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| |  | | Alphonse Higaniro | | | context : | Rwanda  | | judgement place : | Belgium | | status : | Sentenced | | particulars : | 20 years imprisonment | | position : | Businessman - Managing Director of Sorwal |
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| | | | Alphonse Higaniro was born in 1949 in Rwanda. After completing his studies in Belgium, he held important positions in different government Ministries. In January 1992, he was named Managing Director of the matchstick factory Sorwal (Societé Rwandaise des Allumettes).
Being a former politician and a businessman Higaniro was close to the Rwandan President Habyarimana who was assassinated in 1994. He was known as a Hutu extremist; as such he was also a member of the Hutu movement Akasu which took part in preparations for the genocide against the Tutsis and the moderate Hutus. He also knew Vincent Ntezimana, both of them having taken part in political meetings in the office of the vice-chancellor of the University of Butare.
In many of his written notes, Higaniro is said to have indirectly called for the murder and extermination of the Tutsis. In these notes, he used the terms “to work over”(travailler) and “to clean up” (nettoyage) which in the context at the time meant “to kill” and “to exterminate”.
At his factory, he employed many Hutu extremists and ex-militia members from the Interahamwe. The Interahamwe could count on the vehicles belonging to the Sorwal factory for their military campaigns.
The murder of almost an entire family, living adjacent to the factory, allegedly took place at his instigation and word of command. By this act, he sought to expropriate their land thus allowing him direct access to the lake.
Higaniro was reported also to have played a part in the murder of the Karenzi family together with Vincent Ntezimana.
At the end of the genocide in his homeland, Higaniro went to Belgium, where he asked for asylum. He was arrested on 27 April 1995. | |     click for more... | | Trial Watch would like to remind its users that any person charged by national or international authorities is presumed innocent until proven guilty. | |  |  | | last time seen : | | | Belgium | | | period of charges : | | | 06.04.1994 - 27.05.1994 | | | judgement period : | | | 17.04.2001 - 08.06.2001 | | | charges : | | | War crimes | | | profile last modified : | | | 12.11.2009 |
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