Former prefect of Gisenyi Prefecture and once member of Parliament Fidele Mitsindo today testified an a trial of prosecution against Emmanuel Nkunduwimye, a Genocide suspect in Brussels Court of Assizes.
Nkunduwimye is accused of Genocide crimes and war crimes committed in Kigali during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi which claimed over one million tutsi from April-July 1994.
He is especially alleged to have committed the crimes in Nyarugenge district where he allegedly co-owned a garage with Interahamwe leader George Rutaganda.
Testifying in court today, Mitsindo 59, aknowledged to have known the suspect when they were still young children. They later on re-connected in a professional life when he would seek car rental service from Nkunduwimye.
“On the night of April 6, 1994 after the crash of the plane of President Habyarimana, I drove to the house I was renting in Kacyiru. At the level of CND(current Rwanda Parliament), I was stopped by the ex-Rwanda defence forces at a roadblock. Nkunduwimye too, happened to arrive aboard his own car. He was also arrested,” he said.
“They sat both of us on the ground and more people were brought to the same spot, but some of them would be fortunate to leave, while for us we spent the whole night there. I managed to chat with Nkunduwimye at that night, towards 5AM.”
Mitsindo further said, that in the morning when they found that “the situation was not easy at all, we escaped by the road drains. I reached my Kacyiru home and stayed there.”
The court asked Mitsindo who his father was, and he confirmed, that he is the son to former Minister of Education and seasoned politician Col. Nsekarije Aloys.
The court asked how this would happen that a son of such high ranking official could be stuck at a road block, and he said: “Truth be told, the soldiers did not bother to ask where I came from.”
Mitsindo who claimed he is no longer in politic since 2007 said that after this incident he did not see the defendant again until 2019 at Rwanda Day event in Germany.
