The Association of Rwandan Genocide Survivors, Ibukasalue, the Extradition of the Netherlands by Venant Rutunga. The 72-year-old man landed in Kigali on Monday night. He was placed in the hands of the Rwandan authorities, where he is accused of being part of the cadres who organized the massacre of the Tutsis in the south of the country.
In 1994, Venant Rutunga was regional director at Isar Rubona, an agricultural research institute near Butare. When the killings began, more than a thousand residents took refuge on the institute’s premises, suspected of taking in the Interahamwe soldiers and militia members. Egide Nkuranga is interim president of Ibuka, a French NGO working to commemorate the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. For him, there is no doubt: Venant Rutunga played an active role in carrying out the genocide in this part of the country.
Venant Rutunga is suspected of having taken in the Interahamwe soldiers and militia members. Egide Nkuranga is the interim president of Ibuka. For him, there is no doubt: Venant Rutunga played an active role in carrying out the genocide in this part of the country. “He was among the Isar leaders. He was very, very busy, he explains. He was a member of the people who actually carried out the genocide that was being prepared. So he really was at the forefront of the genocide operations that were happening at the head of the country. “
Refugee status refused
In 2000, Venant Rutunga applied for refugee status in the Netherlands, which he was denied due to suspicions of his past. Almost two decades later, in March 2019, the result of cooperation between Rwanda and Dutch justice, Coming Rutunga, is arrested in a village near Utrecht.
After exhausting all these measures to avoid being sent back to Rwanda for trial, he becomes the third Rwanda suspected of genocide extradited from the Netherlands.
As for the former director general of Isar Rubona, Charles Ndereyehe, accused of planning the 1994 massacres in this part of Rwanda, he was also arrested in the Netherlands in September 2020. Rwanda is awaiting his extradition.
► See also: Two Rwandans extradited from the Netherlands to Kigali
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