Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
22 March 2004
Arusha — A prosecution witness in the "Butare trial", on Monday told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), that the former mayor of Ngoma (Butare province, southern Rwanda), Joseph Kanyabashi, could have stopped killings in Butare had he wanted to.
The witness code-named "QA" to protect his identity, said that prior to the 1994 genocide Kanyabashi had been a well-respected man in Butare and that people would have listened to him had he asked them to stop the killings.
"He was very popular in Butare, people respected and obeyed him", claimed QA, the 41st witness called by the prosecution so far.
He continued that the former mayor had instead lured Tutsis from hiding during a meeting he chaired around April 18, 1994 in which he had announced the end of killings.
The witness pointed out that many people had been killed when they came out of hiding.
During cross-examination by the defence, QA said that soldiers of the presidential guards had been flown in to reinforce killers after the said meeting.
Joseph Kanyabashi is jointly charged with five other people accused of organising the massacres in Butare in 1994.
The other accused are the former minister of family women and family affairs, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, her son and militia leader, Shalom Arsene Ntahobali, two former prefects of Butare; Colonel Alphonse Nteziryayo and Sylvain Nsabimana and Elie Ndayambaje, former mayor of Muganza commune in Butare.
All have pleaded not guilty to genocide and crimes against humanity.
Pauline Nyiramasuhuko and her son have added charges of rape, making her not only the first woman to be brought before the international jurisdiction, but also the first female to be charged with rape.
The trial is continuing on Tuesday in Trial Chamber Two of the ICTR, composed of Judge William Hussein Sekule of Tanzania (presiding), Judge Arlette Ramaroson from Madagascar and Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda..
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