One of the last remaining fugitives of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Pheneas Munyarugarama, has been confirmed dead and the case against him closed -UN war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz said.
Munyarugarama, sought by a UN tribunal over his alleged key role in the Rwandan genocide, died just days after the prosecutor confirmed the death of another one of the most wanted fugitives over the the 1994 horrors -Protais Mpiranya.
According to a statement by prosecutor Brammertz, Pheneas Munyarugarama died of natural causes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in February 2002.
“For the victims and survivors of Munyarugarama’s crimes in the Bugesera region, we hope this result brings some closure,” Serge Brammertz, said in a statement.
A former lieutenant colonel in the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR), Munyarugarama, who was born in 1948, was charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda with eight counts including genocide and crimes against humanity.
“Munyarugarama was alleged to be responsible for mass killings, attacks and sexual violence against Tutsi civilians at various locations in the Bugesera region, including the attacks on Tutsi refugees at the Ntarama and Nyamata Catholic churches,” the MICT said.
In all more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu extremists, led by the Rwandan army and a militia known as the Interahamwe in 100 days in 1994.
Former UN tribunals for war crimes in Rwanda and Yugoslavia have been rolled over into a successor court that has offices in The Hague, Netherlands, and in Arusha, Tanzania.