RWANDA-BRITAIN/ARREST-SPAIN LAWYER Rwandan spy chief must face war crimes charges - lawyer

Record ID: 151985

  • Title: RWANDA-BRITAIN/ARREST-SPAIN LAWYER Rwandan spy chief must face war crimes charges - lawyer
  • Date: 23rd June 2015
  • Summary: BARCELONA, SPAIN (JUNE 23, 2015) (REUTERS) LAWYER OF SPANISH AND RWANDAN VICTIMS, JORDI PALOU, WALKING IN BARCELONA VARIOUS OF PALOU GOING OVER KARENZI KARAKE ARREST WARRANT (SOUNDBITE) (English) LAWYER OF SPANISH AND RWANDAN VICTIMS, JORDI PALOU, SAYING: "What should be happening is that General Karake Karenzi is heard by the judicial Spanish authorities facing the allege
  • Embargoed: 8th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA95D0ODOLAG19GYF48L4T1EPQG
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A lawyer for Spanish and Rwandan victims said on Tuesday (June 23) that Karenzi Karake, Rwanda's intelligence chief, should be tried in Spain after he was arrested in Britain at Spain's request.
    Jordi Palou, who represents victims at the International Forum for Truth and Justice in the African Great Lakes, said Karake should not be allowed impunity for his alleged crimes.
    "What should be happening is that General Karake Karenzi is heard by the judicial Spanish authorities facing the alleged crimes that are described in the international arrest warrant. This is the international law, this is the international conventions. We are considering international crimes, the five big international crimes. And there is a commitment, not only of the British authorities, but of the Spanish authorities and the States - considering the international convention of war crimes - there is a commitment to hear and to produce an investigation and also a decision after a fair trial when we are considering international crimes," said Palou.
    Rwanda said on Tuesday that it was an "outrage" for Britain to arrest the director general of Rwanda's National Intelligence and Security Services.
    Fifty-four-year-old Karake was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport on Saturday (June 20) and was remanded in custody to re-appear in court on Thursday (June 25).
    In 2008, a Spanish High Court judge accused 40 Rwandan military and political leaders, including Karake, of engaging in reprisal killings after the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
    The judge indicted the officials for genocide, crimes against humanity and terrorism that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, including Spaniards.
    The case will likely further strain ties between Rwanda and aid-donor Britain after Kigali suspended a local BBC radio service last year after a documentary by the British broadcaster questioned official accounts of the genocide.
    Rwanda has long accused the West and others of doing too little to halt the genocide and then failing to do more to crush groups such as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) "genocidaires", a Hutu militia implicated in Rwanda's 1994 genocide and blamed by the United Nations and human rights groups for atrocities in eastern Congo.
    About 800,000 people were butchered in three months of ethnic killings in 1994, most of them from Rwanda's Tutsi minority as well as moderates from the Hutu majority.
    The massacre was halted by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the then rebel force led by Paul Kagame, who is now president.
    Western states and the United Nations have said they did not do enough to stop the bloodshed and have since poured in aid.
    Britain's embassy in Kigali said the arrest "was a legal obligation, following the issue of a valid European arrest warrant", adding that it "greatly values the close relationship with Rwanda" and was committed to it for the long term.
    Rwanda's ambassador in London, William Nkurunziza, told the BBC the charges against Karake were "politically motivated".
    Palou denied any political motivation for the arrest, arguing that Spain had no major ties with Rwanda.
    "There was no economical relation, there was no political relation, there was not a strategical geo-economical interests of Spain in Rwanda or Central Africa, which is different from the situation of course of France, a former ally of the former regime in Rwanda, or Belgium as a former colony, or the United States or Great Britain as current allies of the Paul Kagame regime right now," said Palou.
    Palou said there had been no changes in the arrest warrant filed for Karake's arrest, but that since 2008 more evidence had been gathered.
    "In fact there is no change in the international arrest warrant from what was issued in 2008. The only changes are in fact in the scope of the investigation. This means that mainly protected witnesses that had witnessed before court after February 2008 are in fact in the investigation in the case, in the file, so this gives complementary evidences of what was obtained before 2008."
    Justice Minister Johnston Busingye said Rwanda was working with the British government on the case.
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