France Extraditing Rwanda "Butcher of Tumba"

As a Francophone country, Rwanda is an appealing destination to Rwandan expatriates. After the Rwandan genocide in 1994, there were quite a few Rwandans with blood on their hands who tried to blend into French society. One would think that a gynecologist at a university hospital seeking to open up practice in France would seem pretty tame. But according to the Rwandan government, Sosthene Munyemana, age 45, is no ordinary doctor. according to the government of Rwanda, he personally killed with his bare hands, and lent the persuasiveness of his rank in Rwandan society to further the Hutu genocide of Tutsi Rwandans. The Times of London reports as follows on the disturbing case against Dr. Munyemana.

Sosthene Munyemana, 45, was detained on Wednesday by police acting on an extradition warrant issued by Kigali. His arrest seeks to end 15 years of dispute between Paris and Rwanda over the massacres that killed at least 800,000 people in the East-Central African nation. Dr Munyemana, who has been working in a hospital emergency ward at Villeneuve-sur-Lot, near Bordeaux, had been on an Interpol wanted list since 2006 and Rwanda has been seeking his return for a decade but French authorities had delayed proceedings.
According to Rwandan investigators Dr Munyemana, an ethnic Hutu and gynaecologist at the University Hospital in Butare, allegedly took part in the massacre of ethnic Tutsis in 1994 and was known as “the Butcher of Tumba”.

The Christian Science Monitor, report as follows on the allegations against Munyemana.


"Munyemana has been described in the UN and other post-genocide investigations as a close protégé and ideological partner of Hutu power leader Jean Kambanda, who pled guilty to a genocide charge at the Rwandan War Crimes Tribunal in Tanzania.
“Clad in a long black coat, armed with a machete, or an iron bar shaped like a pipe, a sword or a gun, he wore banana leaves to motivate peasants,” a 2007 African Rights report said of Munyemana, citing eyewitnesses."


Rwanda has a cultural tradition of confession and forgiveness, even for murder. Prior to the1994 genocide were previous instances in 1959, 1963, 1967, 1973 and 1990 preceded the 1994 genocide and fueled a drain of Tutsi Rwandans into neighbouring countries. Each time, there was reconciliation and forgiveness. Even today, there are people who are neighbours to people who they know murdered members of their family. It seems that instead of aborting a cycle of violence and starting anew that the culture of forgiveness has lowered the consequences of murder and cheapened the lives of the victims.

There is a lesson to be learned when the long arm of justice reaches around the world to try and punish killers. When someone builds a placid life after perpetrating atrocities and is brought to justice, it teaches a powerful lesson. A murderer should be hunted until his or her last day on earth. If old age wrinkles the brow of a killer, they deserve no rest. They should feel hunted. They should live every day in fear of their shadow, in dread of a price to be exacted for their crimes. A country that lets genocidaires enjoy peace within its borders defiles itself. France is to be commended for assisting Rwanda in bringing Rwanda's killer to justice.

Unfortunately, Rwanda has a history of pardoning "small fish" in the Rwandan genocide. In extending forgiveness to those with innocent blood on their hands, forgiveness is cheapened. France has started to do its part. May the blood of Rwanda's innocent be avenged.