08.03.07 - ICTR/RUKUNDO - FATHER RUKUNDO ACCUSED OF HAVING UTTERED THREATS AGAINST TUTSIS

Arusha, March 8, 2007 (FH) – A witness who came Wednesday before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) accused Abbey Emmanuel Rukundo of having uttered threats against Tutsis, though he did not witness them.A military chaplain in 1994, Emmanuel Rukundo, aged 47 years, has been on trial since last November for genocide and crimes against humanity committed in his native region of Gitarama in the center of Rwanda. He has pled not-guilty.The witness, who is testifying anonymously, studied at the Jesuit seminary in Nairobi (Kenya) and arrived in Rwanda in 1989. Even though of Rwandan origin, he did not speak Kinyarwanda “well”, he recalled. This weakness was noticed by the defense.The day after the assassination on April 6, 1994 which sparked the genocide, the witness went to the Kabgayi diocese where he ran into the Abbey Rukundo in a corridor.“He was walking in the halls. He was talking to himself. He was saying that the time had come to kill the Inyenzi,” he testified. The witness, as it has often been heard at the ICTR, defined the Inyenzi (cockroaches) as “accomplices,” rebels of Tutsi complexion while at war against the government or as “simply the Tutsis.”The witness declared that he was the only person to have heard these talks which he attributes to the accused. According to him, Rukundo was in military clothing and carried a weapon, “but he didn’t kill anyone that day.”The witness meanwhile added that the threats alleged were carried out as a result. “What Rukundo said was carried out: personally I didn’t see him carry out what he said, but Tutsis were killed,” he said.The witness explained that he knew Rukundo well and that he had met him a few years before in the parish of Byimana. There too, Rukundo, who was still a seminarian, had made anti-Tutsi declarations during a visit to the parish. The witness indicated that he had heard the accused from across a half-open window.Ms. Annie Olivier, one of Rukundo’s lawyers, was sarcastic on the subject of an accused who “moved about in verandas hurling threats at open windows.” She remarked that it was impossible for the accused to know if this or that room of the presbytery was occupied by a Tutsi or not.”The witness also brought back to light prior allegations of radicalism formulated against the priest by his former colleagues at the Grand Seminary of Nyakibanda.Ms. Olivier this time was surprised of what the witness testified on the alleged acts which took place many kilometres from the place where he was located.He responded that he became aware of them during the school holidays.AT/PB/KD© Hirondelle News Agency