Bizimana is a known Genocide denier - Karugarama

URUGWIRO VILLAGE - The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Tharcisse Karugarama, has pointed out that Rwanda’s former envoy to the United Nations who vanished after 1994 but has now been spotted in the United States, is a Genocide denier whose possible involvement in events preceding the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi is still being investigated.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama (File Photo)

URUGWIRO VILLAGE - The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Tharcisse Karugarama, has pointed out that Rwanda’s former envoy to the United Nations who vanished after 1994 but has now been spotted in the United States, is a Genocide denier whose possible involvement in events preceding the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi is still being investigated.

Karugarama, made the remarks during the monthly Presidential press conference, yesterday at Urugwiro Village.

"This guy is not on the indicted list that has been submitted to the US government, but he is definitely a Genocide denier,” Karugarama said.

"He represented Rwanda during that difficult period, and he kept telling the Security Council that what was happening here was civil conflict, between the Hutus and the Tutsis, that had nothing to do with Genocide.”

Karugarama, further explained why no charges had been proffered against Bizimana.

"He was not in the country at the time. So, it is very difficult to have placed charges for the 1994 [involvement] but there were investigations about 1991 and 1992 and that haven’t been completed.”

A recent article published in The Washington Post and written by David L. Bosco, an assistant professor at American University’s School of International Service, revealed that Bizimana lives in Opelika, Alabama, a few miles from Auburn University and works for a plastics company - Capitol Plastics Products.

At the height of the Genocide, Bizimana, then a 36-year old diplomat, presided over U.N. Security Council deliberations as members of his government carried out the mass killing of over one million ethnic Tutsi.

Before he disappeared in 1994, Bizimana is accused of having stripped Rwanda’s UN mission in New York bare.

"Diplomats from the incoming government who took over Rwanda’s UN mission on East 39th Street in Manhattan found the bank accounts empty and the offices stripped bare.

Even the refrigerator and the stereo were gone,” reads the Washington Post article.

Ends