Genocide Trial Underway

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has begun the trial of André Rwamakuba, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education in the Interim Government during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. He was also a member of the Mouvement Démocratique Républicain (MDR). Rwamakuba refused to attend the proceedings but the presiding judge ordered the trial to continue despite his absence.

"Andre Rwamakuba planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted attacks against the Tutsi population in his home commune of Gikomero," his indictment says.

ICTR Prosecutor, Hassan Jallow said the Prosecution would present evidence that the accused conspired with other government officials in developing a plan to remain in power by exterminating the civilian Tutsi population and members of the Hutu opposition. In executing the plan, Rwamakuba allegedly organized, ordered and participated in the massacres of the Tutsi population and of moderate Hutu.

It is alleged that in April and May of 1994 Rwamakuba, a physician, ordered selected Tutsi patients away from the National University Hospital in Butare. Prosecutor Dior Fall told judges, according to Arusha, that Rwamakuba walked into the hosptal, selected Tutsi patients for death and dragged them out so they could be taken to be killed by members of the extremist Hutu Interahamwe militia. Those patients were never seen again.

Rwamakuba is further accused, South Africa’s IOL says, of “removing intravenous drips from Tutsi patients in the hospital's intensive care unit."

It is also alleged that Rwamakuba led massacres at the hospital itself. The former doctor allegedly walked around the hospital with an axe hanging from his belt, striking any ethnic Tutsis he found in wards or corridors. These activities earned him the nickname, “Minister of Axe.”

Rwamukuba was first arrested in 1997 and released six months later before being re-arrested in 1998. Sources: International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, IOL (South Africa), Reuters Alert Net. Coalition for International Justice, Arusha (Tanzania)