FORMER MINISTER ORDERED KILLING OF WOMEN REFUGEES, SAYS WITNESS

Arusha, January, 24, 2001(FH) A witness told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Wednesday that former transport minister André Ntagerura ordered the killing of at least 18 women, three boys and an unspecified number of babies in Cyangugu region, southern Rwanda in 1994. Witness ’LAB’, named as such to protect his identity, told Trial Chamber Three that the victims had been spared from a previous attack in which only men and energetic male youths were killed.

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Ntagerura is being jointly tried with former prefect of Cyangugu Emmanuel Bagambiki and former commander of Cyangugu military barracks Samuel Imanishimwe, in the so called Cyangugu trial. The three are accused of having planned, incited and perpetrated the 1994 genocide in Cyangugu. "When he (Ntagerura) arrived, he asked us how far we had gone with the work. We told him that all the Tustis had been killed apart from the women. " Witness ’LAB’, a thirty- five year old Hutu who confessed to having participated in the genocide, told the court. "He did not add anything. He asked us to kill them immediately. Among them were three boys who were shot, whereas their mothers, about eighteen of them together with their children, were killed with clubs. "’LAB’ also said he had, under Imanishimwe’s orders and Bagambiki’s supervision, participated in the killing of Tutsis taking refuge at Gashyirabwoba stadium in Cyangugu. The Hutu Interahamwe militia had failed to kill the refugees, so Imanishimwe brought soldiers and armed Interahamwe, the witness said. "When we were there, Imanishimwe and Bagambiki told the Tutsi who had gathered at the field to remain calm because soldiers had been brought to protect them. " Shortly afterwards, the witness said, Imanishimwe gave some kind of command and the killings began. ’LAB’ also said he and twenty-nine other men received training in gun-handling at the request of Imanishimwe. The group, LAB said, was later due to participate in various killings. Witness ’LAB’ is the seventeenth of the forty-five prosecution witnesses scheduled to testify in the Cyangugu trial. The trial is being heard by Trial Chamber Three of the ICTR, composed of judges Lloyd Williams of Jamaica and St. Kitts and Nevis (presiding), Yakov Ostrovsky of Russia andPavel Dolenc of Slovenia. GG/JC/FH (CY_2401)