The U.K. has re-opened investigations into five key suspects from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
The fresh police inquiries follow a week of official mourning in Rwanda, during which the remains of 50 genocide victims were given a befitting burial.
It’s been eleven years since Rwanda issued indictments against the five suspects, all of whom held key leadership positions in the regime guilty of the Rwandan genocide.
However, during several rounds of arrests and hearings the U.K. judiciary released the men, arguing they may not get a fair trial if extradited to Rwanda.
Kigali protested, saying their released denied justice to the more than a million victims of the genocide.
Now in a new twist to the tragedy, Scotland Yard here says their War Crimes unit is now assessing the indictments afresh.
In a statement, they say they’re examining documentation that’s been passed to them and which could possibly throw new light on the investigation.
During a commemoration event here in London last week, Rwanda’s High Commission to the U.K. Yamina Karitanyi said the country would not tire in using both law and diplomacy to bring genocide suspects to face trial either in the U.K. or in Rwanda.
This new development would appear to help achieve that goal.
