By Silver Bungingo
The New Times

The Rwandan government has formally requested France to arrest and hand over a senior Rwandan Catholic priest, over genocide charges. Reverend Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka is wanted to stand trial for genocide crimes he allegedly committed with Maj. Gen Laurent Munyakazi between April 7 -19, 1994.

According to a source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the extradition request along with the International Warrant of Arrest for Fr. Munyeshyaka were issued and transmitted to the French government on December 27. Kigali says the priest’s extradition is key to the commencement of Gen. Munyakazi’s trial.

According to Captain Ngabo Kayijuka, the Military Prosecutor handling the case, Gen. Munyakazi, then a Lieutenant Colonel, was aided by Fr. Munyeshyaka, one Mukandutiye, then Councillor of Rugenge Sector, Odeth Nyirabagenzi, an Inspector of Schools in Kigali, to mount military barricades at strategic points in Kigali city to block the escape of Tutsis and moderate Hutu targets. The quartet is also said to have supervised mass killings and torture in the Cathedrals around the city.

Ngabo Kayijuka, however, said the whereabouts of the co-accused women has not yet been established.

Gen. Munyakazi, who is currently detained at Mulindi Military Prison in Kanombe district, Kigali city, was arrested mid-this year on orders of Rugenge Sector Gacaca court in Nyarugenge district, Kigali city.

The traditional court accused the General of intimidating survivors and attempting to destroy evidence against him. At the time he had been pinned down by eyewitnesses before the Gacaca session, who accused him of ordering mass killings at St. Famille Cathedral and St. Paul Centre during the 1994 genocide. The community-based tribunal later referred his case to the military for trial.

If apprehended and extradited to Kigali, Father Munyeshyaka will stand trial alongside Gen. Munyakazi in the Military Court Martial on charges of Genocide, conspiracy to commit Genocide, incitement of the public to commit genocide, war crimes, rape and other crimes against humanity in 1994. Separately, Fr Munyeshyaka is also charged with illegal possession of military equipment, including military fatigue and weapons.

“Corroborated evidence has been gathered and transmitted to the competent military tribunal. We were only delayed by the extradition of Gen. Munyakazi’s co-accused but I should think that their trial should commence early next year (2006),” Ngabo said. Over five thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus who sought sanctuary in God’s temples of Kigali were wiped out, allegedly at the whims of the General and his co-accused.

This comes hot on the heels of the commencement of an inquiry by the French military prosecution into allegations that French soldiers participated in the genocide, which claimed the lives of an estimated one million people. France’s alleged role in the genocide has been the source of bitter relations between Kigali and Paris for the past eleven years.

Previously, Kigali apprehended several top Catholic prelates over genocide charges including Gikongoro Bishop Augustine Misago, who was later acquitted amid widespread protestation from the Vatican. Later, the Catholic Archbishop Father Thaddeus Ntihinyurwa also appeared before a Gacaca court over genocide charges.

And a couple of months ago, Kigali arrested a Belgian priest, Father Guy Theunis, charged him with genocide crimes at a Gacaca tribunal, but later extradited him to Belgian. Theunis served in Rwanda as a missionary of the White Fathers Order from 1970s to 1994.

Maj. Gen Munyakazi, who later surrendered to the then RPA rebels and integrated in the national army in 1995, was until his arrest the Commandant of the army Second Division. At the time of genocide, Munyakazi, who was then a lieutenant colonel, was in charge of security in Kigali city.