The government of Rwanda is issuing a fresh extradition request for Genocide fugitive Maj. Pierre-Claver Karangwa, who was arrested in the Netherlands earlier this month.
Karangwa, a former officer in the genocidal regime’s military, alleged to be one of the key masterminds in the massacre of thousands during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, was arrested on May 11, by Dutch police.
The Ambassador of Rwanda to the Netherlands, Olivier Nduhungirehe, told The New Times that the fugitive "was provisionally arrested for 20 days.”
He added: "And the Dutch authorities requested an updated extradition request by 31st of May, which will be sent by tomorrow [Wednesday, May 25]. Then the Judge will formally decide on the extradition.”
Before his arrest, the 65-year-old lived in Ermelo, a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland.
On May 13, soon after his arrest, he was brought before the examining magistrate in The Hague who, sources said, validated his arrest.
Though wanted in Kigali on suspicion of involvement in the 1994 genocide, Karangwa continued to live in the Netherlands since 1998.
The former chief of army intelligence acquired Dutch citizenship in 2004.
He worked at the school campus of Landstede Harderwijk as the facility officer. Harderwijk is located in the province of Gelderland.
He is accused of being responsible for the mass murder of more than 20,000 people in his birthplace Mugina, in the former Gitarama district.
Dozens of witnesses of the Mugina killings, including former Interahamwe militia who participated in the massacres and were sentenced for it, testified against Karangwa.
Apart from participating in the massacres, he is also accused of being responsible for the murder of the Mayor of Mugina, Callixte Ndagijimana, who was trying to protect the Tutsi.
Gacaca courts in his home area sentenced him in absentia to life in prison.
Massacre of Tutsi at Bibungo bya Mukinga, Kamonyi
Mugina Parish is located in Mbati Cell, Mugina Sector, Kamonyi District.
According to a document by the now defunct National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), on April 24, 1994, there was a major attack on Mugina parish, in Kamonyi District, that killed the Tutsi who had taken refuge in the area.
It is noted that those who had managed to get inside the church there had managed to survive until killers ordered them to get out and they were immediately killed.
The killers said that they will not kill women and children, many of whom were wounded, hence they decided to take them all to Kabgayi.
"When they arrived in Bibungo, they met Major Karangwa Pierre Claver, the head of National Gendarmery Investigation Service and asked them where they are taking them and killers told him that they are taking them to Kabgayi,” reads a section about the massacres at a place called Bibungo bya Mukinga.
"Karangwa prohibited them and ordered Tutsi to be killed on spot, they took them into the nearby house of a Tutsi called Moko and others were put in the toilet pit alive. Major Karangwa provided petrol to burn them in the house as well as those in the toiled pit who were burnt alive.”
Karangwa later fled to the Netherlands.