UK brings first Rwanda genocide charges

A 65-year-old Rwandan doctor living in north London has become the first person charged in the United Kingdom with offences linked to the 1994 Rwanda genocide, prosecutors said.

Dr Vincent Brown, formerly known as Dr Vincent Bajinya, has been charged with one offence of conduct ancillary to genocide and six offences of conduct ancillary to murder as a crime against humanity, the Crown Prosecution Service said. He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said Brown “is alleged to have directed and incited acts of murder and genocide carried out by others.”

“The charges relate to allegations that Dr Brown took part in the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994,” Ferguson said, according to Al Jazeera. “This is the first time charges relating to the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda have been brought in the United Kingdom.”

Ferguson said the decision to charge Brown followed a review of evidence submitted by the Metropolitan Police War Crimes Team. “We concluded that our legal test for bringing criminal charges had been met,” he said.

The Metropolitan Police said the charges followed “a complex and extensive seven-year investigation.” The War Crimes Team began its inquiry in September 2019 after a formal request from the Rwandan government to investigate people allegedly involved in genocide in the Rugenge district of Kigali in April 1994.

Police said Brown was arrested and charged on Monday, Al Jazeera reported. The outlet also reported that Brown, originally from Kigali, once worked in London for a charity assisting refugee nurses and midwives seeking work in Britain.

Brown had previously been arrested in 2006, Al Jazeera reported. His extradition to Rwanda, along with four other men, was refused by a UK court in 2017. Al Jazeera, citing the Associated Press, reported that former Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama said in 2006 that Brown was believed to have entered the UK as an asylum seeker in 1998. The outlet also reported that attorney Philip Eldin-Taylor said at the time that Brown changed his name when he was granted UK citizenship in 2004.

The 1994 genocide unfolded over 100 days, during which an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists. The killers targeted members of the minority Tutsi community and political opponents, regardless of ethnic origin. The BBC reported that the mainly Tutsi forces that took power after the genocide were alleged to have killed thousands of Hutu people in Rwanda in retaliation.

Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the case showed that “the UK is not a safe haven for individuals suspected of committing international crimes.”

“The War Crimes Team remains committed to ensuring those suspected of involvement in genocide and other atrocity crimes are held accountable through due legal process,” Flanagan said.

Police said several other investigations remain ongoing into people in the UK suspected of similar offences connected to the Rwanda genocide.