CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) – One of Rwanda’s most wanted suspects for the country’s 1994 genocide appeared in a South African court Friday, holding a Bible and another inscribed with “Jesus first” on the cover. There was a book.
Fulgence Kayishema was a police officer with the rank of Inspector when he allegedly plotted the murders of more than 2,000 people, including children, as they tried to take refuge in a church during the first days of the massacre.
He was arrested on Wednesday in a small town in a wine-growing region about 30 miles east of Cape Town, having managed to evade justice for nearly 30 years. South African officials gave his age as 61.
Kayishema, wearing glasses and a blue winter jacket, confirmed his identity when asked by a judge during his brief appearance at the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court. He placed religious books in the courtroom for reporters and others to see before the start of the hearing, and sat through most of the proceedings with his hands in his lap.
He was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity in 2001 by a tribunal investigating the horrors of the Rwandan genocide, where more than 800,000 people were killed when members of the ethnic Hutu group massacred minority Tutsi and other Hutus. Tried to protect him.
The judge said Kaishema would be remanded in custody until the next hearing in the same court next Friday. He is expected to be extradited to Rwanda and eventually stand trial for genocide and crimes against humanity.
The five charges that South African prosecutors brought against him on Friday relate to making false statements on immigration forms to enter and live in South Africa only 23 years ago.
In January 2000, Kaishema lied to South African authorities by using a false name – Fuljens Dende-Minani – and claiming to be a refugee from Burundi, prosecutors alleged in court documents. He was granted asylum in 2004, but it expired two years later, according to prosecutors. He was apparently living in South Africa for the last 17 years.
It was not clear whether those charges would go to trial in South Africa before his extradition to stand trial for genocide.
Kayishema was indicted for the Rwandan killings more than 20 years ago by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which was established by the United Nations to investigate the genocide and bring the killers to justice. The International Residuary Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals continues the work of that tribunal, and announced Kaishema’s arrest on Thursday.
It called him “one of the most wanted suspects” in the Rwandan genocide.
According to documents from South African prosecutors, he fled Rwanda at least a year before he was to stand trial over the killing of 2,000 Tutsi refugees.
A young Rwandan girl walks past the Nyanza cemetery, where thousands of victims of the 1994 genocide are buried, outside Kigali, Rwanda, Monday, November 25, 1996 (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazlan)
Kaishema was among the leaders of the group that first tried to burn down the church. The indictment states that when that plan failed, he and others used bulldozers to demolish the building, crushing and killing people.
According to the indictment, he was also involved in moving bodies to mass graves over the next two days.
He was eventually discovered in the city of Paarl in South Africa’s Western Cape province, a historic old town known mostly for its wine-making and for home to one of South Africa’s most prestigious rugby-playing schools.
The tribunal said Kaishema was tracked by the Genocide Tribunal’s fugitive tracking team and by Interpol with the help of authorities in Rwanda, South Africa, Mozambique, Eswatini, Britain, Canada and the United States.
