Emmanuel Nkunduwimye
Since April 8, Emmanuel Nkunduwimye, is appearing before court of Assizes in Brussels over Genocide crimes and war crimes he is alleged to have committed in Nyarugenge district where he was running a garage business alongside national interahamwe leaders.
Col. Laurent Rutayisire from the former Rwanda government forces EX-FAR was one of the witnesses today. He confirmed having seen the suspect while attempting to kill the Tutsi during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.
In one incident, Rutayisire confirmed having seen Nkunduwimye with Robert Kajuga and George Rutaganda respectively president and vice president of Interahamwe militia, all in military fatigue and armed, threatening to kill a family in Kiyovu, Nyarugenge district.
“This was a family I knew and I was obliged to intervene and save them; I rescued them to Gitwe village in the Southern province before taking refuge to Gikongoro where French contingents in Zone Tricquoise airlifted me to Burundi,” said the Colonel Gendarme who said he was personally threatened.
The gendarme said, that on several occasions, he saw Nkunduwimye with the leaders of Interahamwe while mounting roadblocks where many Tutsi were killed.
The court asked how he managed to learn that, and the witness said, he was once the leader of military intelligence which allowed him to learn quite a lot about the happenings during the Genocide.
He said the first in command of the Genocide machinery was Theoneste Bagosora.
The civil parties in the trial were thankful to the witness of this senior officer who confirmed that the Genocide was planned, and, that the gendarme played an ample role.
Another witness who was seventeen years old during the Genocide also confirmed having seen Nkunduwimye who is most known as Bomboko. At that time, the witness said, I was escaping from the roadblock where they had forced me to stay and track the Tutsi.
At his youthful age, the student in Nyamirambo was “fortunate” to meet with Nkunduwimye who accepted to take him aboard a truck to Cyangugu.
On their way, they would be arrested at different roadblocks by the gendarmes and Interahamwe, but Nkunduwimye would negotiate with them until they let them proceed.
“I am thankful to him because he saved my life until the time I was able to cross to Zaire, when I reached Brussels, I made sure that I meet him to say thanks,” the witness said.
The testimonies may confirm that Nkunzuwimye could be a person able to save whom he wanted and kill whom he wanted dead.
One witness confirmed having seen a truck that was trying to rescue eighteen Tutsi to Milles Collines Hotel, and, at the level Onatracom near the mosque, the truck was arrested by Interahamwe who were at a roadblock.
They killed the Tutsi by machete, said the witness.
“Nkunduwimye himself was the leader of the death squad; he took a Lieutenant, his name Mudenge who was driving the car and undressed him before shooting him dead while saying: how do you dare to save the enemy(Tutsi?,” the witness recalls.
The witness was the escort of Simbizi Stanny who took over as leader of CDR, an extremist Hutu party. He said his boss was at national level, and Nkunduwimye, at sector level.
He confirmed having seen so many deaths on the road, and Nkunduwimye would always attend meetings that intended to get rid of the bodies and to plan more killings.
“Many of these meetings took place in Camp Kigali, co-chaired by General Kabirigi and Colonel Tharcisse Renzaho, the city mayor. Nkunduwimye would advise that many trucks and excavators be mobilized to dump the bodies into mass graves,” the witness said while advising the suspect to listen to his heart and apologize for the wrongdoing against the Rwandan community and the world at large.
