A Quebec man is facing deportation after the Federal Court found he was complicit in the 1994 Rwandan genocide that left an estimated 800,000 dead.
Faustin Rutayisire, 54, a former math teacher and government administrator, is the latest Rwandan accused by Canada of playing a part in the outburst of ethnic bloodletting.
“It’s definitely a very good thing,” Jean-Paul Nyilinkwaya of Page Rwanda, a Montreal-based group that represents parents and friends of genocide victims, said Wednesday.
But Mr. Rutayisire, who lives in Gatineau, Que., denied any role in the genocide. “I’m innocent anyway,” he said in a brief phone interview. “It’s not right, it’s unfair.”
Mr. Rutayisire is a founding member of Rwanda’s Parti Social Démocrate. During the genocide, he was the sub-prefect of Butare, a province in southern Rwanda where scores of ethnic Tutsis were slaughtered.
Justice Yvon Pinard of the Federal Court ruled that some of Mr. Rutayisire’s activities had contributed to the mass killings. “Many bureaucrats, administrators, and local civic leaders either actively participated or acquiesced to the violence and performed compartmentalized duties which contributed to the genocide. For this reason they are complicit in genocide and must be held accountable,” the judge wrote.
For the first weeks of the genocide, Butare was relatively calm but once the interim government and Hutu militias turned their attention to the region, home to Rwanda’s second-largest city, it became a major killing ground.
The prefect, Jean-Baptiste Habyalimana, a Tutsi, was removed from office and executed along with his wife and daughters. He was replaced by Sylvain Nsabimana, who allegedly played a key role in the genocide in Butare.
According to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, as prefect Mr. Nsabimana helped develop a plan to exterminate Tutsis, ordered and participated in massacres, incited ethnic violence and distributed arms.
The killings began in Butare on April 20. In early May, Mr. Rutayisire was appointed sub-prefect of Butare. He said he was afraid to turn down the job. “When I arrived there, everything was done. I’m not the one who was planning, I didn’t do anything,” he said.
He served until July, when he fled to South Africa. He applied for refugee status in Canada and was granted permanent residence in 2003, but two years later Ottawa began trying to deport him under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.
Last December, the Immigration and Refugee Board ruled he was “complicit by virtue of his association with the principle authors who committed crimes against humanity.” That decision was upheld by the Federal Court on Dec. 3.
Lorne Waldman, Mr. Rutayisire’s lawyer, said the ruling cannot be appealed.
“I think the interpretation of crimes against humanity in Canada has become far too broad and we are casting too wide a net, generally speaking,” he said.
The government must now conduct a risk assessment to determine whether Mr. Rutayisire can be safely deported, but he said he fears what could happen if he is sent back to Rwanda.
In June, Canadian prosecutors charged Jacques Mungwarere of Windsor with four counts of genocide in relation to the killings in Rwanda.
Desire Munyaneza of Toronto was sentenced to life in prison last year for his role. A number of other Rwandans are being deported, including Léon Mugesera, whose removal was upheld by the Supreme Court.
National Post
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