Brother of Canadian priest slain in Rwanda calls for justice

Published: 2008-04-01

QUEBEC CITY (CNS) -- The brother of a Canadian priest murdered after the 1990s Rwandan genocide said he hoped the Canadian government would take action to bring to justice his brother's assassins. Gilles Pinard, brother of Father Guy Pinard, a member of the Missionaries of Africa who was murdered in Kampanga as he celebrated Mass Feb. 2, 1997, said he hoped that the Canadian government would follow Spain's example and take action to bring to justice his brother's assassins. The murder has been classified as an international crime. "My brother was killed because he witnessed the murders of three Spanish workers from Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World)," Pinard said. "He had also discovered a mass grave of 80 bodies in the playground of the village school where he worked. The army wanted to silence him," he said. In early February, Spanish Judge Fernando Andreu issued 40 arrest warrants, including one to Rwandan Lt. Col. Karake Karenzi, then head of Rwandan military intelligence. During a late-March trip to Sudan, Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier met with Karenzi, who is serving on a U.N. peacekeeping mission. "It is possible that this individual was among the senior U.N. military officers that I met with in Sudan," Bernier told Canadian media March 31. "I hope that the U.N. will now do its job regarding the international charges against this officer."

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