U.S. Will Hunt Masterminds of Rwanda Genocide

ABCNEWS.com ^ | Jun 12, 2002 | Reuters

[grimalkin]

— NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday it was starting an "aggressive and targeted" campaign to hunt down those behind the Rwandan genocide, offering rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to their arrest.

The campaign, which includes "wanted" posters and a specialized task force, will begin in Kenya but is expected to move to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, where several suspects are believed to be hiding and funding the conflict.

The suspects will be targeted one by one. Anyone arrested will be transferred to the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Tanzania for trial.

"While they are fugitives of justice, they can run but they cannot hide," Pierre-Richard Prosper, U.S. ambassador-at-large on war crimes issues, told a news conference in Nairobi.

"We are now in pursuit. We are prepared to move this task force and campaign to where the information leads us and to wherever it is needed."

Prosper said he and his delegation would meet with Congolese President Joseph Kabila Thursday to lay the groundwork to taking the campaign there in the coming months.

"At least eight persons have been identified who are indicted by the ICTR who we believe are presently in the Congo," Prosper said.

"But there are many more throughout Africa and Europe. These individuals continue to play a destructive role and are fueling the war that has gripped the Great Lakes region of Africa for over half a decade."

Prosper said many of the at-large indictees are the leaders of the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR), named by Washington as a terrorist group, which is fighting the government in Kigali from bases within Congo.

He said some were thought to be financially backing the war, while others were acting commanders on the ground.

HATE RADIO CHIEF

The campaign's first target is Felicien Kabuga, a wealthy businessman accused of funding the 1994 genocide in which Hutu extremists killed around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Kabuga, thought to spend considerable time in Kenya, is accused of buying machetes and hoes to be used to hack people to death, and of fueling ethnic hatred by paying for radio broadcasts dedicated to "Hutu Power."

Kenyan Attorney General Amos Wako said Kabuga had eluded the authorities in Kenya several times.

"On at least three occasions either information was not correct or Kabuga eluded us," he said, adding that Kenya has already handed 13 suspects to the ICTR.

Prosper said about 15 suspects who would be targeted in the campaign. Previous rewards for justice schemes have led to the arrest of a suspect about 22 times, he said. The maximum reward given to date has been $2,000,000.

Rwanda's Tutsi-led government has complained that the international community has worked far harder to arrest alleged war criminals in the Balkans and other regions than in Rwanda.

[Enemy Of The State]

Question: If the US government is so adamantly opposed to the creation of an international criminal court, why then are we going after people and turning them over to the UN to be tried in their cirucs court?

[Publius6961]

U.S. Will Hunt Masterminds of Rwanda Genocide

Why?
You think the clowns at the Hague or in Belgium can switch from "prosecuting" civilized cultures and point their seeing-eye dogs at the truly brutal and savage genocide going on in the places that don't seem to exist for them?

[gaspar]

I would suggest that they should first look at policy makers in the governments of France and the United States. The first for abetting the killers, the United States for turning a blind-eye to the slaughter.

[gaspar]

This was a pet project of Maddy Albright. Conservatives wanted this out of the State Department but Colin Powell bought in and placed Prosper, son of Haitian immigrants as Ambassador at Large for war crimes issues. It is a boondoggle, but it makes Powell and his cronies, and Albright and her cronies, feel good.

[GingisK]

Lets slam the barn door now that the horse has escaped.

[cibco]

Near the top of the list should be Koffi Annan. He might be hard to find though...

[coloradan]

WASHINGTON, Aug 21 [2001] (AFP) - The US government came under fire Tuesday over its stance during Rwanda's 1994 mass killings following the release of declassified official documents showing Washington anticipated events now seen as among the most gruesome atrocities of the late 20th century. "The US response was literally running away from any responsibility," Salih Booker, director of the Africa Policy Center, told AFP.

He was reacting to documents, released Monday by the National Security Archive, showing that as bloodthirsty Hutu militias fanned out across Rwanda, US diplomats advocated "an orderly withdrawal" of the Rwanda-based UN force known as UNAMIR that some believe could have helped protect civilians. According to Booker, the documents belie the claim made at the time that the administration of former president Bill Clinton was unaware of the scale of the killings. "This report makes clear that the US was aware, but decided not only not to stop genocide, but also to prevent others from intervening in a way that could have saved hundreds or thousands of lives," he added. Source.

So, I hereby submit William Jefferson Clinton as the prime suspect in masterminding the massacre.

[Free the USA]

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