A Swedish Court is set to make a ruling in the trial of Theodore Rukeratabaro, 50, a Genocide suspect living in Sweden. The ruling is scheduled for Wednesday, June 27, 2018. Shortly before the trial begun in Stockholm, last September, Swedish judges traveled to Rwanda to gather evidence. At the time, the National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) said the judges heard witness testimonies - via video link - at the Supreme Court in Kigali. Rukeratabaro has been on trial in a special Stockholm court for his alleged role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi: murder, attempted murder, rapes and kidnappings of the Tutsi; crimes that took place between April and May 1994, mainly in the present Winteko Sector of Rusizi District, former Cyimbogo Commune. Genocide survivors closely monitored the case and are anxiously waiting for the outcome of the trial. Egide Mutabazi, 42, lost his father and other family members in killings masterminded by the suspect. He told The New Times that he knew the killer well enough since they actually played and went to the same school as youngsters. “Last Friday we held a commemorative event at our former home area. Everyone who shared their testimony said that if Theodore Rukeratabaro had not lived there, there wouldn’t have been any Genocide in Winteko or few Tutsi would have been killed,” Mutabazi said. “Every year, we commemorate the lives of more than 171 people killed in Winteko”. Mutabazi said that Rukeratabaro accomplices include Modeste Karemera who was a judge and Jean Katabarwa, a local leader. “We believe the justice system in Sweden will hear the cries of widows whose husbands he killed and the children he turned into orphans and punish him fittingly,” Mutabazi said. “After the trial, he should also come to Rwanda and show survivors where their loved ones were killed and where their bodies were dumped so that they can be given a fitting and decent burial as human beings”. Survivors maintain that Rukeratabaro is no ordinary suspect as he was a mastermind of the Genocide in his home area and the environs. During the Genocide, he was a powerful and influential gendarme (paramilitary police) who sensitized the youth and mobilised them to kill the Tutsi. Jean-Damascene Gasarabwe, 61, another survivor of the Winteko massacres, reminisced the suspect’s role in Genocide. “This is a man who hosted Genocide planning meetings in his house, a man who also directed killers to murder people,” Gasarabwe said. According to survivors, the suspect altered his name to evade justice. From being referred to as ‘Rukeratabaro’, he now goes by the name ‘Tabaro’. Rwanda sent his indictment to Sweden on September 12, 2014 but it could not extradite the suspect since he is now a citizen. He arrived in Sweden in 1998 and became a citizen in 2006. He was arrested at his home in Orebro, about 160 kilometres west of Stockholm, in October 2016. In 2014 and 2016, Swedish courts convicted two other naturalised Rwandan Genocide suspects Stanislas Mbanenande and Claver Berinkidi, sentencing them to life in prison. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
