EX-MAYOR ORDERED KILLING OF TUTSI REFUGEES, SAYS WITNESS

Arusha, December 11, 2001 (FH) - Former Rwandan mayor Juvénal Kajelijeli ordered militia to kill Tutsi refugees in his Mukingo commune (northwest Rwanda) during the 1994 genocide, a witness told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Tuesday. Kajelijeli had ferried the militiamen to one Munyemvano's courtyard, where about 70 Tutsis had taken refugee on April 7th, 1994, protected witness "ACM" told the court.

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"Go and kill the Tutsis because the other people have already started killing," the witness quoted Kajelijeli as having said. "They (militiamen) immediately started hurling grenades into the houses and setting the houses on fire," said the witness. "They also shot at the refugees indiscriminately. " Previously, said the witness, Kajelijeli had ordered the militiamen not to start killing until they got permission from him. ACM told the court she had survived the attack on April 7th but had been raped by two militiamen the following day. She said that the militiamen had removed her from the parish compound where she and other Tutsis had been assembled by the militias. She also said that several of her family members had been killed in the attack at Munyemvano's and a subsequent attack at a parish (church complex) in Mukingo. ACM testified that about 138 bodies of victims of the genocide had been exhumed for reburial in her commune after the genocide. Witness ACM was led by prosecutor Ifeoma Ojemeni of Nigeria. She will continue her testimony on Wednesday in Trial Chamber Two of the ICTR, composed of judges William Sekule of Tanzania (presiding), Arlette Ramaroson of Madagascar and Winston Churchill Matanzima Maqutu of Lesotho. GG/JC/PHD/FH (KJ1211E)