Rwanda's genocide leader 'lives freely in France'

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116928§ionid=351020603


A Rwandan rebel leader belonging to Armed Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and accused of genocide is reportedly living as a free man in a suburb of Paris.

Callixte Mbarushimana, executive secretary of the FDLR rebel group, coordinates the rebels' daily activities in Rwanda and its neighboring countries, AP reported Saturday.

Based on the report, the 46-year-old former UN employee is able to regularly send out press releases from his apartment in the French capital.

FDLR is one of several groups accused of creating instability in the African nation as many of its members are accused of taking part in Rwanda's genocide.

The Genocide was the 1994 mass killing of hundreds of thousands of Rwanda's Tutsis and Hutu political moderates by the Hutu dominated government.

An estimated 800,000 people were massacred in the genocide.

French Foreign Ministry has refused to extradite Mbarushimana to Rwanda whose men are accused of killing at least 700 civilians last year.

"France does not extradite the citizens of countries which apply the death penalty, as was the case in Rwanda, or whose justice systems do not fully guarantee their rights," French Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bernard Valero said.

Relations between two countries have reached a new low as Rwanda's government accuses France of playing an active role in the 1994 genocide.

The FDLR group is also accused of decapitating several hundred people a few months ago in the village of Busurungi in DR Congo.

The war, centered mainly in eastern DR Congo, has involved nine African nations and directly affected the lives of 50 million Congolese.

An estimated 5 million people died in Congo from disease and hunger as a result of the civil war which raged from 1998 to 2003.