ONE of the last remaining suspects accused of orchestrating the brutal massacres of the Rwanda genocide nearly 30 years ago plans to apply for political asylum in South Africa, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Fulgence Kayishema, a former police officer in Rwanda, was tracked down and arrested in South Africa last month.
An application for asylum would potentially further delay his extradition to a U.N. tribunal in Tanzania and ultimately to his home country for a long-awaited trial.
Kayishema is one of the last four fugitives being sought by the United Nations’ International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals for genocide and crimes against humanity during the 100 days of horror that unfolded in the East African nation in 1994.
More than 800,000 people were killed when militias made up mainly of members of Rwanda’s Hutu ethnic group turned on their Tutsi neighbours. The killings, an attempt to wipe out the minority Tutsis, were triggered on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down, killing him.
