Rwanda wants 'genocide priest'
2006-01-13 10:35
Kigali - Rwandan authorities have demanded the extradition of a Catholic priest exiled in France who is suspected of participating in the country's 1994 genocide, officials said on Thursday.
Christophe Bizimungu, the prosecutor for Rwanda's military tribunal said Kigali had asked Paris to hand over Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, the former vicar of the capital's Holy Family parish, to face trial for his alleged role in the brutal 100-day killing incident between April and June 1994.
Bizimungu said: "We issued an international arrest warrant for him in December so that he be extradited and tried here alongside general Laurent Munyakazi by the military tribunal."
Munyakazi, a former senior member of Rwanda's army was arrested last September for his alleged role in the genocide, in which some 800 000 people, mainly minority Tutsis, were killed by Hutu extremists.
Although Rwanda didn't have an extradition treaty with France, Bizimungu said the priest should be tried for "obvious collaboration with Munyakazi".
Under Rwandan law, civilians who collaborated with the military in the commission of a crime could be court martialled.
Munyeshyaka was suspected of handing over Tutsis who had taken refuge at the Kigali Holy Family Church to Hutu militia and witnesses had accused him of helping to identify Tutsis from among refugees to be killed or raped.
The role of the Roman Catholic Church during the genocide had been controversial in the small central African nation as thousands of Tutsis who sought refuge in houses of worship were killed in circumstances that had led to investigations of possible roles of the clergy.