Notorious Rwandan war criminal Callixte Mbarushimana was arrested today in Paris after sixteen years of impunity. He was arrested after a sealed arrest warrant was issued by the ICC in late September. French authorities cooperated fully. Mbarushimana faces five counts of crimes against humanity (murder, torture, rape, inhumane acts and persecution) and six counts of war crimes (attacks against the civilian population, destruction of property, murder, torture, rape and inhuman treatment).
The charges Mbarushimana faces at the I.C.C. stem from crimes committed in Congo’s Kivu province last year. Mbarushimana has been a key figure in the FDLR in the Congo while living in exile in France during the years since the Rwandan genocide. He is alleged to have played a part in directing the murder of over 700 civilians and over 10,000 rapes in Kivu in 2009.
What many find most offensive is that Mbarushimana was a U.N. employee during the Rwandan genocide; he used that priviledge to further the genocide by identifying employees to be killed, identifying safe-havens designated by the U.N. and evacuation points to Hutu militias; and personally carried out genocidal murders himself. Up to a dozen eye witnesses have come forward testifying that Mbarushimana supervised killings of Tutsis during the genocide and/or pulled the trigger himself.
The ICTR failed to sign his indictment in 2001 alleging that his role in the genocide was not large enough to warrant prosecution in front of the special tribunal, even though he was implicated in over 30 murders and grossly abused his position as an international civil servant. Unfortunately he went on to help mastermind killings and other war crimes and crimes against humanity that rose to the level of severity worthy of consideration before an international criminal venue.
