Rwanda and Zimbabwe signed an extradition agreement on Saturday paving the way for suspected perpetrators of crimes to be extradited and prosecuted in their home countries.
The agreement aims to expedite “two specific criminal cases,” said a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kigali
Rwandan authorities are seeking the extradition of suspected genocide perpetrators who have been seeking asylums in .
the Southern African country since 1994
According to the RWandan Ministry of Justice, the new agreement, which comes after two years of negotiations, will also promote mutual legal assistance between Rwanda and the Zimbabwe in criminal cases.
Rwandan judicial authorities believe that Zimbabwe could be harboring as many top soldiers in the Rwandan army wanted in connection with the 1994 Genocide which left over a million people dead.
Sources say some of these former senior Rwandan army officers were based in Harare where they were reportedly running thriving business ventures. They have all reportedly changed their identities and assumed new names.
Sources in Harare said the former top military men came to Zimbabwe in 1996 after initially being based in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In May this year, the body of Protais Mpiranya, the former commander of the Rwandan presidential guard indicted for genocide, was found buried under a stone slab bearing a false name in the outskirts of Harare, which UN investigators tracked down and identified with the help of a critical lead found on a confiscated computer.
His body was exhumed at the request of UN investigators, and Mpiranya’s identity was confirmed by DNA analysis.
CU/abj/APA