Another Genocidaire is Convicted

There was an article in the Toronto Star on March 18, 2014, regarding the conviction yesterday of Pascal Simbikangwa for his role in the genocide in Rwanda. He was tried in France but Rwanda wants him to serve his sentence in Rwanda.

Perhaps of particular interest to those who have read my earlier posts about my trip to Rwada in 2010, one of the witnesses against him was Valerie Bemeriki, whom we met when we spent an afternoon at the federal prison in Kigali. Bemeriki worked for Radio Mille Collines, and although she was eager to point out to us that she was a journalist and hadn't actually killed anyone, I found out later from a book that Kate W-E had, that her job at Radio Milles Collines was to broadcast the location of Tutsis wherever they were hiding, and to exhort killers to step up their efforts.

The other thing that was interesting about Bemeriki was her assertion that most of the genocidaires who were in prison were farmers and regular folks, while the real criminals had managed to get away to France or Belgium. I recall that she had a sense of outrage at this, while at the same time, I felt she was minimizing her participation. I am not surprised then, given her anger at those who managed to get away with it, that she testified against him at his trial.

Lisa Turner