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Issue 00407 |
Feb 1 - 24, 2006 |
issn 0856 - 9135 |
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UN Tribunal |
| Even though my brother was one of them, I still
fear interahamwe- witness By Hirondelle News Agency A defence witness on Monday told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that he still feared the Interahamwe militia even though one of his brothers was one of them. The Interahamwe were the armed youth wing of the former ruling Mouvement républicain national pour la démocratie et le développement (MRND) and are regarded as having spearheaded the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The witness code-named "DH13" to protect his identity went on to explain that no sooner had the militia fled the advance of the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF, former rebels now in power in Kigali) and entered the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), than they started attacking Hutu moderates who had crossed the border with them. "I stayed in Congo for only 15 days because of the Interahamwe. I was scared of them", said the witness who claimed to have been a member of the moderate wing of the opposition Mouvement démocratique républicain (MDR),many of whose leaders were also killed during the genocide. He pointed out that his brother was a member of the militia and that he was still in the Congo forests. DH13 came to testify on behalf of Major Aloys Ntabakuze, former commander of the Para-commando battalion based in Kanombe, Kigali. Ntabakuze is jointly tried with three other former senior officers in the Rwandan army including Colonel Theoneste Bagosora who is regarded by the prosecution as being the "mastermind" of the genocide. He went on to say that he never saw soldiers or gendarmes (Para-military police) killing people in his neighbourhood in Kigali. He however admitted during cross-examination that he had spent most of his time "travelling" outside Kigali to buy food to be resold in the neighbourhood. Those accused in this trial are charged with crimes they allegedly committed as well as those committed by their subordinates.
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Updated:
January 07, 2006 . |
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