Genocide suspect Theodore Rukeratabaro was, Wednesday morning, handed a life sentence after being convicted for genocide, a development that survivors highly praised. Rukeratabaro fled to Sweden in 1998 and obtained citizenship in 2006, Rwanda sent his indictment to Sweden on September 12, 2014. The 49-year-old man has been living in Örebro, a Swedish city with 117,543 inhabitants. The convict altered his name to evade justice. From being referred to as ‘Rukeratabaro’, he goes by the name ‘Tabaro’. He was convicted for Genocide and gross human rights violations, crimes he committed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Egide Mutabazi, 42, a survivor knew the killer well enough since they played and went to school together as youngsters. He told The New Times that he was happy for the justice delivered by Sweden. The convict was a mastermind of the massacres that took place between April and May, 1994, in the present Winteko Sector of Rusizi District. “We have spent many years, since 1994, knowing that he ran away and it was over and we would never get justice,” Mutabazi said. “But we are happy for the effort put in tracking him, be it on the side of the Rwandan prosecution and Sweden which duly arrested and took him to court and has now handed a ruling fitting the crimes he committed.” Mutabazi who lost five relatives including his father in killings masterminded by Rukeratabaro said the convict organized and directed massacres to the extent that he got many Tutsi killed using his influence as a respected gendarme (paramilitary police). “We now hope that even matters regarding reparations for those who were turned into orphans and widows as well as those people whose properties were rooted and vandalized will be considered. But the most important was justice being delivered, and we have got that,” Mutabazi said. Before trial begun in a special Stockholm court last September, Swedish judges travelled to Rwanda to gather evidence. The spokesperson of the National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA), Faustin Nkusi, told The New Times that it is not yet clear if the convict will appeal. “The Prosecution has welcomed the decision [court ruling]. And this is the third conviction after Mbanenande Stanislas in 2014 and Berinkindi Claver in 2017. Mbanenande and Berinkidi – two other genocide convicts – were also sentenced to life in prison by the Swedish courts. What the survivors want Last Friday, survivors held a commemorative event at Winteko Sector and everyone who shared their estimony 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.” Every year, survivors commemorate the lives of more than 171 people killed in Winteko Sector. Survivors would now like to see, after the conviction, Rukeratabaro come to Rwanda and show them 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.
