US College Suspends Prof Linked to Genocide

Suspected of role in Rwanda massacre
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 3, 2009 4:07 AM CST
US College Suspends Prof Linked to Genocide
A Hutu refugee with open machete wounds on his head stands amid hundreds of fellow Rwandans in this 1995 image.   (AP Photo/Jean-Marc Bouju, file)

A US college has suspended a visiting professor suspected of participating in the Rwandan genocide, reports the Baltimore Sun. Rwandan prosecutors charge that Leopold Munyakazi, who was teaching French at Goucher College in Maryland, revealed hiding places of ethnic Tutsis to machete-wielding Hutu militias. "We have tried to act in the best interests of the Goucher community, most especially the students," said the college president.

Munyakazi denies the allegations. "I never did this. I was targeted by the militias," said Munyakazi, who is Hutu. "I helped save many Tutsi people." Some 800,000 people were killed in the 1994 massacre. Munyakazi came to Goucher in September through a New York organization that places academics threatened in their native countries. The school was alerted by a Rwandan prosecutor and an NBC News producer. The professor will stay in college housing until the end of the semester.
(More Goucher College stories.)

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