27.01.07 - ICTR/RENZAHO - A WITNESS IMPELS THE EX-PREFECT OF KIGALI

Arusha, January 26 2007 (FH) – On Friday, a repentant « genocider » currently in prison in Rwanda called on the ex-prefect of Kigali, Col. Tharcisse Renzaho, on trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), to acknowledge the role he has played in the massacre of Tutsis which took place in 1994 in three different places in the Rwandan capital. « I wish he would confess before I left . I have evidences » against him, the anonymous witness, has declared. The man, who has presented himself as a former leader of the Interahamwe militia in Kigali, has declared he had conducted attacks against Tutsi civilians at the Sainte Famille Parish, at the Pastorale Saint Paul center and at the African Studies Center, properties of the Catholic Church of Rwanda. « Renzaho could have stopped everything we did, he should have stopped us; he was respected, he had no one above him », the witness said in Kinyarwanda. According to him, the ex-prefect of Kigali ordered André Kameya to be drawn out from the throng of persons sheltered in the Sainte Famille in April 1994. The latter, a journalist and opponent, was later murdered. The former militia leader finally said that, in planning the massacres, Col. Renzaho worked with the priest in charge of the church, Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, condemned in absentia last November by a Rwandan court and living in exile in France. The hearing of the witness will resume next Monday. Renzaho, 63, faces six charges: genocide, complicity in genocide, murder as crime against humanity, rape as crime against humanity, murder as war crime and rape as war crime. He pleads not guilty. His trial opened on January 8. Eight prosecution witnesses have already testified, most of them behind closed doors. The prosecutor intends to present a total of 23 witnesses. This session is scheduled to last until the end of February. The former Rwandan officer was arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo on September 29 2002 and transferred the next day to the detention facility of the ICTR. ER/PB/MG © Hirondelle News Agency