Genocide Watch

Dr Leon Mugesera board a prison van back to jail from one of the countless court appearances in Rwanda The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) has ruled that Dr Leon Mugesera has been jailed under inhumane and cruel conditions as he serves life sentence for genocide. The…

There have been a series of arrests in Europe in recent months of Rwandans accused of participating in the 1994 genocide. After Félicien Kabuga in France, three people were arrested in Belgium in October and another one in the Netherlands (see Box). Who are they? Belgium, which is the European…

Photo taken during the AMI session in Nyaruguru district shows the Viateur Mbabariye (center) standing next to Philomene Mukamabano, the widow whose family he killed A community in Nyaruguru district, southern Rwanda, was left in both shock and happiness when a man confessed to a a neighbor that he had…

Picture of Felicien Kabuga after he was arrested in a Paris Suburb A top French appeals court has agreed to extradite the alleged financier of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Félicien Kabuga, to face trial in Tanzania. Mr Kabuga, 85, was arrested in May at his home…

This suspect Rukundo Assouman was rearrested again in April 2019 after he confronted a genocide survivor saying: “I’ll kill you so that you follow your relatives”. He was found guilty in 2016 over similar actions, was released under presidential pardon in September 2018 together with 2,139 others The Rwanda Investigations…

In Rwanda, there are a thousand “protected witnesses” from the former International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Among them, the feeling of abandonment often dominates. This is the case of Mother KRA, who lives isolated in a miserable hovel where she no longer sees anyone and is surprised that she has…

This was one of the promotional posters online for the US bounty on Augustin Bizimana Want for genocide, Augustin Bizimana, the defense minister of the interim government in 1994, died two decades ago, the UN confirmed Friday. The UN’s International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism), which replaced the International…

France on Saturday arrested Felicien Kabuga, one of the last key fugitives wanted over 1994 Rwandan genocide, leaving him facing a likely trial at an international tribunal after a quarter of a century on the run. The first public photo of Felicien Kabuga in over 26 years. Here was when…

APRIL 7, 1994: THE BEGINNING OF THE GENOCIDE THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY IS THE PROOF THAT THE RWANDAN STATE HAD PLANNED THE EXTERMINATION OF TUTSI The genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi was planned, and this is reflected in the massacres and the hateful speeches which preceded it, but the planning of…

Five people acquitted years ago by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda are still waiting to find a host country. One of them for 16 years. This situation looks unlikely to change any time soon, for them and for four convicts who have served their sentences and share their containment,…

The training of the interahamwe youths continued being done in a joint operation by Rwandan and French military officers. Here in 1994, Rwanda — A group of Rwandan recruits carrying model rifles march down a road. — (Photo by Peter Turnley/CORBIS) On March 18, 1991, the head of the intelligence…

Dr Leon Mugesera leaves the Court of Appeal in previous session. He looks very weak which is clearly visible as he walks Genocide convict Dr Leon Mugesera has petitioned the Supreme Court seeking to have one Justice on the bench trying him, to be removed from his appeals trial. The…

The machetes became the must have tool during the genocide In February 1994 a representative of CHILLINGTON, a manufacturing company which makes machetes among other things, reported that the company sold more machetes in one moth than it had sold throughout the year 1993. Applications for import licenses examined by…

Dr Leon Mugesera An audio speech used in the genocide case against academic Dr Leon Mugesera was fabricated with new content added, the Court of Appeal has heard. Appearing for the start of his appeal against a life sentence for his involvement in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, Mugesera…

Bishop John Rucyahana speaking at the lecture On the 23 January 2020, the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) hosted Bishop John Rucyahana for a public lecture commemorating the 71st anniversary of the UN Convention on the prevention and punishment of genocide. Facilitated as part of a series by the…

Justice Minister and Attorney General Johnston Busingye (in blue shirt) led delegation to site on Sunday A high-level government delegation has confirmed that the mass grave exhume at airport in Rubavu district contained remains of Tutsis targeted as part of anti-Tutsi massacres before 1994. Justice Minister and Attorney General Johnston…

Local officials helping with the exhumation currently ongoing at the Rubavu district airport. The bornes are sorted and separated from items like clothing. After it is confirmed they are genocide victims, they will be laid to rest at a local genocide memorial site On Saturday January 4, workers undertaking expansion…

Fabien Neretse, 71, told a Brussels court this week he played no part in the 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. He said he did not denounce his Tutsi neighbours in Kigali or train Interahamwe militia as he is accused, and that the prosecution has got everything wrong. Court president Sophie…

Mass graves of Tutsis killed in 1994 are still being discovered, 25 years after. Here in Kabuga, outside Kigali, several mass graves were exhumed late last year. Genocide convicts in Mageragere prison, the biggest in Kigali, have pinpointed 126 locations they say have mass graves in which victims of the…

Dr Markus Pieper, the in-charge of memorial sites and museums at the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Eastern Germany, explains to visitors at the exhibition organized as part of the events marking Germany reunification Germany and the rest of the world are commemorating 30 years…

Faustin Twagiramungu, ex-Prime Minister from July 1994, a position he held for about a year before he resigned and fled to exile Barely a week after Rwanda issued a list of individuals and entities outside Rwanda that are promoting a genocide revisionist agenda, those cited have decided to come out…

The Parliamentary building where the Senate yesterday released its report Government should set up a specific office to deal with the growing genocide negationist lobby, says Parliament in a new report. The upper house of parliament, the Senate, recommends the government appoints “Ambassador at Large” – a position which if…

The site where the exhumation has been ongoing next to the Cyanika Catholic parish in Nyamagabe district, southern province An investigation has been opened in Nyamagabe district, southern province, on Cyanika parish amid allegations the clergy may have hidden information about a mass grave in the church’s land. As of…

The compound in Rwezamenyo sector, Nyarugenge district here in Kigali, where the exhumation is taking place Local officials have since the weekend been exhuming at a site in Rwezamenyo sector, Nyarugenge district, believed to be mass grave for victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. The site is a…

This house belongs to a genocide survivor located in Rugarama village, Mugobore cell of Simbi sector, Huye district. There are hundreds of other houses in other regions with worse conditions The Auditor General has discovered that a government-aided fund set up to support genocide survivors has millions of Francs in…

Admiral Jacques Lanxade was Chief of Staff of French Special Forces from April 1989 to April 1991, when he was elevated to full military chief of the French army. It suggests, he had the Rwanda dossiers on his desk first hand. France provided arms to government of Juvenal Habyarimana to…

Rwanda’s Prosecutor General Jean Bosco Mutangana here meets Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanisms for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) at a previous visit to Rwanda Despite $5m bounty for each of the hardcore genocide fugitives and Red Notices for thousands others, the global hunt to apprehend them has…

Speaker of the Lower Chamber of Parliament Donatile Mukabalisa lays wreath at a memorial site in Kibirizi sector. However, survivors of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, want the ‘Ibambiro’ hill to be declared place of historical significance and possibly a national memorial site as a particular group of people…

Dady de Maximo at different times of his life including in the fashion world When the date April 25 is approaching, and on this exact date, “I feel rage against all men and women” – is how renowned Rwandan designer Dady de Maximo Mwicira Mitali – fondly known as ‘Dady…

This suspect Rukundo Assouman was rearrested again after he confronted a genocide survivor saying: “I’ll kill you so that you follow ur relatives”. He was found guilty in 2016 over similar actions, was released under presidential pardon in September 2018 together with 2,139 others A small number of suspects arrested…