“These are people who report us”

While the Tutsi genocide will be commemorated from Sunday, a collective is hunting down the executioners present on French soil. He estimates that around a hundred genocidaires have found refuge in France.

Thirty years after the start of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, which will be commemorated on Sunday April 7, survivors of the massacres are still waiting for those responsible to be found and judged. Dozens and dozens of executioners have found refuge in France and are still hiding among the population with complete impunity. For years, a collective has been working to track down Rwandan genocidaires on French soil.

This is in particular the fight that Alain Gauthier has been leading for 20 years: hunting down the Rwandan genocidaires with his civil code under his arm and his heavy suitcase filled with victims’ testimonies. President of the association The Collective of Civil Parties of Rwanda, he estimates that around a hundred executioners still live in hiding in France.

“Either these are people who are being reported to us from Rwanda, or we are hearing about them here,” he explains. “I am thinking in particular of gendarme ‘Biguma’ who was tried last year and who will be tried in November on appeal. It is an anonymous letter which arrived at our house informing us of his presence in the Rennes region in giving us his exact address, he remembers And from there, we sought to find out where he had committed crimes and we went to the scene of the crimes and there we met a very large number of survivors.”.

Justice too slow

Six trials have already taken place in France since the genocide, but justice is too slow, deplores Alain Gauthier: “There has been reconciliation, it will be more and more difficult.”

“Time passes, witnesses disappear, others no longer want to talk, have turned the page, others will tell us that, even if they are families of victims, they have forgiven.”

Alain Gauthier, founder of the collective

at franceinfo

However, the crimes against humanity unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office has worked tirelessly in recent years. Prosecutor Aurelia Devos headed it for ten years and regrets that these cases are not a priority. “I believe that there is a real will, there is a real momentum, but these are files which are very time-consuming and which require real commitment, knowing that there are many other files in progress and that “There, we are really in a situation where many cases are left aside and are not under investigation. The judges are doing what they can.” she judges.

Between 2012 and 2024 the cluster’s files have more than quadrupled and the zones have multiplied, notes Aurelia Devos. There remain around thirty cases to be investigated on Rwanda out of the 90 in total, with only three investigating judges.