The weekend arrest of Felicien Kabuga, sought for decades for his alleged role in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, surprised a neighbor in their affluent Paris suburb and gratified those working on human rights and justice.
“Félicien Kabuga’s arrest is a major victory for victims and survivors of the genocide in Rwanda who have waited more than two decades to see this leading figure face justice,” Mausi Segun, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a news release Monday.
Kabuga’s arrest “is a reminder that those responsible for genocide can be brought to account, even 26 years after their crimes,” Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor for the mechanism, said in a statement.
The U.S. State Department applauded Kabuga’s arrest, calling it “a milestone for international justice, and a message for all fugitives indicted for genocide that they will be brought to justice.”
Jean Pierre Dusingizemungu, a spokesman for the London-based SURF Survivors Fund (Supporting Survivors of the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda), saw it as “a great sign for [Kabuga] to be caught in a country like France, which has been said to protect genocide suspects.
