Dispatches: Ending Genocide in Rwanda Does not Excuse Murder
When Emmanuel Karenzi Karake, the head of Rwanda’s intelligence
services, was brought into the dock of a London court on Thursday, he
clasped his hands above his head in a two-fisted salute to the public
gallery. Dozens cheered; others looked on in silence. For some, Karenzi
Karake is a hero, a key member of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)
which ended the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. But for others, he is
responsible for many killings and other abuses in the post-genocide era.
Karenzi Karake was in court following his arrest
on June 20 in London. He is fighting an extradition request from Spain
over allegations of serious crimes, including crimes against humanity,
between 1990 and 2002 in Rwanda and in neighboring Democratic Republic
of Congo.
The 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which more than half-a-million people were systematically slaughtered
was a cataclysmic event. The vast majority of the victims were Tutsi,
targeted solely because of their ethnicity. The RPF overthrew the
interim government and its army who had perpetrated the genocide, and is
rightly hailed by many Rwandans for ending the genocide. But the story
does not end there.
