Rwandan President Paul Kagame called on Monday for governments around the world to arrest perpetrators of the country's 1994 genocide, as the African nation marked a memorial day for the mass slaughter. Kagame said there are "still some countries that harbour genocide suspects" but refuse to bring them to justice.
"These countries must do the right thing and face up to their responsibility to fight and punish the crime of genocide," Kagame said in remarks broadcast on state-run television. More than 800,000 people - mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus - were killed by ethnic Hutu extremists in 100 days of massacres across the Eastern Africa nation. Pascal Simbikangwa, who headed Rwanda's intelligence agency during the slaughter, is set to stand trial in France next year on charges of complicity in genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity. It will be the first such French case and follows the trial of a Hutu extremist in Sweden last year.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, a UN-backed court which presided over more than 70 cases, wrapped up its work last year and is only open for appeals, which should wind down in 2014. Several alleged perpetrators wanted by the court are still at large. Events to mark the genocide - which began in early April 1994 - are on a smaller scale this year in Rwanda owing to budget cuts.