

The previous evening, Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana's plane was shot down on its approach to Kigali international airport.

The president was returning from a regional meeting in Dar es Salaam where he had agreed to set up the transitional institutions provided for by the Arusha accords, which were supposed to put an end in 1993 to a civil war between the Hutu authorities in Kigali and a Tutsi rebellion.

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Protais Mpiranya was a commander in the Presidential Guard in 1994 and is accused of playing a key role in the slaughter of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Zimbabwe has previously been accused of sheltering him. The UN's Rwandan war crimes tribunal has offered a m reward for him.

Such stories recount the official narrative about the ‘ Genocide in Rwanda ’, a narrative that has five or six key elements that have been almost Most of the ‘ Rwanda Genocide ’ narrative is mythology relying on simplifications, stereotypes and reductionisms about Hutus and Tutsis as tribal savages.

The assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana triggers an emergency meeting between the staff of the Rwandan Armed Forces and that of the gendarmerie, led by Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, and the UN military and civilian officials in the country, General Roméo Dallaire and Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh.

- "Create a political vacuum" -

The latter believe that Ms. Uwilingiyimana has the legal authority to take control of the situation and suggest that she address the population on the air. Categorical refusal by Colonel Bagosora who, along with members of the radical Hutu power, has other aims in mind.

On the morning of April 7, 1994, Protais Mpiranya and two other military officials "ordered their subordinates (...) to search for the Prime Minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, to kill her", writes the ICTR prosecutor in the indictment.

The desecrated body of Mrs. Uwilingiyimana, the first woman to have held this post, is exposed, naked, in plain view of passers-by. The attack is supervised by a captain of the presidential guard, still according to the prosecution.

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Rwanda Genocide Suspect Kabuga Arrested in France After Decades on the Run PARIS/KAMPALA (Reuters) - Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga, who is

Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga, who is accused of funding militias that massacred about 800,000 people, was arrested on Saturday near Paris after 26 years on the run , the Two other Rwandan genocide suspects, Augustin Bizimana and Protais Mpiranya , are still being pursued by

In the process, several personalities and senior politicians favorable to the Arusha accords are assassinated: the president of the Constitutional Court, the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Information, the vice-president of the prospective Social Democratic party. for the post of President of the Transitional National Assembly.

© Simon Wohlfahrt List of personalities wanted for their alleged participation in the Rwandan genocide. Photo taken on May 19, 2020 at the Kigali genocide investigation office. A picture taken on May 19, 2020, shows the face of Protais Mpiranya, one of the key suspects in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, on a wanted poster on the wall at the Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit office in Kigali, Rwanda.

The goal: "To create a political vacuum and to defeat the implementation of the Arusha Accords", according to the prosecution. And each time, members of Mr. Mpiranya's presidential guard are directly involved.

Protais Mpiranya is a native of the former province of Gisenyi (northern Rwanda), in the same region of origin as Juvénal Habyarimana and several senior radical Hutu military officials.

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Protais Mpiranya . Rwanda genocide convict dies in Senegalese prison. Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga, who is accused of funding militias that massacred about 800,000 people, was arrested on Saturday near Paris after 25 years on the run , the French justice ministry said.

Officials in Rwanda hailed the arrest. According to prosecutors, other top fugitives still at large include Protais Mpiranya , the former commandant For years after the genocide , relations between Rwanda and France were under strain, with Rwanda ’s ruling party blaming the French government in part for

After graduating from the Kigali Military College in 1983, he was assigned to the national gendarmerie.

- "Understanding" of where he is hiding -

In 1991, when the Rwandan army was grappling with the rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) led by the current head of state Paul Kagame, he was transferred to the presidential guard battalion. Two years later, Mpiranya was promoted to commander of this unit.

After the defeat of the FAR and the end of the genocide in July 1994, a long road of exile began which would take him to several African countries.

According to the African Rights organization which worked on the 1994 genocide, the former officer fought alongside the Congolese armed forces in 1998 against Congolese rebels supported by the new Rwandan army.

According to the Zimbabwean press and information published in Rwanda, he was later sent to Zimbabwe on behalf of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), partly made up of former genocidaires and accused of exploiting the minerals of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

"Through our intensified investigations over the past three years, we have come to a solid understanding of Mpiranya's movements and where he is hiding", recently assured Serge Brammertz, the prosecutor of the Mechanism for criminal courts. international organizations (MTPI), the structure responsible for completing the work of the ICTR.

"Our task now is to obtain the necessary cooperation from the countries concerned", he added.

If the Belgian magistrate refuses to name these countries, his reports to the United Nations suggest that Protais Mpiranya is circulating in southern Africa.

For Serge Brammertz, the former commander of the presidential guard during the genocide of the Tutsi in 1994 is therefore still alive, contrary to the assertions of certain Rwandan circles in exile.

str-fal / md / thm / sba