The trial involving Genocide suspects Seraphin Twahirwa and Pierre Basabose in Brussels Court of Assises on Tuesday heard the results of investigations that were conducted by Belgium prosecution in Rwanda since 2020 with shocking revelations.
According to the prosecution, they were expecting to hear more than 120 witnesses in Rwanda, but given several circumstances like death of the witnesses, they only managed to hear testimonies from 32 people including, but not limited to Genocide survivors.
The report included in more than 80 pages narrated the location and the suspects during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. They were residents of Karambo, with Twahirwa residing adjacent to the compound of OCIR The, the tea value addition institution, now National Agriculture and Export Development Board(NAEB).
Twahirwa, the witness said, was president of Interahamwe militia at national level who was proud to be called President.
A witness said, the Twahirwa was very found of raping the Tutsi women to an extent that he would confess that he was able to sleep with any Tutsi woman at any time, and to intimidate them that he could even kill them, would they share this information to anyone.
On a specific note, a witness told the investigators, that one day, she grabbed her on her way from church, dragged her in the bush, rapped her and damaged her private parts before breaking her arm as warning.
Actually, during a different testimony, Twahirwa’s wife Primitive Uwimana herself testified that her husband’s relationship was a hell of sexual violence.
She said that during the Genocide, her husband used to out and to report back home in evening claiming to have slaughtered dozens of innocent Tutsi.
At the wake of the Genocide, Twahirwa and wife fled to the then Zaire, current Democratic Republic of Congo and were separated the first DRC war in 1996.
The wife returned to Rwanda via Rubavu and managed to go to Kenya in 2008 to start a new life.
In this report, the wife also, on several occasions heard her husband claiming to have raped many Tutsi women and proudly saying that she was “Champion in raping the Tutsi”.
Another witness who also survived the Genocide from a technical school of Kicukiro-ETO Kicukiro said that she saw Twahirwa in the killing spry.
However, Twahirwa denied having been part of the Genocide in any way. He said that during the Genocide-after the crash of the plane that was carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana, he was very much concerned with finding safe haven to his wife Primitive Uwimana and family.
He denied killing people at ETO Kicukiro and said, that the Tutsi in the area were protected by Belgium Peacekeepers under UN mandate.
Several witnesses however, indicated how Belgium contingents abandoned the Tutsi who were killed by Interahawe from ETO Kicukiro and all the way to Nyanza ya Kicukiro. He denied having ever handled a gun and being leader of Interahamwe militia, though he was member of the ruling party-MRND blamed for the Genocide.
Despite this defence however, investigation into the phone could show Twahirwa telling his wife now in Nairobi where she earns a living as a tailor, that she would always deny any knowledge of information about the participation of her husband in the Genocide.’
She was advised to only maintain that during the Genocide, her husband was concerned by her safety and was looking for breakthrough to find her safe haven.
Further investigations in Twahirwa’s gadgets revealed that he was in touch of the ‘Hotel Rwanda” hero Paul Rusesabagina and other Rwandan opponents including Father Thomas Nahimana and others who concentrated on saying that Arusha tribunal for Rwanda was a trash.
They found pornography images and photos of nudity of the suspect.
The investigation found several names related to Twahirwa, including the names of then President Habyarimana’s cousins, and Aloys Ngurabatware, a notorious Interahamwe member whom they used to meet at Hotel Irebero of Habyarimana.
