Dafroza Gauthier, who spent nearly thirty years tracking Rwandan refugees in France suspected of taking part in the genocide against the Tutsi, has died in Reims at the age of 72.
Her husband, Alain Gauthier, announced her death on Sunday. She died on Saturday in the city where the couple had long made their home, after a life given over to efforts to bring before the courts those alleged to have been responsible for the 1994 massacre of more than 800,000 people.
For almost three decades, Dafroza Gauthier and Alain Gauthier sought out Rwandans who had taken refuge in France and were suspected of participating in the killings. Their work centred on identifying suspects, gathering accounts from survivors and pressing the French authorities to open investigations so that those accused could answer for their actions in court.
The couple became a familiar presence at hearings linked to the genocide. On 23 November 2023 they were photographed waiting together at the Paris courthouse, one of many occasions on which they attended proceedings connected with cases they had helped to pursue.
Dafroza Gauthier devoted herself to the search for perpetrators of the genocide against the Tutsi who had settled in France. Her husband said she had given her life to that cause, and to the demand that those allegedly responsible should face justice rather than live undisturbed in exile.
Her death closes a personal campaign that began in the years after the massacres and continued, without interruption, into her seventies. Alain Gauthier confirmed the news on Sunday, bringing to public attention the loss of a figure whose name had become closely associated in France with the long effort to pursue suspected participants in the 1994 genocide.
By John James
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