A 65-year-old doctor has appeared in court, the first person in the UK to be charged over the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Dr Vincent Brown, formerly Dr Vincent Bajinya, who is in custody, confirmed his name and address from the dock at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. He was charged following a seven year British investigation into the killings. He was told he faced a charge of conduct ancillary to genocide and six offences of conduct ancillary to murder, as a crime against humanity.
The case was passed to the Old Bailey for a hearing on 9 October. A bail application will be considered later on Tuesday. The 1994 killings in Rwanda lasted 100 days, during which Hutu extremists carried out a campaign of slaughter against Tutsis and other moderate Hutus. The charges against Brown relate to an alleged slaughter in the Rugenge district of Kigali between 6 April and 13 April in 1994.
Brown is accused of “killing, directing or encouraging” the deaths of members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as intending to destroy the group “as a whole or in part.” Prosecutors said he was being charged with genocide under the 2001 International Criminal Court Act and the alleged killings were “part of a widespread or systematic attack, directed against a civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.” Three members of the same house were allegedly murdered, along with a taxi driver, a mother and her young son. The alleged victims were Dominique Mukurarinda, Immaculee Mukankusi, Gerasi Rurangirwa, Leandre Mbogoye, Charlotte Kamaguja and Olivier Tuyishime. Brown is a medical doctor who qualified in Rwanda in the 1980s. He later became head of the country’s Department of Family Health in Kigali and lived in a suburb there with his wife and young son.
In 2006 he was worked at Praxis, a London-based charity which helps refugees from places like Rwanda. He has also served on the Refugee Nurses Task Force, which was set up in 2003 to advise the UK government. Senior police officers have previously stressed the UK should not be a safe haven for alleged war criminals, and investigators have been trained in international war crimes legislation. Sam Blom-Cooper, a barrister for Brown, told the court his client denied the allegations and was intent on going in front of a jury to clear the “stains of these appalling allegations.” He said the defendant had hoped for, longed for, and prayed for the best part of 20 years, for this day.” “These are appalling crimes, terrible murders committed in 1994 but this is the beginning of the end for Dr Brown.” Inquiries continue into other alleged genocide offences in Rwanda.
