A former director in the Ministry of Family and Women Affairs, the defendant is facing charges of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the former prefectures of Kibungo and Byumba in 1994.
The witness, now living in Uganda as a refugee, narrated that on April 9, 1994, he together with other residents of Byumba curiously went to Gikoni Ophanage Centre after witnessing a convoy of vehicles, including that of the gendarmes and Mayor of Murambi, Jean de Dieu Mwange.
He said the Mayor and gendarmes spent less than 30 minutes to put about 35 to 40 orphans into their vehicles and transferred them to Kiziguro parish.
‘' I did not see Gatete among the people who transferred the orphans,'' the witness stressed during examination in-chief by the accused French defence counsel, Marie-Pierre Poulain.
Although the witness did not say what happened to the orphans when they were taken to the parish, the prosecution has claimed that people who took refugee at Kiziguro were killed around April 11, 1994.
The trial continues Tuesday.
NI/SC
© Hirondelle News Agency