British prosecutors charged a British man of Rwandan origin Tuesday with crimes linked to the Rwanda genocide, in a first for U.K. courts.
Vincent Brown, 65, who British police say was known previously as Vincent Bajinya, originally of Kigali, Rwanda, stands accused of aiding in genocide and crimes against humanity, amid the paroxysm of violence that tore the country apart in 1994, drawing global horror.
He denied the allegations in an appearance Tuesday before a London magistrate’s court. He was ordered to appear at London’s Central Criminal Court on Oct. 9.
After a seven-year investigation, prosecutors allege that Brown “directed and incited acts of murder and genocide,” Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said in a statement.
“This is the first time charges relating to the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda have been brought in the United Kingdom,” the statement said.
British police said they opened the investigation after a formal request by the government of Rwanda, over events in the Rugenge district of Kigali in April 1994.
“This case demonstrates the UK is not a safe haven for individuals suspected of committing international crimes” Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said in the statement, adding that other similar investigations were ongoing.
Ethnic Hutu extremists killed more than 800,000 people, mostly of the Tutsi minority, in just 100 days of extreme violence in 1994. Neighbor turned against neighbors as bands armed with machetes roamed the country raping and killing at will. The explosion followed decades of ethnic tensions with roots in Belgian colonial rule, under which Tutsis were favored.
In Rwanda, thousands of people have been tried over crimes connected to the genocide in ordinary courts, and more than a million people in community-based courts focused on restorative justice. Rwanda’s government continues to hunt accused perpetrators around the world. Britain in the past has refused extraditions to Rwanda over human rights concerns.
“We welcome the arrest in the United Kingdom of Dr. Vincent Brown, aka Vincent Bajinya,” Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said Tuesday. “We urge the UK to expedite the remaining cases of the suspects of crimes committed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. This step towards accountability is long overdue, after two decades of legal proceedings, followed by a seven-year investigation.”
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