Seeking justice over international war criminals in the UK by David Brown

Until last month, those involved in war crimes in other countries, including the Rwanda genocide, could take advantage of a loophole in UK law that allowed them to roam our streets as free men. The Aegis Trust has been working for several years to tackle the issue and the change in jurisdiction is a massive success for them.

However, David Brown, the Aegis Trust's Head of Media, tells Crimestoppers how there is still much more work to be done to confront international criminals who are still able to take advantage of the British system. He tells us how such criminals include a member of the Afghan government's secret police, a Tamil Tiger assassination hit-squad driver, and a rebel from Sierra Leone, notorious for murder, rape, looting, burning, sexual slavery and forced amputations. [August 2009]

From all parts of the city you could see them coming. First in ones and twos, sometimes holding hands or with arms around one another's shoulders, their necks or wrists adorned with a flash of purple cloth, the colour of mourning. Then in groups of ten or twenty; then finally a vast column, silent but for the sound of shoes on tarmac, swelling until motorised traffic was impossible. All were moving in one direction: the Kigali Memorial Centre, established at a site of burial for over 250,000 victims of Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

It was the 8th of April; Day Two of Rwanda's national week of mourning to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the slaughter. Yet as survivors throughout the central African country gathered to remember their dead, four men whom Britain's High Court agreed faced a prima facie case for genocide in Rwanda were being returned to our streets free men. As news filtered through to the survivors thronging the genocide memorial, their sense of shock was palpable. Reflecting the mood, dark clouds rolled in and the rain poured down. “I lost my entire family in 1994,” commented Centre Manager Freddy Umutanguha, surveying the scene. “This is such an insult to their memory. How long must we survivors wait for justice?”

The case threw into relief one of two major loopholes in UK law that the Aegis Trust had for several years been working with MPs to close. The High Court determined that Charles Munyaneza, Celestin Ugirashebuja, Vincent Bajinya and Emmanuel Nteziryayo risked ‘a flagrant denial of justice' if extradited to Rwanda – and because there was no provision for the prosecution of genocide, crimes against humanity or most types of war crimes in the UK if committed before 2001, they were free to go. It was a blot on Britain's reputation that could not be ignored.

Finally, responding last month to amendments tabled to the Justice and Coroners Bill in the House of Lords, the government announced it would extend jurisdiction of UK courts to prosecute international crimes as far back as 1991. It is a bold step in the right direction, and once passed into law, it should enable prosecution of suspects like Munyaneza et al for their alleged crimes.

It is not the end of the story, however. Another major problem remains; the fact that UK law in this area applies only to UK residents, not simply to anyone present in the UK. This can affect, for example, people suspected of mass atrocities to whom the Home Office is not willing to grant asylum, but who cannot be returned home due to risk of torture or unfair trial.

In June Aegis Trust published a report that brought together, for the first time, details of people entering the UK who are suspected of international crimes. The report – ‘Suspected War Criminals and Genocidaires in the UK: Proposals to Strengthen our Laws' – examines 18 cases, including those of suspected genocidaires from Rwanda, alleged torturers from Zimbabwe, Iraq, Liberia and the Congo, and alleged war criminals from Afghanistan, Sudan, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka. They include such people as a Lieutenant Colonel from KHAD, the Soviet-era Afghan government's secret police; an alleged Tamil Tiger assassination hit-squad driver, and a member of Sierra Leone's ‘Mosquito' rebel group, notorious for murder, rape, looting, burning, sexual slavery and forced amputations.

The workload of the UK Border Agency's war crimes team is not going down but increasing. Since 2004, there have been over 450 cases in which either immigration action was recommended or a referral was made to the police. How many of these people are currently at large in the UK is unclear.

The absence of a simple presence test for prosecution of genocide suspects in the UK also means that suspects can continue to visit the UK for a holiday or short business trip. In 1999, Felicien Kabuga spent time here. He is suspected of supplying weapons on an industrial scale for use in the Rwandan genocide. People like him could still be able to travel to the UK with impunity today.

It is a thought which troubles Freddy Umutanguha, delighted though he is at the change in UK law announced last month. “How can anyone with a case to answer for genocide be allowed to walk the streets a free man in a western democracy?” he asks. “Men like Kabuga must be held to account. The British Government has made an enormously positive step in the right direction; now it needs to finish what it's begun.”

Note: The Kigali Memorial Centre was established by the Aegis Trust with Kigali City Council in 2004.

Visit the Aegis Trust's website.

See our International Fugitives appeals - seeking criminals in the UK wanted for crimes abroad and our Operation Captura appeals - looking for British criminals believed to be on the run in Spain.