Ukiliho Kayishema Fulgence made his second appearance in the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court this morning, Friday 2 May, during which the state indicated a further estimated 17 charges were mounting against him.
Kayeshima Fulgence, referred to as the “Butcher of Nyange” by the Rwandan press, is charged with two counts of fraud and three counts of transgression of the Immigration Act.
According to the Hawks’ Regional Communications Manager, Eric Ntabazalila, state Adv Nathan Adriaanse asked the court to postpone the case as he had received two lever-arch files yesterday with new evidence.
“He told the court that due to the voluminous nature of the arch files he had so far drafted 17 charges after going through some part of the files. He will draft a complete charge sheet over the weekend and hand it over to the defence on Monday 5 June and will advise the court at the next appearance on Friday 9 June of the number of charges preferred against the accused.”
Adriaanse further informed the court that the state would oppose the accused’s bail application as the defence indicated the accused intended to apply for bail.
As for the current charges, Ntabazalila said the state alleges that in January 2000 Fulgence pretended to be another person by giving another name and claiming he was a Burundian national.
“He did the same in 2004 when applying for formal refugee status. He also stayed in the country illegally.”
The case returns to Cape Town Magistrates’ Court on 9 June 2023.
The Sunday Times reported that, while being hunted for 21 years by Rwanda’s International Criminal Tribunal for his alleged involvement in the country’s 1994 genocide “Fulgence Kayishema (sic) worked as a security guard at a Paarl wine farm under a false name, pretending to be a Burundian war refugee.”
Church-massacre survivors have lauded Fulgence’s arrest. One survivor, Safari Jean Bosco, recalled how he endured bulldozing by hiding under the bodies of the 2 000 or so victims of grenading, attempted burning and bulldozing of the Nyange Catholic Church in Kibuye Prefecture, as reported in a Reuters article published by News24.
Bosco and his mother, sister and brothers sought refuge in the church along with others.On 12 April 1994, six days after the genocide against Tutsis by an extremist Hutu regime began, militia surrounded the church. Soon afterwards Bosco saw local police inspector Fulgence Kayishema in a meeting with the parish priest and others.
“We thought the meeting . . . was addressing how to maintain our security,” Bosco told Reuters. “It later came to our knowledge they had cruel intentions to exterminate us.”
Hutu militia lobbed grenades at the church before dousing it with fuel to set it ablaze. When that failed they knocked the church down with bulldozers and most of those sheltering inside died.
Fulgence first appeared in the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court on Friday 26 May on multiple charges related to fraud and immigration violations after being arrested in Paarl on Wednesday the 24th in connection with genocidal crimes in Rwanda.
This after years on the run from his genocide indictment over the church massacre by the International Rwanda War Crimes Tribunal, giving the survivors a long-denied sense of satisfaction.
“The arrest of Kayishema was eagerly awaited,” Bosco, now 67, said. “May justice prevail.”
