Africa · updated 57m ago · 2 min read
UK Prosecutors Charge Vincent Brown With Genocide Offences Linked to 1994 Tutsi Killings in Rwanda
Vincent Brown, 65, is the first UK figure charged over the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Count of conduct ancillary to genocide and six counts of murder as crimes against humanity.
How widely the “UK safe haven” point is attributed and justified.
4 of 5 outlets skipped it: brown previously arrested in 2006 and extradition refused in 2017.
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BBC
“This case demonstrates the UK is not a safe haven for individuals suspected of committing international crimes.”Read the original ↗
Metropolitan Police
“This case demonstrates the UK is not a safe haven for individuals suspected of committing international crimes.”Read the original ↗
Attribution comes from officials on both sides, but differs by outlet authority context.
UK charges Rwanda genocide
UK prosecutors brought the first-ever charges in the United Kingdom against Vincent Brown, a 65-year-old doctor formerly known as Vincent Bajinya, after a complex seven-year investigation. Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s special crime and counter terrorism division, said Brown was charged with one count of being an ancillary to genocide and six offences of aiding crimes against humanity in Rwanda. Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the case involved a huge amount of work and determination from officers in the War Crimes Team.
The War Crimes Team began their investigation in September 2019 after a formal request from the Rwandan government to investigate people allegedly involved in a genocide in the Rugenge district of Kigali in April 1994. The charges allege that Brown took part in the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994, and the prosecution said the case demonstrates the UK is not a safe haven for individuals suspected of committing international crimes.
Allegations and court timeline
Frank Ferguson said Brown was alleged to have directed and incited acts of murder and genocide carried out by others against the Tutsi. The Crown Prosecution Service said the first time charges relating to the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda have been brought in the United Kingdom. Brown was arrested and charged on Monday and was due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, with the London police saying he was in custody.
Commander Helen Flanagan said the case demonstrates the UK is not a safe haven for individuals suspected of committing international crimes. Brown has been remanded in custody to attend Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, 22 September.
Scale of the genocide
Over the course of 100 days in 1994, an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus people were killed in Rwanda by Hutu extremists. CGTN said the UK prosecutors charged the first genocide offences in the UK as a man was charged following Tutsi killings in Rwanda. The Rwandan genocide saw an estimated 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, killed in 100 days of slaughter.
The BBC said the mainly Tutsi forces who took power following the genocide were alleged to have killed thousands of Hutu people in Rwanda in retaliation. BThe BBC said a number of other investigations remain ongoing into other individuals in the UK for similar offences related to the genocide in Rwanda.B