Paul Kagame's former chief of staff was being treated for cancer in London
The United Kingdom has not responded to the request for the surrender of Judge Fernando Andreu
Fernando J. Pérez Madrid 25 FEB 2014
The cases of universal justice that continue to be brought before the National Court have often become a race in which the States are dedicated to creating obstacles for the magistrates.. The last one was known today: The Government of Rwanda has appointed the former chief of staff of its Army as ambassador to China, Charles Kayonga, prosecuted for genocide the head of the Central Court of Instruction number 4, Fernando Andreu since the year 2008. With his appointment, It's okay, considered “directly responsible” of “systematic massacres”” of Rwandan Hutu refugees and Congolese civilians, among other crimes against humanity, would obtain the diplomatic immunity granted by the Vienna Convention. Kayonga had been detected in early January in London, where he was supposedly undergoing medical treatment. The past 2 January, Judge Andreu had requested his arrest through Interpol, but the British authorities did not even communicate a provisional arrest, according to legal sources.
Kayonga has been appointed to settle at the Rwandan legation in Beijing, and the state agency of the Asian giant, Xinhua, has already informed of his appointment. However, The lieutenant general has not received the placet and diplomatic credentials so he does not yet enjoy the status of ambassador. Precisely, this maneuver of the small African state, chaired by Paul Kagame, also accused of genocide, relies on a country, China, whose Government is exerting strong diplomatic pressure on Spain to end the so-called universal justice, after the National Court has charged several members of its political and military leadership, including former presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, For genocide in the Tibet.
However, Kayonga's escape has also been possible thanks to the fact that the United Kingdom authorities have delayed the deadlines and procedure for his arrest after it was requested by Judge Andreu, according to legal sources. The organizations that filed the complaint that gave rise to the prosecution of Kayonga and others 39 senior officials of Paul Kagame's government, They informed the magistrate of the presence of the military leader in a London clinic. The magistrate processed the arrest warrant immediately through Interpol. However, The British authorities requested a complementary certificate from the National Court on the validity of the request., which was also sent by Andreu.
She further , according to the same sources, The magistrate raised the arrest request to London through the Spanish liaison magistrate in the United Kingdom and notified the British National Crime Agency of Kayonga's presence.. The signatories of the complaint maintain that since the lieutenant general has not yet received the credentials from the Chinese Government, He does not yet enjoy the protection of the Vienna Convention and may be detained, although they already ignore his whereabouts.
The case opened in the National Court investigates the genocide of the Hutu ethnic group perpetrated in Rwanda and Congo between the years 1994 and 2000 by a parallel structure to the Rwandan State, dominated by elements of the Tutsi minority. This research that, along with another undertaken in France, has converted to Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, in an uncomfortable presence in international forums, is different from that carried out by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, focused on genocide –con 800.000 muertos- carried out by the Hutu majority against the Tutsis in 1994.
It is not the first time that a third country facilitates the escape from Spanish justice of one of the 40 defendants. In June 2010, South Africa granted asylum to Kayumba Nyamwasa, prosecuted in Spain for the death of the Catalan religious Joaquim Vallmajó in 1994 and that of the members of Doctors of the World Flors Sirera, Manuel Madrazo and Luis Valtueña three years later.
