The Crimes Awaiting the Rwandan Killer, General Karake Karenzi

General Karake Karenzi was arrested in London on 20.06.2015 under a European arrest warrant issued by Spain. He is accused of many serious crimes committed in Rwanda and the DRC during and after 1994.

54-year-old, Karenzi Karake, the head of Rwanda's intelligence services, was due to meet Alex Younger on 18 June. According to sources, but the meeting was cancelled at the last moment The general was arrested two days later. Gen Karake has been granted £1m bail by Westminster magistrates ahead of a full extradition hearing in October.

• Accused of ordering massacres after the 1994 genocide while head of military intelligence

• Wanted for genocide, crimes against humanity and terrorism

• Accused of ordering the killing of Spanish aid workers in 1997

Accusations facing Gen Karake:

Here are some excerpts from his indictment.

Killing 50,000 people in Masaka

It was estimated that just only in Masaka, between July 1994 and the first quarter of 1995,  about 50,000 people were murdered , and that in order to proceed with the incineration of corpses, lieutenant-colonels and Jackson Rwahama Mutabazi Karake Karenzi organized two deliveries  of trucks a week , full of gasoline barrels-to burn the corpses of their victims.

Elimination of 10,000 people in the region of Ruhengeri

TAP-004 witness designated undoubtedly Captain Justus Majyambere and Lieutenant Colonel Augustin Gashayija as senior military operations in Ruhengeri, and that they had received orders to eliminate any civilians , mostly Hutu, all of which were generally regarded as enemies, giving a concrete example the massacre of about ten thousand (10,000) persons in the locality eliminated Nyakinama (place visited, as has been said by the Spanish members of Médecins World), or organized massacre in the village of Mukingo after many people had been called to a meeting at the market, which was the continuation of massacres under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Augustin Gashayija. As we shall have occasion to see later, the APR-002 has completed the witness information as to this operation than for other systematic disposal operations of the Hutu civilian population, as well as expatriates selected according to risk they were to transmit information to the outside or other risk assessments, reporting as most responsible for all these operations completed between late 1996 and early 1997 in the north-east, General Kayumba Nyamwasa , in his capacity as Commanding Officer of the military operations in the northeast area of ​​Rwanda, and Lieutenant Colonel Karake Karenzi, in his capacity as principal of the Directory of Military Intelligence (Military Secret Service), all under the High Command politico-military Major General Paul Kagame. Both the witness TAP-002 and witness TAP-004, among others, said it was impossible that the decision to eliminate Spanish citizens was taken without the prior knowledge or the order of Major General Paul Kagame in person .

TAP-003 witness made more explicit reference to two senior officials in the operations against the civilian population in late 1996 and early 1997, referring to Colonel Kayumba Nyamwasa and Colonel Karake Karenzi, along with their intelligence officers military.

Massacre of thousands of people in the football stadium of Byumba

TAP-043 witness described the operation that took place April 23, 1994 in the Byumba Football Stadium, as follows:
The middle of the night, orders were given to the military to completely encircle the stadium. Once done, they started throwing grenades in a coordinated manner within the stadium. Once they had finished with the grenades, they entered the stadium, firing automatic rifles and machine guns (machine-gun). The objective of the attack, which lasted several hours, was to eliminate all displaced, an unarmed civilian population. Only a few people managed to escape, which, according to the witness TAP-043, resulted in the deaths of several soldiers among them, because of the situation thus created confusion. The next day morning, according to the witness TAP-043, RPA soldiers loaded the corpses in several trucks, trucks that took destination for the Akagera National Park, in the [p.105] intended to incinerate mass. TAP-043 witness informed as one of the senior officials to coordinate the mass incineration of corpses the football stadium as well as those of other operations in Byumba and around, Lieutenant Colonel Karake Karenzi.

Assassination of Emmanuel Gapyisi Gatabazi, Gatumba, Martin Bucyana Faithful Rwambuka

It has been [the witness] Examples, which were completed in great detail during his second hearing, assassinations of politicians and opinion leaders-as Emmanuel Gapyisi Gatabazi, Gatumba, Martin Bucyana Rwambuka Faithful, among others-, signaling as primarily responsible for these operations, the Senior Officer - SO Karenzi Karake and Charles Ngomanziza, companion and friend of the witness already died. [...]

Despite the fact that the witness TAP-043 did not report specific details of how that was organized or was completed the operation for ending the life of Emmanuel Gapyisi (who was not among the usual APR soldiers), he explained clearly the people and the structure of the RPA / RPF who was responsible for the execution of his violent death, as well as the executors of the operation was Charles Ngomanziza [...] In his view, the witness TAP-043 stated that the operation was coordinated at the time by, Lieutenant Colonel Karake Karenzi (Senior Officer SO RPA) and Lieutenant Colonel Charles Kayonga (Commanding Officer of the Battalion No. 3 and member of Network Commando), under the command of Major General Paul Kagame ( as in the prominent and strategic operations, as it has been reported that such a decision could not be taken autonomously by the latter two). [...]

TAP-043 witness was able to share the same squad and the same people, with the participation of several other soldiers, organized other assassinations of selected politicians, TAP-043 mentioning witness [p.111] the assassination of Gatabazi (Founder and Chairman of the Social Democratic Party - PSD, as an opposition party to the Habyarimana regime) operation completed in early 1994 (concretely 21 February 1994). According to what could be the witness TAP-043, in addition to Lieutenant Colonel Karake Karenzi and Lieutenant Colonel Charles Kayonga already mentioned, were directly responsible for the attack Captain Hubert Kamugisha, Captain Godfrey Ntukayajemo and Didier Mazimpaka.

About the lieutenant colonel Karake Karenzi, the witness added additional information: he reported that Lieutenant Colonel Karake Karenzi was the general adjutant to Major Paul Kagame during the war, and, once completed, was appointed Head of Directorate of Military Intelligence - DMI in July 1994 [...]

Assassination of four UN observers, Canadian and Spanish priests

TAP-043 witness claimed not to have the slightest doubt that Lieutenant Colonel Karake Karenzi - as supreme head of military intelligence since July 1994 to March 1997- was aware and approved of the massacres against the civilian population after the war in the years 1994 and 1995 and the massacres of the civilian population in areas of Ruhengeri, Gisenyi and Cyangugu in late 1996 and during the first three months of 1997 (including, therefore, the operations of killing four UN observers 11 January 1997 in Giciye, the death of three Spanish aid workers from Doctors January 18, 1997 in Ruhengeri, the death of Canadian priest Guy Pinard February 2, 1997 at Kampanga, killing five officers Mission of Observers of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (HRFOR) February 4, 1997 at [p.112] Karengera / Cyangugu, Ruhengeri stadium massacre of 2 to 3 March 1997, and systematic massacres of civilians planned Hutu majority in strategic enclaves of Ruhengeri, Gisenyi and Cyangugu, in the first three months of 1997.

Massacre of refugees and pillaging of natural resources DR Congo

TAP-043 stated witness as well as the Directorate of Military Intelligence -DMI received the main charge of organizing and executing the war of plunder, sometimes money, like minerals, like other natural resources value, indicating that the looted property from Zaire / DRC were stored in the warehouses of DMI, signaling that it was three prominent members of the DMI was perticipating in the systematic looting of property or in the reported killings, referring to Karake Karenzi as Head of DMI until March 1997, Dan and Jack Nziza Munyuza (although the witness did participated point he placed information about the latter's responsibility in the massacres of Shabunda, Kisangani and Maniema from April to July 1997), as high-ranking members of the DMI then sent to Zaire / R.D.C. during special operations.

Spanish priest murder Voaquim Vallmajo and abbots Rwesero

To conclude with his testimony on the death of Joaquim Vallmajo, and other priests of Rwanda, the APR-002 witness testified that, three days after he moved to headquarters of the DMI Byumba and narrated before, he was able, through his colleague assigned to the DMI Byumba, Deputy Lieutenant Daniel Ndaruhutse, got confirmation that those priests had been murdered at a location on the outskirts of Byumba, and even without giving further explanations, the witness TAP-002 was convinced that, in this If there was a white, their bodies were cremated with petrol to remove any evidence. Certainly Joaquim Vallmajo Joseph Hitimana, Faustin Mulindwa and Milinda True, in today's day - almost 14 years post, are missing and that their lifeless bodies have never been found.

Assassination of the Marist Brothers in eastern Zaire

TAP-002 witness then went on to share the knowledge he gained on the death of the four Marist religious in eastern Zaire. He said that there were no direct witnesses to the action, although it was part [p.126] of indirect knowledge he obtained consequently to his work as a military intelligence Officer.

TAP-002 witness was informed by General Kayumba Nyamwasa (again a soldier of much higher rank who reports to an IO attached to the High Command) four brothers and religious who "were troublesome during operations in Congo were murdered. " However, he obtained the details of the military operation of Captain Joaquim Habimana, who commanded a section of DMI operating in Zaire at the time, with authority over 11 people. According to the information the witness received TAP-002, Captain Joaquim Habimana was the commander at the head of the group of those who executed the death of the four Marist Brothers, torturing them before giving them a violent death at two different times, then throwing their lifeless bodies into a pit.

Incineration of victims of the RPF in Nyungwe forest

[...] These two military commanders - who have never completed a transaction of this type on their own without prior instructions or autorisation- were first requested permission to then informed: Lieutenant Colonel Karake Karenzi, identified by TAP-002 control as the most senior DMI and the superior of Captain Habimana Joaquim (Chief DMI section and operational responsibility for the action). [...]

Those who were selected by the military command (usually people belonging to ethnic [p.130] Hutu, though not exclusively) were trucks in strength lines to the Kami military prison (special military prison for those considered as "enemies" by the RPA / RPF to which the witness TAP-038 explicitly refers). Since Prison Kami, they were always transported in trucks to the Nyungwe Forest [...] where they were murdered, and their bodies cremated later. The witness reported that the Nyungwe Forest was used to massacre the same pre-selected civilian population that Hutu refugees from Zaire / DRC, both during the first war of Zaire / DRC (1996-1997), that during the second in the country (1998 and later). The witnessconfirmed who was responsible for these operations in Kami prison, as Lieutenant Karake Karenzi until March 1997 and Ephrem Rurangwa from that date, in addition as a junior lieutenant Kibingo until 2001.