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The two former bourgmestres of Kabarondo, tried on appeal since May 2 for their role in the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda, were sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday.
"Whew, we had to fight," sighs Dafroza Gauthier, who leads with her husband Alain Gauthier the Collective of Civil Parties for Rwanda, leaving the courtroom, Friday, July 6. It is more than forty days of a trying trial that have just ended. The Paris Assize Court on appeal sentenced Tito Barahira and Octavien Ngenzi, two former mayors of Kabarondo in eastern Rwanda, to life imprisonment for "genocide" and "crime against humanity". In doing so, she confirmed the verdict rendered in first instance in July 2016.
"We are obviously satisfied, I believe that justice has been done. The defense has very often tried to bring the discussions on the role of France, the regime of Kigali, but we did not imagine a different outcome of the first trial, "simply commented Alain Gauthier who heads the Collectif des partie civiles for Rwanda (CPCR)
The court therefore followed the requisitions made by the public prosecutor's office on Wednesday. "Did Octavien Ngenzi's interventions have the effect of stopping the massacres? No. To trigger the killings? Yes. Does he retain his authority as bourgmestre? Yes. Does he manage to make himself respected by (Hutu extremist militiamen) Interahamwe? Completely ", then asked the general counsel, Aurélie Belliot, during the indictment.
" Ordinary men "
Following these requisitions, the defense had pleaded the acquittal of the two men, Thursday, during a day of hectic hearing, trying to erase the image of "craftsmen of death" portrayed by the prosecution the day before. Thus Benjamin Benjamin Chouai, one of the lawyers of Octavien Ngenzi had endeavored to draw the portrait of "ordinary man", "powerless" and "without authorities" face the ongoing massacres before their eyes. "Because he [Octavien Negnzi, NDLR] was scared. Because he is human, like you, like me, "the lawyer continued.
" In this trial I was criticized for not expressing my feelings. I am very sad about what happened during the genocide in April 1994, "said Tito Barahira, before the jurors withdrew to deliberate for several hours. With a slurred speech he then challenged one last time the charges against him. "I am innocent, I am not a hangman, I did not organize a meeting, I did not sort Hutu and Tutsi. I did not carry any weapons, "the ex-mayor said before exchanging accolades with his relatives through the box of the accused and withdrawing to await the verdict.
Nothing new in the speeches for civil party lawyers. "In substance and in form, two trials unfolded in the same way. It was very hard for the victims to testify again. The mission of justice was to judge the role of these two men, not the genocide or the role of France, that's what it did, "says Me Laval who represented several civil parties.
" Coups of "clubs" and "bombing"
The trial was intended to clarify the role played by Tito Barahira, a local cadre of the MRND (the Hutu party then in power) and Bourgmestre of Kabarondo from 1977 to 1986, and that of his successor to the mayor, Octavien Ngenzi in the killings. For 9 weeks, the debates outlined the contours of a genocide among neighbors, including the most significant episode, the massacre of the Kabarondo church, on April 13, 1994. Several thousand Tutsi had come to find refuge, hoping to escape the massacres, before being exterminated there.
The two mayors were accused of coordinating and facilitating meetings aimed at organizing the massacres of the Tutsi population in Kibungo prefecture, which houses the commune of Kabarondo. . During the trial, survivors, widowed orphans and witnesses paraded at the bar to tell the story of the macabre events of Kabarondo. Augustin Ntarindwa is one of them, who came to testify of a carnage which he will survive with one of his sisters but in which he will lose his two parents and three other sisters under the "blows of club" and "the bombings".
Judged in France, where they were arrested, under the universal jurisdiction of the national courts for the most serious crimes, Tito Barahira and Octavien Ngenzi left the courtroom while their relatives were stunned and that braces occurred on the benches of the civil parties. The two men joined their Fresnes and Fleury-Mérogis cells where they will now serve their sentences.
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