\nArusha, December 4, 2003 (FH) \u2013 The fourth prosecution witness in the Government I trial involving four former senior government officials on Thursday told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that she witnessed former minister of primary and secondary education, Andr\u00e9 Rwamakuba, participating in the killing of Tutsis at Butare university hospital. The four co-accused are the president of the former ruling party, the MRND, Matthieu Ngirumpatse, his vice president Edouard Karemera, the Secretary general of MRND, Joseph Nzirorera as well as Andre Rwamakuba.\n<\/p>\n
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\nAndr\u00e9 Rwamakuba is still boycotting the trial, and is therefore only represented by his two counsels. He maintains that his case is \u00abmanipulated \u00bb by the prosecutor. The witness code-named CEA told the chamber that she saw Rwamakuba with a certain doctor Gatera holding axes. \u201cThey brought two students out of the hospital basement and each of them grabbed the students, hit them with the axes. The students fell down to the ground and their bodies were taken to the maternity ward and thrown in a ditch,\u201d she recounted. She added that Rwamabuka immediately asked hospital employees to wash the blood away. CEA said she saw Rwamakuba another time when he was coming out of the surgery room. \u201d He ordered the same employees to take wounded Tutsis to soldiers manning a roadblock in front of the ESO military camp. Afterwards the soldiers came back and said the wounded had been killed,\u201d she recalled. Rwamakuba the witness also said, visited the place in the hospital where Tutsis refugees had taken shelter and said that \u201cthe Inyenzi have killed the head of state. These Inyenzi are accomplices, the University cannot accommodate that filth. It has to be removed immediately. \u201d Inyenzi (cockroaches) is a derogatory term used during the genocide to refer to Tutsis. The witness added that the following day, Rwamakuba asked all the refugees to produce identity cards so that he would differentiate between Hutus and Tutsis. According to the witness, those who did not have identity cards were loaded in a pick up truck and taken somewhere to be killed. She said that she heard Rwamakuba giving instructions for the many trucks loaded with Tutsis to be dropped at Nyaruhengeri commune because other mass graves were full. CEA was cross-examined by defense counsel for Rwamakuba, Mr. David Hooper of the United Kingdom, mainly in closed session. Earlier on Thursday, witness GBV completed his examination in chief but failed to proceed with full cross-examination due to illness. GBV is expected for cross-examination on Friday after the chamber completes the testimony of CEA. GBV informed the court that the interim government was instituted to revenge the death of president Habyarimana hence targeting and killing Tutsis. He was partly cross-examined by defense counsel for Nzirorera, Peter Robinson of the USA, regarding his statement. The four former leaders are each charged with seven counts of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity (rape and extermination). The trial is taking place in Chamber Three of the ICTR, is composed of Judge Andr\u00e9sia Vaz (presiding), assisted by two ad litem (not permanent) judges, Flavia Lattanzi from Italy and Florence Rita Arrey from Cameroon. SV\/CE\/FH (GovI1204e)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arusha, December 4, 2003 (FH) \u2013 The fourth prosecution witness in the Government I trial involving four former senior government officials on Thursday told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that she witnessed former minister of primary and secondary education, Andr\u00e9 Rwamakuba, participating in the killing of Tutsis at Butare university hospital. The four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-17728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n