A man wanted by Rwandan authorities for allegedly playing a part in the 1994 Genocide of Tutsis has been suspended from his teaching position in the United States. US media broke the story that Léopold Munyakazi was relieved of his teaching duties at Goucher College in Baltimore “to pave way for investigations.” “We have not yet received official communication to this effect but I believe this decision is part of the ongoing efforts to secure his arrest,” Martin Ngoga, who heads the National Public Prosecutions Authority (NPPA), said yesterday. Munyakazi, who for a short time after 1994 worked as a lecturer at Kigali Institute of Education (KIE), later fled to the US after information emerged that he had participated in the Genocide especially in his home area of the former Gitarama Prefecture. He also features on Interpol’s Red Notice but, strangely had never been bothered by law enforcement officers. Munyakazi, who has been teaching French at the US College, is on record denying that there was Genocide in Rwanda. According to prosecution, an indictment has been made and forwarded to the US judicial authorities through diplomatic channels. “We are in touch with their law enforcers and there has been positive development in this regard,” said Ngoga. According to press reports, Munyakazi was ordered out of the college campus immediately after he was stopped from teaching. However, despite the development, Ngoga said that this was something that would have been done years ago “but nonetheless, it’s a good development.” The indictment against Munyakazi was according to sources, prepared and sent to the US in 2006. Efforts to track down fugitives responsible for the Genocide which left over one million people dead have been going on relentlessly since 1994. Several suspects have since been arrested in different parts of the world though no extradition has been effected. Most of these fugitives are detained in Europe but some have been for unknown reason been released. No arrest has been made in any African country since the establishment of the tracking unit in 2006. The unit is coordinated from the NPPA. Ends
