One source is not enough for the Dutch government to substantiate the claim that the man took part in at least four notable events during the Rwandan genocide. A more thorough investigation is needed.

The state secretary for security and justice, Klaas Dijkhoff, revoked the man’s Dutch citizenship on May 22, 2013. According to the state secretary, the man had been involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and did not report this at the time he obtained his Dutch nationality in 2002. Knowledge about this information would have led to a refusal of Dutch citizenship.

This is the conclusion of an investigation into behaviors relating to Article 1(F) of the Convention on Refugees. The state secretary based his involvement primarily on a report by the human rights organization African Right, specifically on a report that was written with Redress in 2010 that fully dealt with the man.

The report links the man to, among other incidents:

• an attack on the Kabuga shopping center in Cyeru;
• involvement in the killing of ten Belgian UN soldiers on April 6 and 7, 1994;
• involvement in the killing of Tutsi refugees in St. Paul’s Church in Mugina between April 21 and 25, 1994;
• the attempted murder of refugees in the Gisimba Orphanage on July 2, 1994.

Insufficient investigation

The court in Gelderland ruled on October 20 that the state secretary did not substantiate the applicability of Article 1(F) of the Convention of Refugees on the man’s own statements and neither on the findings of an investigation that was made into this man on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs (a so-called individual official notice). The report by African Rights is the crux of the accusations.

The court ruled that the state secretary has made insufficient investigation into the sources used in the African Rights report, in view of the duty of investigation and burden of proof on his shoulders. Furthermore, other sources that support the accusation of his involvement in the genocide are insufficient. This implies that the state secretary needs to make a more thorough investigation into the accusations of the involvement in the Rwandan genocide. Hence, the man’s appeal has been considered justified.