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Rwanda: Don't Use Me As a Scapegoat for 1994 Killings, Ex-Gendarmerie Boss Tells UN Prosecution
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Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
18 June 2008
Posted to the web 19 June 2008
The former Chief of Staff of Rwandan Gendarmerie, General Augustin Ndindiliyimana, who is testifying on his own for the third day running before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), said Wednesday that he never supported anyone to kill members of the Rwandan population during the 1994 genocide.
General Ndindiliyimana and his three other co-accused are charged for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Other defendants are former Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Army, General Augustin Bizimungu, former Commander of Reconnaissance Battalion, Major Francois-Xavier Nzuwonemeye and his Deputy Captain Innocent Sagahutu. All have pleaded not guilty.
The 65-year-old General challenged the prosecution to look for what he called "real killers" and he should not be used as scapegoat, saying he could not attempt to gun down the population to which he was entrusted to protect.
"It is unfair and baseless accusation," the defendant remarked in response to the prosecutors' allegations that he coordinated massacres in the April-July 1994 slaughter, where over 800,000 people were killed, mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Led in examination-in-chief by his Belgium co-counsel, Vincent Lurquin, General Ndindiliyimana further explained that he did his utmost to protect the population from plunging into violence.
In a bid to dismiss rumours broadcast over the airwaves of the then Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) controlled Radio Muhabura that he was assassinated, the accused said he had to use the government-owned Radio Rwanda to counter the propaganda by assuring the population that he was still alive and fighting to protect them.
According the witness, he took advantage of that opportunity in April 22, 1994 to call upon the population to stop killing each other, warning that the country would shift its attention from instead of fighting aggressors to controlling violence in the country.
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The witness continues with his testimony on Thursday. The trial began in September 2004.
If you have committed genocide, you are not a scapegoat. If you are innocent, justice will be done. No unfairness, no bias. criminals must be brought to book. But ICTR must arrest Kagame and his cronies who killed millions of Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and in Congo DR. Justice must be seen to be done by the ICTR or it is a shame to the UN and to the whole world
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