Fulgence Kayishema, one of the most wanted remaining fugitives of the Rwandan genocide, has appeared before a court in the South African city of Cape Town following his arrest this week after 22 years on the run.
Kayishema is accused of taking part in the murder of 2,000 people sheltering in a Catholic church during one of the bloodiest episodes of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
He was arrested on Wednesday under the false name Donatien Nibashumba at a grape farm in Paarl, 60 km north of Cape Town.
South African police said the arrest came in response to a red notice from Interpol. Red notices are going out to law enforcement agencies around the world. They search for the location and arrest of fugitives wanted for prosecution or to serve prison sentences.
The 62-year-old entered court on Friday for an initial hearing carrying a Bible and a book emblazoned with “Jesus first,” and was asked by a journalist if he had anything to say to the victims.
“What can I say? We’re sorry to hear what happened,” he replied after emerging from the cells of the Magistrates’ Court in Cape Town. “It was war at the time. … I had no role.”
During his brief appearance in court, Kayishema was accompanied by masked police officers with automatic weapons and body armor. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said the case has been postponed to June 2 to allow time for further investigation.
“As he was being arrested, more information came out, which could mean we would add more charges,” NPA provincial spokesman Eric Ntabazalila told reporters.
Kayishema will be held in Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town awaiting extradition to Rwanda.
“This appears to be just the beginning of a longer process for justice for many people who suffered during the Rwandan genocide,” said Al Jazeera’s Fahmida Miller from Cape Town.
Gatete Ruhumuliza, a Rwandan lawyer and political analyst, described Kayishema as an “important” figure among the genocide perpetrators.
“What Kayishema did…is he broke the first taboo, which was to kill people who took shelter in a church. That was unheard of,” Ruhumuliza told Al Jazeera from Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
“Subsequent killings followed that pattern…as many Tutsis who were killed sought refuge [in a church] thinking no one would dare cross that barrier.
Kayishema had been on the run from justice since 2001, when the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) charged him with genocide for his alleged role in the destruction of the Catholic Nyange Church in Kibuye Prefecture.
More than 800,000 Rwandans, most of them from the Tutsi ethnic group, were killed by troops and vigilantes from the Hutu ethnic group during 100 days of violence. Thousands of moderate Hutus also died in the violence, considered one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.
At Nyange Church, Hutu militiamen threw grenades and doused it with fuel to set it on fire. When that failed, they bulldozed the church, and most of those hiding inside died.
Kayishema faces five charges in South Africa, including two for fraud related to applications he has made for asylum and refugee status. The NPA claims he gave up his Burundian nationality and used a false name.
Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, the successor to the ICTR, told the BBC that Kayishema fled Rwanda after the genocide and hid among refugees.
“First he went to the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo] for several months. Then he went to a refugee camp in Tanzania. From there he moved to Mozambique. Two years later to eSwatini, and in the late 1990s he ended up in South Africa,” said Brammertz.
The prosecution has persuaded a small number of former Rwandan soldiers with false identities living as refugees in South Africa to provide information on Kayishema’s whereabouts, he said.