Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

Go raibh maith agat agus cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. This day last week the Secretary General of the UN, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, honoured the victims of the Rwandan genocide and stressed that the only way to prevent such atrocities in the future was to learn from history. He went on to say that the International Criminal Court has become an effective deterrent for would be perpetrators of grave crimes. What we are talking about is genocide on a scale of barbarity that we do not often see in this world. I visited Rwanda a couple of years ago and saw at first hand the effects of the genocide. I met people whose families had been murdered and many young people who were orphaned as a consequence of the genocide, one of whom, Immaculée Ilibagiza, was in the House and spoke to a group in the audio visual room a year ago. She is the author of a number of books. I was in her home village when she embraced a man who had killed a number of her cousins. There is a great sense of forgiveness. Those who are familiar with her book, Left to Tell, will be aware she hid in the pastures for 90 days with six other females. When she left late one night to try to find her way to the French forces for protection, she met a friend at the encampment who told her that her mother, father and her two brothers had been killed during the period in which she was locked away. With American Senators I recall meeting a number of the victims, all of whom pleaded with us to ensure that those responsible be brought to justice and that western countries protecting and hiding these people be encouraged to do so. I tabled a motion in the House on the issue.

It is interesting to note that the President of Rwanda, Mr. Paul Kagame, has accused western countries of failing to stop genocide suspects in their territory and to bring them to account. He said:

As we remember those we lost, some of those who killed them are still moving freely in some capitals of the so-called free world. There is little effort to apprehend them and when this happens it is a token meant to blind us and give us the impression that they are doing justice. They are released shortly afterwards, yet when acts of terrorism are committed against their people the whole world is mobilised, in fact, sometimes forced to join in the search for those criminals so that they can be brought to justice.

The specific case I am putting to the Minister deals with a French-Rwandan man, Mr. Claude Muhayimana, who is 51 years of age. For the first time ever, a French court has ruled on an international arrest warrant to have him extradited to Rwanda in order that the accused can face the charges of taking part in genocide and crimes against humanity. The extradition can only go ahead if the French Government is in accord with that. In the past the French Government has never extradited its citizens to Rwanda even though it had involvement there and, some would say, was a contributory party to what subsequently emerged in Rwanda. I ask that Ireland, as a concerned country and particularly as one who is seeking to join the UN Council of Human Rights, support the call and encourage the French Government to allow this man face justice in Rwanda rather than sidestepping Rwandan justice and taking him elsewhere.

Some 800,000 people were killed between April and July 1994. The President, Mr. Paul Kagame, said it would appear Rwandan lives, and similarly Africans lives, are less valued than the lives of citizens of western countries. We cannot have one law for the developed western world and a different law for African countries. There is no hierarchy of life and I urge the Minister to encourage the French Government to move in that direction.