New York beekeeper ‘was Rwandan Genocide perpetrator'
A beekeeper living in the United States for two decades was a participant in the Rwandan Genocide, prosecutors claim.
Faustin Nsabumukunzi, 65, of Bridgehampton, New York, was a local leader with the title of 'Sector Counsellor' in Rwanda in 1994, according to documents made public by the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
'The defendant participated in the commission of heinous acts of violence abroad and then lied his way into a green card and tried to obtain US citizenship,' said Matthew Galeotti, head of the DOJ's criminal division.
'No matter how much time has passed, the department will find and prosecute individuals who committed atrocities in their home countries and covered them up to gain entry and seek citizenship in the United States,' he continued.
Mr Nsabumukunzi was arrested on Thursday and scheduled to appear before a judge. It is not clear if Mr Nsabumukunzi has a lawyer or has had a chance to enter a plea.
An image published by the New York Post, purportedly of Mr Nsabumukunzi, showed him standing outside a house with an American flag flying from a post.
The newspaper said when Mr Nsabumukunzi was arrested in the Long Island area of New York, he allegedly told the authorities: 'I know, I'm finished.'
During just 100 days in 1994, members of the majority Hutu population persecuted the minority Tutsis, committing acts of violence including murder and rape.
An estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.
The killings were triggered by the death of the Juvenal Habyarimana, the Rwandan president, who was a Hutu, when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on April 6 that year.
In 2006, a French judge claimed Paul Kagame, the current Rwandan president, at the time the leader of a Tutsi rebel group and his associates were involved in the attack, something he has always denied.
The DOJ said Mr Nsabumukunzi applied for refugee status in in 2003, and denied any involvement in the genocide.
He was allowed to enter the US as a refugee in 2004, and received a green card in 2007.
In New York, he worked as a beekeeper with the Hamptons Honey Company. He has been featured several times in the media.
'They are my activity,' he said of the bees, in a 2006 interview with The New York Times. 'Beekeeping is my life.'
According to the DOJ, the documents unsealed this week allege Mr Nsabumukunzi used his leadership position 'to oversee the violence and killings of Tutsis in his local area and directed groups of armed Hutus to kill Tutsis'.
It added: 'He is alleged to have set up roadblocks during the genocide to detain and kill Tutsis and to have participated in killings.'
Darren McCormack, a senior agent of US immigration and customs enforcement homeland security investigations division, said: 'This defendant has been living in the United States for decades, hiding his alleged horrific conduct, human rights violations, and his role in these senseless atrocities against innocent Tutsis.'
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