Chris McGreal
The Rwanda war crimes tribunal has issued its first international arrest warrants for eight men accused of genocide and crimes against humanity during the organised extermination of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis last year.
The chief prosecutor, South Africa’s Judge Richard Goldstone, declined to name the accused while their arrest is sought in various countries, principally Zaire where most of the killers are in exile. But Goldstone indicated that the list does not include the upper echelons of the defunct Hutu extremist regime which planned the genocide, such as the former president and prime minister.
“In order to indict people right at the top you need evidence. The building bricks are people at the middle and upper levels of command,” he
Among those most likely to have been indicted are powerful local officials who organised and led the four massacres named in the charges. All were in Kibuye prefecture in western Rwanda where the killing was amongst the most intense and only a fraction of the area’s 200 000 Tutsis survived.
A principal target of war crimes investigators was the prefect of Kibuye, Clement Kayishema, a doctor who allegedly had a hand in all four
After the first killings set the genocide in motion on April 7, Kayishema toured his prefecture encouraging hunted women, men and children to gather at the main church and stadium in Kibuye town. During earlier pogroms, Tutsis had usually found protection in churches and safety in numbers. But in mid-April, Kayishema brought in experienced killers from other provinces to supplement his own townspeople in the coming slaughter.
On Sunday April 17, the prefect set off the mass extermination in his town by ordering the eradication of about
7 000 people in the church. The next day Kayishema is alleged to have fired the first shot which launched a two-day killing spree of about 10 000 Tutsis in the stadium. Among the few survivors was Edith Mukamibungo.
“Soldiers mounted guns and started shooting. They started at around 1pm and they shot until about 8pm. They went up on raised ground and shot down at us from that position. From time to time, one of the soldiers would appear at the gate and throw a grenade at us,” she said. “There were rows and rows of people waiting outside with machetes to mow down those who escaped the bullets and grenades. There were so many people you had the impression that the whole prefecture had come out to kill.”
Kayishema also visited Gishyita where a close associate, mayor Charles Sindikubwabo, was organising his own massacre. Witnesses interviewed by the human rights group, African Rights, described Sindikubwabo as “demented” and “gone berserk” in his desire to kill
Kayishema, Sindikubwabo and a third man, Alfred Musema, were all involved in the fourth attack on the indictments — the killings on a hill at Bisesero near Gishyita. It was one of the few places were Tutsis put up vigorous, if doomed, resistance.
About 50 000 Tutsis who managed to escape the murders in their towns and villages gathered on the hill with little more than stones, sticks and a few machetes to defend themselves.
There were sporadic killings until May 13 when Hutu militias were brought from up to 70 miles away. Survivors told investigators that among those who led the attack were Kayishema and Musema who shot into the crowd of refugees.
The Tutsis fought back killing several dozen militia men but only a few hundred Tutsis were still alive when the French army arrived at the end of June.
Kayishema and Sindikubwabo have been living in Zaire. Musema is already facing trial in Switzerland for his part in the slaughter.
Among the top members of the defunct Hutu regime implicated in the Kibuye killings are the former prime minister, Jean Kambanda, who spends his time moving freely between Zaire and Kenya, and the former information minister, Eliezer Niyitegeka. Witnesses have told investigators that both men visited Kibuye after bouts of killing to encourage continuation of the slaughter.
The Rwandan government said it was dismayed that only eight people have been indicted after well over a year of investigation. Goldstone said he was preparing indictments against several other people in the coming weeks including four already detained in Zambia. But he said it could take another year to collect enough evidence to charge the highest leaders of the Hutu regime.
Trials are not expected to begin for several months even if arrests are swift.