FIND A BETTER WAY TO DIE, WITNESS TELLS RWANDA EXTRADITION CANDIDATE

20 September 2001 By

Dar es Salaam, September 21, 2001 (FH) A second witness testifying against the extradition to Rwanda of former army officer Bernard Ntuyahaga on Friday told a Tanzanian court that the defendant should find a better way of killing himself than going back to Rwanda and being cut to pieces. Burundian Roman Catholic priest Juvénal Bamboneyeho also told the Resident Magistrate Court in Dar es Salaam that Ntuyahaga could not have murdered former Rwandan prime minister Agathe Uwingiliyimana at the start of the 1994 genocide because she was a fellow southerner, unlike most of the people in power at the time.

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"How could he kill the only authority who is from the South like himself?" asked Father Juvénal. "For whose interest could he do that?"Rwanda wants Ntuyahaga in connection with the killing of Uwingiliyimana and 10 Belgian UN peacekeepers in Kigali on April 7th, 1994. Kigali lodged its extradition request to Tanzania more than two years ago. Father Juvénal said that the presumption of innocence did not exist in Rwanda and that those who went back were either killed or left to languish in prison. "People are being pre-judged," said the witness. He gave as examples businessman Froduald Karamira, who was forced back to Rwanda, tried and then executed; and former Justice Minister Agnès Ntamabyaliro who was brought back forcibly during the first war in Congo (DRC) and thrown into jail. She has not yet been tried. The witness was responding to questions from Ntuyahaga's co-counsel Professor Jwan Mwaikusa of Tanzania. Ntuyahaga's defence is led by Luc de Temmerman of Belgium. Father Juvénal lived in Rwanda for 22 years, from 1972 to June 1994. He said he had to leave Gitarama, where he was working as parish priest, onJune 10th after hearing that the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) had killed three bishops and 11 priests in the neighbouring town of Kabgayi. He said he knew Major Ntuyahaga for six months when the defendant was commanding a military base in Gitarama, and that they used to drink together in the evening after work. However, the witness said he did not know Ntuyahaga's whereabouts on April 7th, 1994. "I was not in Kigali, how would I know?" he said in response to questioning from State Attorney Amma Munisi. Asked the source of his information on Rwanda, the witness said it came from documentation and media reports, including Vatican Radio. Prosecution claimed that it was therefore based on hearsay. Father Juvénal is the second witness to testify in Ntuyahaga's defence. A Belgian who worked in Rwanda for seven years also told the court on Wednesday that Ntuyahaga would be killed if he were sent to Rwanda. The hearing was adjourned to November 26th, when the defence expected to bring two or three more witnesses. They are expected to be the last. NI/JC/PHD/FH (NU0921e)