13.05.10 - RWANDA/ZAMBIA - HUMAN RIGHTS' GROUPS URGE ZAMBIA TO INVESTIGATE 16 GENOCIDE SUSPECTS

13 May 2010 By

Arusha, May 13, 2010 (FH) - Three human rights organizations Wednesday filed a confidential report to the Zambia's President Rupiah Banda urging him to order investigations into 16 Rwandan genocide suspects allegedly living in the southern African country.

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The Africa Rights Group, Redress and Southern Africa Litigation Centre in their joint report, detailing names and roles of the suspects, also asked the Zambian President to take steps to identify other suspects.

The names of the accused have not been made public.

The report follows the visit of President Banda to Rwanda in January this year where he expressed determination to arrest any suspects holed up in Zambia.

‘'Zambia is no longer a safe haven for individuals who are alleged to have taken part in planning, organizing and executing the genocide in Rwanda,'' he was quoted by the press to have said at the end of his visit.

Over 800,000 people mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during the Rwandan April-July, 1994 killings, which started immediately after the downing of the plane carrying the then Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana as it was approaching the capital, Kigali, on April 6, 1994.

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