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| Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz |
The United Nations Tribunal on Rwanda genocide is in another attempt to net the remaining fugitives of the horrific massacre.
The Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz is in Zimbabwe and South Africa for the mission during which he will hold talks with government officials on those using the country as a hideout.
"Full and effective cooperation from the government of Zimbabwe is essential to move forward with investigations", he said.
The United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism) has been tasked to trace and prosecute the remaining suspects.
This was after the disbanding of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) which was disbanded in 2015.
By the time it closed shop the Tribunal, which began trials in 1997,had convicted 61 fugitives and acquitted 14 others.
The Arusha-based Mechanism said this week that Mr.Brammertz's visit to Zimbabwe was part of efforts to track down the indicted fugitives.
"The primary topic of discussion will be cooperation in the search for the remaining fugitives", it said in a statement to the media houses.
Without disclosing their names, the Mechanism said there were scores of the suspects who had been indicted for the genocide and other crimes but still at large
They are alleged to be masterminds of the 1994 massacres in Rwanda, targeting mainly the Tutsi community, and in which nearly one million people were hacked to death.
The horrific killings were triggered by the death of the then President Juvenal Habyarimana when his plane was shot down over the Kigali airport.
In Harare, the Prosecutor will meet the Zimbabwe Vice President Constantino Chiwenga and members of the task force established by Zimbabwe to assist the Tribunal.
Investigators with the Tribunal believe scores of the remaining figitives of the Rwanda genocide were in Zimbabwe and other southern African countries.
They include Protais Mpiranya, one of the alleged masterminds of the massacre which took place in Rwanda between April and July 1994.
At different times in the last ten years, there had been reports that he was hiding in either South Africa or Zimbabwe.
Like Felicien Kabuga, who was arrested in May 2020, Mpiranya is one of the subjects of the US Reward for Justice Programme with a $5million bounty on his head.
He was a major in the ex-Rwanda armed forces and commanded the Presidential Guard - an elite unit - blamed for spearheading the killings.
In September 2012, after several denials, the Zimbabwe government admitted he could be hiding in the country, using assumed names.
Five other remaining fugitives are Fulgence Kayishema, Charles Sikubwabo, Aloys Ndimbati, Charles Ryandikayo and Phénéas Munyarugarama.
Mr.Brammertz has, however, said the arrest of Mr.Kabuga in an Paris apartment - after more than 25 years on the run- was a major breakthrough
He was not only the key mastermind of the genocide but the financier of the horrific killings which shocked the world. He also had a $ 5 million bounty on his head.
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