A French court ordered Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga on Wednesday to be handed over to a United Nations tribunal for trial, rejecting arguments that he should be allowed to remain in France because of his health. U.N. prosecutors accuse Kabuga of bankrolling and arming ethnic Hutu militias that killed 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda during a 100-day period in 1994. He is indicted for genocide and incitement to commit genocide, among other charges. A tea and coffee tycoon and one of Rwanda’s richest men before the genocide, Kabuga is accused of having created a fund that financed the Hutu militias and imported hundreds of thousands of machetes. His lawyers say he would not receive a fair trial at the tribunal based in The Hague and in Arusha, Tanzania. They say he is 87 and his health is too frail for him to be transferred abroad, particularly during a dangerous pandemic.
SOURCE: REUTERS AFRICA