|
Le président Abassi - Dessin Félix Cuirot   |
Spain revives war crimes case against Rwandan military figure
Kayumba Nyamwasa, once a top ally of Paul Kagame, is sought for orchestrating killings of foreign nationals and civilians
Rwanda's former army chief of staff, Kayumba Nyamwasa, middle, stands behind Paul Kagame during a military event in Kigali.
Spain has re-issued arrest warrants against a high-profile Rwandan opposition figure in exile who stands accused of committing war crimes while serving under Rwandan leader Paul Kagame, in a case that has defied the politics of international justice for nearly two decades.
In a landmark lawsuit of universal jurisdiction, Spain indicted 40 military officials of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in 2008 on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and terrorism dating from the 1990s—during and after the Rwandan genocide.
The case initially stemmed from the murders of nine Spanish nationals in Rwanda and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, but later widened in scope to prosecute RPF officials for more serious war crimes against thousands of Rwandan and Congolese civilians.
Despite the indictments, none of the accused have ever been extradited to Spain to stand trial, as Rwandan officials, including President Kagame, have benefitted from widespread international support and legal cover since seizing power in 1994.
Nevertheless, Spanish lawyers and judges have continued to pursue legal proceedings against Rwandan military figures using tools of extraterritorial jurisdiction in their quest for justice. In July 2025, Spanish Judge José Luis Calama issued international and European arrest warrants against Kayumba Nyamwasa for his leading role in the killing of several Spanish aid workers and a priest in Rwanda, and in broader campaigns of violence that have engulfed Rwanda and Congo since the 1990s.
General Nyamwasa, who fled to South Africa after falling out with Kagame's regime in 2010, had his refugee status revoked in 2017 because he stood accused of committing serious war crimes. Nyamwasa has faced multiple assassination attempts by alleged agents of the Rwandan government operating on South African soil. Once a close ally to Kagame and a founding member of the Tutsi-led RPF, Nyamwasa headed the movement's military intelligence department and later served as the country's defence chief when Rwandan forces committed horrific crimes in Congo.
Victor Hortal Fernandez, a Spanish lawyer representing the families of victims in the case, said Spain re-issued arrest warrants and requested an Interpol red notice for General Nyamwasa because the court considered him "missing." Hortal Fernandez also said that Nyamwasa misled the court after appointing a defence lawyer, a judicial move that allowed him to gain access to evidence in the case, namely testimony by protected witnesses. After accessing and reviewing the evidence, Nyamwasa effectively disappeared and became unavailable for further proceedings. His lawyer told the court that he had no idea where Nyamwasa was, or how to locate him.
"The latest information in the case is that Kayumba Nyamwasa is missing. This is why the investigative judge has had to issue European and international arrest warrants and request that Interpol coordinate an investigation into the location of the suspect," Hortal Fernandez told me, adding that if Nyamwasa is still in South Africa, the Pretoria government has a legal duty to extradite him to Spain under the European Convention on Extradition.
Nyamwasa, an important dissident who has garnered much support from Rwandan opposition members in exile, is sought for orchestrating crimes against more than a dozen foreign nationals, and against thousands of Congolese and Rwandan civilians. "Kayumba Nyamwasa is accused of acts of sufficient criminal significance to warrant investigation and eventual prosecution. He is not being prosecuted for his views in favour of, or against the Rwandan regime, but for crimes against the Rwandan and Congolese people, and foreign nationals," Hortal Fernandez pointed out.
In the first five weeks of 1997, more than a dozen foreigners were murdered in well-planned operations carried out by Kagame's intelligence network in central Africa. Four UN observers were killed on January 11; three Spaniards—a nurse named Maria Flors Sirera Fortuny, a doctor named Manuel Madrazo Osuna and Luis Valtuena, a journalist working with El Païs—were slain on January 18 in Ruhengeri in northern Rwanda; a Canadian priest named Guy Pinard was shot dead on February 2 in a church while offering communion to worshippers in Ruhengeri, and five UN human rights staffers were massacred on February 4 in Karengera.
Spain has also sought justice for four other Spanish citizens—Catholic priests from the Society of Mary—who were murdered, allegedly by Rwandan soldiers, at a refugee camp in Bukavu, Congo in 1996, and for a Spanish priest named Joaquim Vallmajo, who was killed by RPF agents in Byumba, in northern Rwanda, in 1994. Nyamwasa and Kagame had command responsibility for these crimes at the time, although as president, Kagame currently has immunity from prosecution.
The 185-page Spanish indictment against Nyamwasa and his former RPF comrades is based on detailed testimony from former Tutsi officers and soldiers who defected and are now living in exile. Key informants who worked in Rwandan intelligence and in the High Command, a battalion that protected Kagame, have testified under oath that Nyamwasa organized the murder of foreign nationals who were witnesses to RPF crimes against Hutu civilians in northwestern Rwanda during counterinsurgency operations, from 1996 until 1999, and during the invasion of Congo in 1996-1997. The witnesses said Emmanuel Karenzi Karake, who succeeded Nyamwasa as intelligence chief after the genocide, also helped orchestrate the violence.
The attacks on UN staff prompted a full-scale investigation by the UN's Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda. In 1997, the UN completed a report that included 37 annexes of photos and other evidence. Despite repeated requests by Spanish authorities, followed by a court order to produce the evidence, the UN has refused to divulge any material from its investigations, even though it has a legal obligation to provide evidence to a court of a UN member state. UN reports relating to the assaults remain in confidential keeping at the UN Archives and Records Management Section in Geneva, according to the Spanish legal team, whose members have faced major judicial hurdles to in pursuing the case.
Over the years, the UN and Western governments have granted Kagame and his senior entourage de facto immunity for international crimes, despite solid evidence that their forces committed crimes against humanity and possibly genocide in Rwanda and Congo in the 1990s. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, set up to prosecute crimes committed in 1994, only targeted Hutus connected to the former regime. The International Criminal Court has refused to indict Kagame and his senior entourage for crimes committed by their forces in Congo. Both courts are largely viewed as political tools of empire. Meanwhile, no government in Europe, North America, or Africa has been willing to extradite Kagame's aides, who often travel abroad without concern.
The closest the Spanish court has come to prosecuting an indicted RPF official occurred in June 2015 when British police, acting on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain, arrested General Karake, Kagame's former spy chief, during a visit to London. Karake was briefly held at Belmarsh Prison in southeast London and was due to appear at an extradition hearing in October of that year. But in a surprise move, Cherie Blair—a lawyer and the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a longstanding supporter of Kagame—stepped in to defend Karake. The extradition hearing was never held, and a UK judge dismissed the case on a technicality at a bail hearing. Karake returned home to Rwanda where he officially advises Kagame on defence and security policies.
Spain has been the most assertive country to pursue the principle of universal jurisdiction, occasionally causing tyrants to tremble. It launched investigations into China's crimes in Tibet, Israel's bombardments in Gaza, and the United States' use of torture at Guantanamo. In 1998, its court issued an arrest warrant against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet on charges of genocide, terrorism, and torture. Pinochet was placed under house arrest in London but was never extradited to Spain. He died in Chile in 2006.
Yet in 2014, Spain's conservative People's Party—battling recession and eager to improve economic relations with China, Israel, and the US—eroded the country's doctrine of universal jurisdiction, which had long sought to investigate crimes beyond its borders and hold abusive leaders responsible. It dismissed the case against Rwandan officials, though its laws included a proviso that some Rwandan officials could still be prosecuted for terrorism if the alleged perpetrators were on Spanish territory or brought before the court.
Despite Spain's decision to water down its universal jurisdiction laws, the Spanish case against Rwandan military figures was resurrected in 2017, allowing for arrest warrants to be issued on charges of terrorism among other international crimes (the country is now ruled by the Socialist Workers' Party). The legal case against Rwanda was revived in large part because of a desire for "truth, justice and memory of those who have disappeared violently," a former lawyer on the team told me.
Spanish lawyers are convinced that the evidence in the case is overwhelming, and they continue to gather documents and testimony from protected witnesses. The latest warrants against General Nyamwasa were issued on charges that go beyond terrorism—they are for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Judi Rever is a journalist from Montréal and is the author of In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front.
We Need Your Help
More than 75% of our operating budget comes to us in the form of donations from our readers. These donations help to pay our bills, and honorariums for some of our writers, photographers and graphic artists. Our supporters are part of everything we do.
Donate Now
