In what has been described as a landmark development relating to the judicial co-operation between France and Rwanda, two senior judges from the Paris Court of Higher Instance have arrived in the country to investigate genocide suspects who are incarcerated in France.

The New Times reports that the Michele Ganascia and Fabienne Puos will be in Rwanda for a week on a 'touching base' mission that will see them study the files of four of the 12 indicted fugitives living in France. 'The French judiciary did request for our co-operation in ensuring the possible prosecution of these people, and we are willing to share with them all the information we have on the fugitives,' said Jean Bosco Mutangana, who heads the Genocide Fugitives Tracking Unit (GFTU).
Full report in The New Times

A court in Canada has formally charged Jacques Mungwarere with crimes of genocide. The New Times reports that Mungwarere who was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) after a tip-off by a citizen earlier this month, becomes the second genocide suspect to be charged on Canadian soil. Just a month ago, another court sentenced Desire Munyaneza to life imprisonment for his role in the genocide against the Tutsis. According to the report, Mungwarere, a former school teacher who has been hiding in the North American country, was arrested in his home in Ontario. 'Though Canadians have had his file since 2003, the investigations intensified earlier this year when a team of Canadian policemen came to Rwanda carry out investigations,' said Rwanda's Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit head Bosco Mutangana.
Full report in The New Times

Zambia has denied reports that it had failed to help Rwandan authorities find and arrest 1994 genocide suspects believed to be living in Zambia. According to a report on the News24 site, acting Foreign Minister Ronnie Shikapwasha said Zambia had offered vital information to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), directly and through the International Committee on the Great Lakes region, to ensure that genocide suspects were handed over to prosecutors. Shikapwasha was reacting to media reports that the head of the Rwandan unit tracking genocide suspects, Bosco Mutangana, had said that Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique were not willing to extradite suspects of the genocide in which some 800 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered over three months in 1994.
Full report on the News24 site

The Commonwealth has accepted Rwanda as its 54th member. Aljazeera reports that the move was announced at the end of a biannual summit of body in Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday. It has been seen as an indication of the central African nation's emergence from its recent violent history. 'My government sees this accession as recognition of the tremendous progress this country has made in the last 15 years,' said Louise Mushikiwabo, the Minister of Information. It came on the same day that France and Rwanda agreed to restore diplomatic ties in Kigali, Rwanda's capital, three years after they were severed.
Full Aljazeera report