Genocide in Rwanda. Felician Cabuga in court, he had to buy hundreds of thousands of knives

The trial of 86-year-old Felician Kabuga began in The Hague on Thursday, September 29, but the accused refused to appear in court. Kabuga is one of the richest men RwandaAnd then became one of the most loved people in the world for decades. He was accused of providing financial and organizational support to the groups that massacred representatives of the Tutsi ethnic minority in 1994. He should also use a radio station to openly instigate this genocide.

Kabuga’s lawyer argued that the accused’s physical and mental weakness made him unable to stand trial. However, the judges decided that Kabuka was competent to participate in the trial, they only decided to shorten the duration of the sessions. The court is paying for the 86-year-old’s defense as he was found not to be wealthy as all his assets were seized in court.

Prosecutors say Felician Kabuga played a key role in the 1994 events. They argue that the radio station he founded, RTLM (Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines), began inciting ethnic hatred against the Tutsi minority months before the genocide began.

During the genocide, the station actively supported the later killers, including by providing information on where to set up roadblocks and where to look for “enemies”, i.e. representatives of the Tutsi people – it follows from the indictment. Félicien was also accused of bringing it from Kabuga China For Rwanda, hundreds of thousands of knives and other weapons they later massacred.

“It is a rare case that a powerful economic entity, a wealthy businessman, has been brought to justice for the crimes he committed,” said Stephen Rapp, former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for Rwanda.

During the three-month massacre in Rwanda in the spring and summer of 1994, at least 800,000 people died. Every day, an average of 10,000 people were killed, mostly using ordinary knives.

After the genocide was stopped and the country was taken over by Dutsich Felician, Kabuga fled. For more than two decades, he went into hiding, traveling the world and using various passports. In the end Kabuga was arrested on May 16, 2020 in the Paris suburb of Asnieres-sur-Seine..

Felician Kabuga’s case may be the last major trial by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which convicted a total of 61 people. Over the past three decades, thousands of people have been tried for genocide, most of them in Rwandan courts. Some have also been convicted in domestic courts in North America and Europe.

See also: Protagonist of the movie “Hotel Rwanda” in front of the court