Inmiddels is me ook gebleken dat men Yvonne op het spoor is
gekomen via haar man Augustin Basebya. Hij heeft in het parlement van Rwanda
gezeten namens de MRND (Mouvement républicain national pour la démocratie et le développement).
Deze partij is de regerende partij geweest in Rwanda van 1975 tot 1994
en was ook de partij van de president Juvénal Habyarimana.
Geen partij om trots op te zijn, want deze is voor een groot deel
verantwoordelijk te noemen voor het uitvoeren van de genocide.
Daarna is hij de een of andere manier in Nederland gekomen. Ik
ben zo benieuw hoe hij dat voor elkaar heeft gekregen. Hij is waarschijnlijk op
de vlucht geslagen voor de RPF. Eerst waarschijnlijk naar Kongo of Tanzania, en
van daaruit naar Nederland. Maar hoe heeft hij dat gedaan? Klaarblijkelijk was
hij daar al in 1998, want toen heeft hij een brief aan de IND geschreven ten
faveure van zijn vrouw. Ik vermoed dat hij toen al mogelijk de Nederlandse
nationaliteit had, zodat hij zich sterk genoeg voelde om deze brief te
schrijven.
Daarna is Augustin Basebya onderzoeker geweest ten behoeve
van de verdediging van Juvenal Kajelijeli.
Hij is door het ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) veroordeeld tot
35 jaar gevangenisstraf in verband met misdaden begaan tijdens de genocide in
Rwanda. Hij is opgepakt in 1998 en zijn proces heeft geduurd tot 2005. Ergens
in die periode heeft Augustin Basebya in Arusha gewerkt ter ondersteuning van
de verdediging van deze misdadiger.
Naar aanleiding van zijn activiteiten in Arusha heeft het
Openbaar Ministerie interesse in hem gekregen over zijn rol tijdens de
genocide. Men heeft echter niet genoeg bewijs tegen hem kunnen verkrijgen, maar
tijdens het onderzoek is de focus komen te liggen op de activiteiten van zijn
vrouw Yvonne Basebya.
Die interesse in de familie Basebya moet dan pas na 2004
zijn ontstaan, want in 2004 heeft Yvonne Basebya de Nederlandse nationaliteit
gekregen. Als ze toen hadden vermoed dat ze een kwalijke rol in de genocide had
gepleegd, dan was dat natuurlijk niet gebeurd.
Het is ook wel cynisch om te constateren dat juist de mensen
met een fout verleden na 1994 hun toevlucht tot het westen hebben genomen en
ook daar zijn opgevangen. Ook wel weer logisch, want ze waren natuurlijk niet
welkom in het Rwanda van de RPF. Als hun misdaden niet te groot waren om
berecht te worden dan komen ze er mee weg. Eerst lekker aan de macht in Rwanda,
en toen dat na 1994 niet meer mogelijk was, tamelijk geriefelijk levend in een
westers land.
Hier volgen de nieuwsberichten in The New Times.
65-year old woman faces
Genocide charges in Holland
Dutch
judicial authorities yesterday began a Genocide trial for a woman remembered
for singing the infamous extremist song, Tubatsembatsembe (exterminate them),
during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
According to reports, Ward Fernandusse, the prosecutor in the case that is being held in The Hague, said that Yvonne Basebya, 65, is accused of involvement with “killing and raping Tutsis with the aim of the extermination of the Tutsi population”.
According to the charge sheet, Basebya, maiden name Ntacyobatabara, is accused of playing a central role in the killings at Pallottines Church in Gikondo where over 110 people who had sought refuge at the church were killed.
At the church, massacres were largely carried out using clubs and machetes.
Basebya allegedly incited others, including members of the Interahamwe militia, to kill Tutsis through “gifts, promises, abuse of authority, violence or threat of violence.”
According to the Dutch Prosecution, she allegedly sang songs including ‘Tubatsembatsembe’ and kept lists of Tutsis marked for death and kept track of their murders.
Speaking to The New Times, the Head of the Fugitive Tracking Unit, Jean Bosco Siboyintore, said that the Dutch authorities have been carrying out investigations for the last two years.
“The Gacaca court in Gikondo tried Basebya in absentia and sentenced her to life. Her case involves many witnesses who testified to the Dutch authorities, including some defence witnesses who were flown there. This was all before the beginning of the trial,” said Siboyintore.
He added that after the Dutch authorities heard witness accounts, they found it necessary to try Basebya.
She was arrested in Holland in 2010. Basebya is married to a former investigator at the United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
She has been living in the Netherlands since October 1998 where she got Dutch citizenship in December 2004.
In July, 2011, a Dutch appeals court sentenced Joseph Mpambara to life in prison for war crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994, before the new genocide clause went into effect in April this year.
Basebya’s case will run until the end of the year. A verdict is expected about three months later.
According to reports, Ward Fernandusse, the prosecutor in the case that is being held in The Hague, said that Yvonne Basebya, 65, is accused of involvement with “killing and raping Tutsis with the aim of the extermination of the Tutsi population”.
According to the charge sheet, Basebya, maiden name Ntacyobatabara, is accused of playing a central role in the killings at Pallottines Church in Gikondo where over 110 people who had sought refuge at the church were killed.
At the church, massacres were largely carried out using clubs and machetes.
Basebya allegedly incited others, including members of the Interahamwe militia, to kill Tutsis through “gifts, promises, abuse of authority, violence or threat of violence.”
According to the Dutch Prosecution, she allegedly sang songs including ‘Tubatsembatsembe’ and kept lists of Tutsis marked for death and kept track of their murders.
Speaking to The New Times, the Head of the Fugitive Tracking Unit, Jean Bosco Siboyintore, said that the Dutch authorities have been carrying out investigations for the last two years.
“The Gacaca court in Gikondo tried Basebya in absentia and sentenced her to life. Her case involves many witnesses who testified to the Dutch authorities, including some defence witnesses who were flown there. This was all before the beginning of the trial,” said Siboyintore.
He added that after the Dutch authorities heard witness accounts, they found it necessary to try Basebya.
She was arrested in Holland in 2010. Basebya is married to a former investigator at the United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
She has been living in the Netherlands since October 1998 where she got Dutch citizenship in December 2004.
In July, 2011, a Dutch appeals court sentenced Joseph Mpambara to life in prison for war crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994, before the new genocide clause went into effect in April this year.
Basebya’s case will run until the end of the year. A verdict is expected about three months later.
Holland to close-in on
Genocide fugitives
A Dutch prosecutor, who is in the country to investigate Genocide fugitives holed up in her country, has told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that Genocide fugitives should never have a safe haven in the European country.
Hester
van Bruggen is quoted as saying: “People with blood on their hands shouldn’t
feel they’re safe here.” Her remarks were welcomed by Prosecutor General Martin
Ngoga. “That is a right principled statement. What remains and which is equally
critical is how fast we move to do the right thing.”
Ibuka,
the umbrella of organisations of Genocide survivors, also appreciated the
comments from the Dutch prosecutor.
Janvier
Forongo, the Executive Secretary of Ibuka said: “We think this is the message
everyone should be sending, especially in those European countries that still
accommodate Genocide perpetrators.”
According
to Forongo, such statements should be backed by action, by arresting such
suspects and making sure that they are brought to book to help end the culture
of impunity.
“Europeans
must know that protecting people’s rights does not necessarily mean not
punishing such a serious crime as genocide, because most often you find that
they [Europeans] use the excuse of human rights.”
“We
all know that the whole world stood by as the Genocide took place; the least
they can do is to help dispense justice” he added.
Meanwhile,
van Bruggen is reportedly preparing a case against a Dutch-Rwandan national,
Yvonne Basebya, on charges of Genocide, murder and rape.
The
Dutch Prosecutor took up the case in 2006 and has often travelled to Rwanda for
witnesses accounts.
Last
year, van Bruggen and her legal team secured the conviction of Joseph Mpambara,
who was sentenced to life in prison by a court in The Hague.
Despite
his appeal, last July, a Dutch appeals court sentenced Mpambara to life after
he was found guilty of torturing Tutsi mothers and their children death during
the Genocide against the Tutsi.
The
court also found him guilty of an extra crime of attacking a church where
hundreds of Tutsi were butchered as they sought refuge.
Dutch Police here to
investigate Genocide suspects
Dutch
police investigators are in the country to investigate suspects living in
Netherlands accused of crimes committed during the 1994 Genocide against the
Tutsi.
The
team of five has spent more than two weeks gathering evidence on an unspecified
number of genocide suspects living on the Dutch soil.
The
development was confirmed by the head of the Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit
(GFTU), Jean Bosco Siboyintore. The unit is facilitating the Dutch
Investigators.
Siboyintore,
however, declined to identify the suspects saying that it would jeopardise the
investigations.
“It
wouldn’t be right to reveal the details and names of the suspects or how many
are being investigated,” Siboyintore said, adding that other countries have
previously sent investigators.
“We
have had other teams of investigators from different countries including
Norway, Denmark, France, Finland and Canada among others. It happens when there
are Interpol red notices issued in those countries,” he added
Siboyintore
noted that the visit of the Dutch rogatory committee comes at the time when
there are several developments in different countries that indicate that
countries have upped the tempo to pursue genocide suspects.
“If
you look at the recent decisions by the Dutch court to sentence Joseph Mpambara
to life and the decision by Norway to extradite Charles Bandora to Rwanda, you
sense countries have woken up to the cause,” Siboyintore said.
A
Dutch appeals court last week sentenced Mpambara to life imprisonment after he
was found guilty of committing genocide crimes and crimes against humanity.
He had appealed against a 20-year sentence handed to him earlier.
He had appealed against a 20-year sentence handed to him earlier.
He
was the first Rwandan to be convicted in Netherlands for crimes during the 1994
genocide against the Tutsi which claimed over one million lives.
Rwanda
has sent to Holland a list of over 20 people suspected of having played a role
in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
Both
governments have had series of discussions on the issue, consequently leading
to visits by Justice Ministers from either side.
Prominent
among these fugitives is Yvonne Ntacyobatabara, 64, a wife of former Member of
Parliament Augustine Basebya.
She
is said to have led a group of militias into mass massacres of Tutsis in
Gikondo, Nyenyeri area in 1994 and writing lists of people to be killed.
She
was a member of CDR and has since been sentenced to life by the Gacaca Court in
Gikondo.
In
a related development, Siboyintore defended Canada on recent reports that the
North American country is a safe haven to genocide suspects and other war
criminals, noting that Canada is one of the few countries that have pursued and
prosecuted genocide related cases.
Reports
in the Canadian media this week reported concerns raised by associations of
Rwandans in Canada which say they have spotted several individuals wanted for
genocide crimes roaming freely in the country.
2nd suspect charged in
Holland for Genocide
- By Edmund Kagire
- September
28, 2010
KIGALI
- A woman suspected of involvement in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi,
yesterday appeared before judges in The Hague, Netherlands.
Yvonne
Ntacyobatabara, 63, who is said to have led a group of militias in mass
massacres of Tutsis in Gikondo, Nyenyeri area, in Kigali, in 1994, denied all
the charges.
A
former member of the extremist party the Coalition for the Defence of the
Republic (CDR), Ntacyobatabara moved to the Netherlands in 1998 and obtained
Dutch citizenship in 2004.
She
was later sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by a local Gacaca court in
Gikondo.The session is only the formal start of the case; preliminary
investigations by the public prosecutor continue.
The
judges will decide whether Ntacyobatabara, who was arrested in June by the
Netherlands National Police, will be released on bail or not.
Before
her arrest, the suspect lived in the village of Reuver in the southern province
of Limburg.
According
to reports from Holland, Dutch police investigating the case have already
questioned witnesses in Gikondo area, where she lived at the time of the
Genocide.
Investigations
into her case have been going on for more than a year now.
She
is the second person to be charged in The Netherlands. In March 2009 ,a court
in The Hague sentenced Joseph Mpambara to twenty years in jail for the torture
of a German doctor and his wife during the Genocide.
Reacting
to the news, the Minister of Justice, Tharcisse Karugarama said that the move
was a positive one and a sign of cooperation the country is receiving from
European countries in apprehending criminals.
“Countries
such as the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Germany have really cooperated
with us in apprehending and trying criminals who have cases to answer. It’s a
positive development and we commend that,” Karugarama said.
He
added that the Netherlands and Rwanda have developed good relations in the area
of justice among others.
Ntacyobatabara’s
husband, Augustin Basebya, is also being investigated for crimes committed
during the Genocide.
Basebya, a former Member of Parliament, worked with former Mayor Juvenal Kajelijeli, who was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and sentenced to life imprisonment..
Basebya, a former Member of Parliament, worked with former Mayor Juvenal Kajelijeli, who was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and sentenced to life imprisonment..
As
the new case takes shape, the Dutch parliament is considering extending war
crimes legislation to include Genocide crimes committed up to 40 years ago and
war crimes in a non-armed conflict.
At
present, the Netherlands has sufficient jurisdiction to prosecute aliens
suspected of international crimes, including genocide. But that law applies
only to crimes committed after 1 October 2003. For older cases, the Dutch
Genocide Convention Implementation Act applies, but jurisdiction is limited.
The
arrest and trial of Ntacyobatabara comes at a time when Netherlands and Rwanda
have concluded talks for a possible extradition treaty to extradite war crimes
and genocide suspects to Rwanda.
The
Dutch Justice Minister, Ernst Hirsch Balling, was in the country in June on an
official visit during which he agreed on closer cooperation with his Rwandan
counterpart, Tharcisse Karugarama.
Netherlands arrests
Genocide suspect
NETHERLANDS
- Authorities in the Netherlands yesterday arrested a woman in a village south
of the country on suspicion of involvement in the 1994 Genocide against the
Tutsi.
Yvonne
Ntacyobatabara, 63, married to Augustin Basebya is said to have led a group of
militias who killed Tutsis in Gikondo, Nyenyeri area in the Genocide. She was a
member of the extremist political party, Coalition for the Defence of the
Republic (CDR).
Ntacyobatabara
was sentenced in absentia to life by a Gacaca Court in Gikondo.
She
moved to the Netherlands in 1998 to reunite with her family and has held Dutch
citizenship since 2004.
According to reports, Dutch police investigating the case questioned witnesses in Gikondo where she lived at the time of the Genocide. Investigations into her case have been going on for a year now.
According to reports, Dutch police investigating the case questioned witnesses in Gikondo where she lived at the time of the Genocide. Investigations into her case have been going on for a year now.
She
is the second person in the Netherlands to be arrested for Genocide. Her
husband, a former Member of Parliament, is also being investigated.
The
arrest comes at a time when the Netherlands and Rwanda are discussing the
possibility of signing an extradition treaty.
The
Dutch Justice Minister, Ernst Hirsch Ballin who has been in the country on an
official visit, has agreed to foster cooperation with his Rwandan counterpart,
Tharcisse Karugarama.
Several teams arrive to
investigate Genocide suspects
Four
separate teams of investigators and judges are in the country to compile
testimonies against several Genocide fugitives and top leaders of FDLR
currently living in Europe.
Information
acquired from the prosecution indicates that a seven-man team from France arrived
in the country to investigate Pascal Simbikangwa for his role in the 1994
Genocide against the Tutsi.
“The
team arrived on May 8, and it is made up two judges, three investigators and
two court clerks. They will be here for two weeks,” said the Prosecution
Spokesman, Augustin Nkusi.
A
Norwegian has also been in the country since April 29 investigating Sadi
Bugingo over killings in the former Kibungo prefecture.
“Another
large team of German investigators are in Kigali and they are working on the
case of Ignace Murwanashyaka and Straton Musoni for war crimes, crimes against
humanity and establishing and heading a terrorist group,” said Nkusi.
“A
fourth team from the International Criminal Court (ICC) is also investigating
France-based Callixte Mbarushimana on similar charges,” the spokesman
disclosed.
The
three are the top leaders of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda
(FDLR) militia based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Meanwhile
three other teams from the United Kingdom, United States, and the Netherlands
are expected in the country soon to compile evidence of Genocide fugitives
living in their countries.
“On
May 15, the Crown Prosecution service will be in Rwanda to investigate a
fugitive code-named ‘CM’. The team will be led by James Lewic, Q.C” revealed
Nkusi.
He added that another team from the U.S will arrive on 13 May and will be in the country up to June 4, working on other cases.
He added that another team from the U.S will arrive on 13 May and will be in the country up to June 4, working on other cases.
Nkusi
added that the team will be led by Dr. Jeffrey Richter, and among the cases
they will be investigating, is that of Michel Twagirayezu, the former President
of the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda and a former vice-president of the World
Council of Churches.
He
is accused of having incited and supervised the Genocide and worked closely with
the killers in the Presbyterian stronghold of Kirinda, Kibuye, betraying
parishioners and fellow-clergy alike.
Twagirayezu
is also accused of drawing up lists of Tutsis to be killed and also allegedly
killed an entire Tutsi family at a roadblock.
Another
person under the U.S Team’s microscope is Fidel Twizere, accused of Genocide in
the Kanombe suburb of Kigali City.
Another
Dutch team is also expected in the country this week working on the case of
Augustin Basebya, a former Member of Parliament, and his wife only identified
as Yvonne for their role in the Genocide in Gikondo another Kigali City suburb.
After
the Genocide, Basebya worked with the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda (ICTR) but his contract was later terminated after coming under suspicion
of having participated in the Genocide. He then sought refuge in Netherlands.
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