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Protais Mpiranya was one of the main Rwandan genocidaires. His death was revealed Thursday, May 12 by United Nations prosecutors who are investigating the last perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide. This “Mechanism” tracks down the last fugitives indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Since the arrest of Félicien Kabuga, in France, two years ago, Protais Mpiranya was the most important of the former genocidaires still untraceable.
The most wanted fugitive from justice for his role in the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994, died in 2006, more than fifteen years ago, in peace, in Zimbabwe. His presence in the country and then his death were » deliberately concealed » grace » to the concerted efforts of his family and associates says the UN prosecutors’ statement.
The prosecutors have nevertheless, after a long investigation supported by Rwanda and many countries around the world, were able to locate his remains in Harare. The death had been carefully concealed by his relatives. DNA analysis confirms the death of Protais Mpiranya on October 5, 2006.
#IRMCT Office of the Prosecutor confirms today the death of Protais Mpiranya, the last of the major fugitives indicted by the #ICTR and alleged to have been a senior leader of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. See the PR for more information: https://t.co/N1ARK4CnI4
— UNIRMCT (@unirmct) May 12, 2022
Protais Mpiranya is one of the main perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide: former head of the Presidential Guard, he notably ordered, according to the indictment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the assassination of the former Rwandan Prime Minister , Agathe Uwilingiyimana, a moderate Hutu. His desecrated and naked body was then exposed in the street. Protais Mpiranya had also been charged with the murder of the President of the Constitutional Court, two ministers and even ten Belgian blue helmets.
From Cameroon to Zimbabwe
From his flight from Rwanda in 1994, he had regularly changed his identity in his successive exiles, explains our correspondent in The Hague, Stephanie Maupas. First in Cameroon, then in the Central African Republic and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). In this country, he then fought alongside the Congolese army, against rebels supported by the new Rwandan army.
It was in a DRC in the throes of war that he forged ties with senior officers from Zimbabwe around 1998. They loyally protected him in his flight for years. He fights within the FDLR, an armed group made up in part of former genocidaires, and accused of exploiting minerals in eastern Congo. Revelations made by the organization African Rights, and by the Rwandan and Zimbabwean press. At the head of the Horizon brigade, he then changed his name and called himself » Commander Alain « .
He was indicted in 2000 by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in particular for genocide, complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. It then disappears almost completely from radar. According to a prosecutor’s report, his last years were marked by anguish and fear of being discovered and being tried for his crimes « . Protais Mpiranya will therefore have managed to escape justice, until the end of his life. The UN mechanism continues to track down the last five fugitives still on its list.
► Read also Rwanda: the origins of the genocide
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