Rwanda president suggests UK extradite genocide suspects after asylum deal

Source: The Guardian

Rwanda president suggests UK extradite genocide suspects after asylum deal

Exclusive: Comments raise concerns UK will find it difficult to refuse requests from Kigali on sensitive issues

Jason Burke
Mon 16 May 2022 10.15 BST
Last modified on Mon 16 May 2022 11.22 BST

Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, has suggested the UK extradite suspects wanted in the east African country for alleged roles in the 1994 genocide, after a controversial deal with the Home Office to process asylum seekers there.

Speaking less than two weeks after the deal was announced, Kagame told an audience of diplomats in Kigali that included the British high commissioner he hoped “that when the UK is sending us these migrants, they should send us some people they have accommodated for over 15 years who committed crimes [in Rwanda]”.

“We sent case files (to the UK) and … investigated. These are clear case files. Instead of being accommodated there in that beautiful place of (the) UK, they should be in jail, either in the UK or here,” Kagame said.

The presence in the UK of five men alleged to have played an active and important role in the killing of more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and some moderate Hutus over three months in Rwanda in 1994 has been an irritant in relations with Kigali for many years.

British judges have blocked extradition on the grounds the suspects would not receive a fair trial in Rwanda. Officials in Kigali have called for a trial in the UK instead.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/16/rwanda-president-suggests-uk-extradite-genocide-suspect-asylum-deal-paul-kagame