03.04.07 - ICTR/ZIGIRANYIRAZO - AN ICTR CHAMBER REJECTS THE BRUGIERE’S REPORT AS AN EVIDENCE

Arusha, 3 April 2007 (FH) - On monday the Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), in charge with trying Protais Zigiranyirazo, rejected the referral order issued by the French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière to be used as an evidence by the Defence.In his enquiry about the attack on President Habyarimana’s plane, which triggered the genocide, Judge Bruguière concluded that it was the work of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the rebel movement which was fighting the Rwandan army. He issued nine warrants of arrest against relatives of the current Head of State, Paul Kagame and suggested that the latter should be tranferred before the ICTR.The request of admitting this enquiry as an evidence in the “Mr Z.” case was done by Mr John Philpot, Counsel of Zigiranyirazo, at the end of the testimony of Aloys Ruyenzi, former member of the RPF and bodyguard of Kagame. The young officer who took refuge in France launched several accusations against his former superior after having asked to testify publicly.He notably testified that the RPF had committed massacres against Hutu. Their bodies were buried with a bulldozer in the Akagera square and burnt after the war, he said. He also accused Kagame of having presided a preparatory meeting for the attack on the plane of President Habyarimana on 31 March 1994. “It’s only after the attack that I realized”, he said. Ruyenzi also testified in Bruguière’s enquiry. Bruguière’s report was admitted as an evidence in two cases pending before the ICTR: The case called “Militaries I”, trying the Military Chiefs in charge during the genocide, and the case called “Government II”, trying four Ministers of the government at that time. Mr Philpot affirmed that this document was “relevant regarding the nature of the conflict”. “My client was fleeing”, he insisted.Before that, another witness, a former officer of the Rwandan army, explained that the Accused, being a civilian, could not have given orders to the militaries. Major Emmanuel Neretse who most notably commanded the militiarian police explained that the only civilian authorities which were empowered to give orders to the army were the Ministers of Defence and of the Interior, the prefect, and the burgomaster (mayor).According to the Prosecutor in 1994, Zigiranyirazo ordered militaries who were on duty at a road block near one of his houses to search the neighbouring houses and kill all Tutsi they would find. The militaries obeyed.Neretse also denied the influence of the Akazu, a circle of people close to the President, which had monopolized the political, militarian, and financial powers using networks parallel to the official administrative structure. “From my experience, I didn’t know of the existence of parallel systems working outside the normal administrative structure of the army I knew”, Neretse said.“Any existence of parallels systems would have been denounced and unmasked by the Intelligence services controled by the Opposition” since 1992, the witness affirmed.Zigiranyirazo, 69 years old, brother-in-law of the assassinated President Habyarimana, was arrested in Belgium in July 2001. He has been on trial since 3 October 2005 and has pled not guilty. PB/CV© Hirondelle News Agency