Citation
A witness testifying before judges at the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) has pinned Felicien Kabuga on providing trucks that transported the Tutsi to the dreaded “Commune Rouge” in Gisenyi to be killed and thereafter dumped their bodies.
The protected witness was testifying under code-name “KAB066”.
He was a member of the Impuzamugambi, an extremist militia that merged with the Interahamwe to kill the Tutsi in 1994.
According to a public summary of his testimony provided by the prosecution, at the very beginning of the genocide against the Tutsi, KAB066 helped offload traditional weapons from vehicles, and was informed that they had been provided by Kabuga.
“These weapons were distributed to the Interahamwe and used to commit crimes in Gisenyi prefecture. Some were loaded onto a vehicle and taken to Commune Rouge where they could be used to kill quickly,” read part of the public summary of his testimony.
Commune Rouge is a place near Umuganda Stadium in Gisenyi, where huge numbers of Tutsi were killed during the genocide.
The Interahamwe named it “Commune Rouge” to mislead the Tutsi into thinking that they were being taken to the administration of the Commune for safety, yet they were being taken to be killed.
KAB066 said that he also assisted in offloading military weapons imported from Goma at Gisenyi military camp on the orders of Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva, one of military officials in the ex-FAR who played a big role in the genocide.
Nsengiyumva was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 2008, along with Colonel Theoneste Bagosora and Major Aloys Ntabakuze after being convicted of genocide crimes.
The military weapons that KAB066 offloaded included grenades, Kalashnikov firearms and ammunition. He was informed that these were also brought by Kabuga.
On the morning of April 7, 1994, KAB066 began killing the Tutsi in Gisenyi together with other Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi.
During that time, he says, Kabuga provided two large vehicles that were used to transport people to be killed at Commune Rouge, as well as dumping their dead bodies.
“Among those killed at Commune Rouge, KAB066 identifies several young children,” read the public summary.
The trial is set to continue on Wednesday, November 16 as the court continues to hear what the witnesses have to say.
Notoriously known as the “financier of the genocide,” Kabuga, 89, allegedly played a big role in the Genocide against the Tutsi by providing weapons, financial and moral support towards the killers.
He is charged with genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, and persecution on political grounds, extermination, and murder as crimes against humanity.
