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The United Nations Security Council called on states today to support the search and arraignment of nine fugitives accused participating in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi population in Rwanda.
In a press release, the UN body recognized the achievements carried out by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda which has brought 93 genocide suspects to justice and sentenced 61 of them since it was established in 1995, a year after the genocides took place.
In addition, the UN Security council urged all nations to cooperate with the ongoing prosecutions of the remaining nine indicted fugitives.
In 1994, between the months of April and July, between 500,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandans were killed in an “ethnic cleansing” campaign between the Tutsi and Hutu populations that was initiated after a missile struck down an airplane carrying Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana, killing all on board.
The attack, a recent Rwandan government inquiry said, was a deliberate attempt by Hutu extremists -- known as “Interahamwe” -- linked to Habyarimana to sabotage an imminent peace accord with the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels.
In the 100 days of bloodshed that followed, more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.
Most of the victims of the genocide belonged to the minority Tutsi population, deliberately targeted by Hutus under the command of the Rwandan government.
“Some of the Interahamwe were our neighbours, people whose animals my father used to treat as a vet,” genocide survivor Seraphine Habimana stated in an interview with the Dublin Institute of Technology.
Current Rwandan President Paul Kagame's RPF forces, which were largely composed of Tutsi refugees fleeing the genocide, defeated the government in July 1994, and is considered by many to be the country’s liberators.
A recently debuted BBC documentary shows that Hutus have since then been violently targeted by Kagame's administration, and that more Hutus have been killed than Tutsis -- maligning the current President's image as a guardian of stability and peace in the country.
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