The Rwandan government has welcomed a US court’s decision to reject an appeal filed by a woman refugee accused of lying about her role in the 1994 Genocide against human rights.
Beatrice Munyenyezi, ex-resident of New Hampshire since 1998, was arrested in 2010 and sentenced in 2013 in Alabama, for lying about her “active and enthusiastic” role in the Rwandan genocide, and being an active member of the ruling party.
She is possibly facing deportation after serving the jail term.
According to Dr. Jean Damascene Bizimana, the executive secretary of the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), the decision to reject the appeal shows that the US is cognizant of the genocide, a crime punishable worldwide and by every country as stipulated in the 1948 International Conventions, the New Times reports.
“CNLG welcomes the decision because Munyenyezi is a notorious (genocidaire) due to her role in the killings in the current Huye where she worked with her husband and her mother-in-law, who was a minister in the government that prepared and executed the genocide,” Bizimana says in the report.
Munyenyezi’s husband Arsene Ntahobali and her mother-in-law Pauline Nyiramasuhuko were sentenced to imprisonment for life by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for their role in the Genocide in 1997.
According to Johnston Busingye, the Minister for Justice and Attorney General, Munyenyezi is a wanted Genocide suspect and has to face justice. Also, the decision by the US court to reject her appeal is an indication of better cooperation between the US and Rwanda, which should be an example for other countries.
“My comment is that the cooperation in justice between Rwanda and the US should be an example to a few remaining countries in the West that are still dragging their feet,” he added.
