UK: Man charged over suspected role in Rwanda genocide

Prosecutors in the United Kingdom have announced the first-ever charges brought against an individual for alleged involvement in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Vincent Brown, a 65-year-old man, has been arrested and charged with one count of being an accessory to genocide and six counts of aiding crimes against humanity. The Crown Prosecution Service's special crime and counterterrorism division, led by Frank Ferguson, stated that Brown was alleged to have directed and incited acts of murder and genocide against the Tutsi population.

In total, approximately 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were killed in 100 days of widespread violence.

This marks the first time charges related to the genocide in Rwanda have been brought in the UK. Brown, formerly known as Vincent Bajinya, is currently in custody and is set to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday. He was born in Kigali, Rwanda but has been residing in the Islington area of London. Reports suggest he was either a Rwandan national or had become a British citizen.

Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, emphasized that the case required extensive investigation and determination by officers from the War Crimes Team, which initiated their work in September 2019. She further highlighted that this case demonstrates the UK will not provide a safe haven for individuals suspected of committing international crimes.

Brown was initially arrested in 2006, but his extradition to Rwanda was denied by a British court in 2017. The Rwandan government subsequently asked the UK to investigate directly those involved in the genocide in the Rugenge district of Kigali in April 1994.

Flanagan noted that "a number of other investigations remain ongoing" in the UK into similar offenses committed during the Rwanda genocide. The genocide erupted following years of tension between ethnic Hutu and Tutsi populations, triggered by the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana when his plane was hit by two missiles.