Brussels, April 24, 2007 (FH) \u2013 \u201cI was at the wrong place at the wrong time,\u201d Major Bernard Ntuyahaga explained, declaring his innocence Monday and Tuesday before the Court of Assises in Brussels where he is accused of the assassination of ten Belgian Blue Helmets and also of Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana on April 7, 1994 in Kigali. <\/p>\n
According to the former Rwandan officer, aged 55 years, his case is \u201cfalse and manipulated.\u201d For two days he has refuted step by step, sometimes getting carried away, the elements contained in the indictment. \u201cThe fundamental basis for the case has been manipulated,\u201d he said. \u201cThe UNMINAR (United Nations) officers and the Rwandan Armed Forces officers tried to protect themselves and everything has fallen again on me. And it\u2019s been 13 years!\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Ntuyahaga also denied any implication in the assassinations committed in his district of Kyovu between April 6 and 10 as well as those committed by soldiers in Butare when he was in charge of the Ngoma Camp. According to him, the majority of testimonies which accused him are \u201ccompletely false compilations\u201d on events \u201cof which he had absolutely no knowledge of.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I hear you it\u2019s as if you knew no one, you lived in a neighbourhood, you were a soldier, a major, and you were a little like a ghost in that town,\u201d the president, Karine Gerard remarked. <\/p>\n
The defendant explained that from 1990 until 1994 he was at the front and upon his return to Kigali in 1994, he was \u201calmost invisible\u201d because of a construction site that occupied all his time. Asked by a civil party on the existence of a genocide of Tutsis, he responded \u201cin our law until 1994 this word had no legal meaning, I learned about it after becoming a refugee in 1994. You need to ask about the definition to a specialist, to ask a soldier is to ask too much.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cMy role in this affair didn\u2019t last longer than 20 minutes, during which time I transported the Blue Helmets,\u201d he declared, stating that he had \u201cnever received amission\u201d and \u201cnever received an order\u201d on this subject. \u201cThe Blue Helmets asked me to bring them to UNMINAR. For me, the closest post was that of Captain Apedo (UN military observer in Camp Kigali). When I took them, I didn\u2019t even know their nationality: they were Blue Helmets. And when I dropped them off, I didn\u2019t speak to anyone, I wasn\u2019t involved at all with this hearsay.\u201d <\/p>\n
Thursday at the opening of hearings, federal prosecutor Philippe Meire explained that Ntuyahaga took part in a mission between 8 o\u2019clock and 9 o\u2019clock on April 7, of a mission consisting of disarming Belgian paras accompanied by 5 Ghanian Blue Helmets following their arrival at the residence of Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana. The Blue Helmets were in charge of escorting the Prime Minister to the national radio station. <\/p>\n
They were then transported in a minibus driven by the officer to a military camp presented as a \u201csecure location.\u201d There, the on-site witnesses stated that he contributed to starting a rumor that Belgians planned the bombing, the previous evening, of President Juvenal Habyarimana\u2019s plane. The Belgian Blue Helmets were then attacked and lynched by Rwanda soldiers while the Ghanaian soldiers were released. <\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Ntuyahaga did his duty,\u201d explained his lawyer Luc de Temmerman. \u201cHe dropped of fifteen soldiers in front of his office (Camp Kigali). Then he left them. The whole city was saying that the Belgians took down the plane. And it was Mr. Ntuyahaga who spread the rumor? He went into his office and a mutiny ensued. Mr. Ntuyahaga came back, tried to intervene and then left. It was 10:15. And Bernard Ntuyahaga\u2019s story ends there.\u201d <\/p>\n
The parents and friends of the killed Blue Helmets sat during the debates. For Martine Debatty, sister of Private First Class Alain Debatty, killed with other Blue Helmets, Bernard Ntuyahaga \u201cis not telling the truth\u201d and \u201cblames others for his responsibility.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tuesday afternoon, the instruction judges in the trial should testify. On Wednesday, the first witnesses will appear. Hearings should last for at least two months. <\/p>\n
BF\/PB\/KD
\n\u00a9 Hirondelle News Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brussels, April 24, 2007 (FH) \u2013 \u201cI was at the wrong place at the wrong time,\u201d Major Bernard Ntuyahaga explained, declaring his innocence Monday and Tuesday before the Court of Assises in Brussels where he is accused of the assassination of ten Belgian Blue Helmets and also of Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana on April 7, […]<\/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-18681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n