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| |  | | Joseph Kanyabashi | | | context : | Rwanda  | | judgement place : | ICTR (Rwanda) | | status : | On trial | | particulars : | His trial before the ICTY began on June 12, 2001 | | position : | Mayor |
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| | | | Joseph Kanyabashi was born in Mpare, in the province of Butare, Rwanda, in 1937. He was mayor of the community of Ngoma, in the province of Butare, from April 1974 until the day he left Rwanda, which was on or around 4 July 1994. In his capacity as mayor, he was the highest representative of the executive power on the community-level. He was the highest authority and was empowered to give his subordinates instructions as well as to commandeer the local police units.
From the end of 1990 to July 1994, Kanyabashi is said to have participated in the elaboration of a plan to eliminate Tutsis. Kanyabashi allegedly adhered to this plan by implementing it against the Tutsis in the course of events.
During different events between April and June 1994, Kanyabashi is said to have aided and encouraged the population by calling upon them to eliminate all Tutsis in the province of Butare.
On 19 April 1994, he is said to have held a speech in Butare, in which he appealed to the audience to combat Tutsis. Shortly thereafter, indiscriminate large-scale attacks against Tutsis occurred in the region. During the end of May 1994, Kanyabashi allegedly drove through the city of Butare in a car, calling upon the civilian population to eliminate the Tutsis. Around the same time, he is said to have organized two gatherings in Cyarwa, in the community of Ngoma, during which he encouraged the inhabitants to kill Tutsis.
Before and during the massacres of 1994, Kanyabashi is said to have distributed arms to the militia and civilians in Butare in order to eliminate the population of Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Between March and June 1994, he allegedly enabled the military training of militia and civilian units in the community of Ngoma.
On the days of 21 and 22 of April 1994, Tutsis fled from the massacres to the city of Kabakobwa, after allegedly being promised by Kanyabashi that he would protect them. He is said to instead have ordered his subordinates, and encouraged Hutu civilians to kill the Tutsis that had sought refuge there.
On 22 of April 1994, around 4 p.m., his subordinates, aided by Hutu peasants and militia, attacked the refugees. Thereafter, Kanyabashi is said to have called upon members of the presidential guards as backing, who then themselves participated in the killings.
Around the end of April 1994, Kanyabashi allegedly escorted two busses of Tutsi, all of whom had sought refuge in the bureau of the prefect, accompanied by members of the local police, to the forest of Rango. At their arrival, the Tutsi refugees were confined in an enclosure. In the following weeks the refugees were deprived of food and beaten. Several died, others were rescued in early July 1994 by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (the RPF is an opposition movement, which almost entirely consisted of Tutsi refugees and was lead by Paul Kagame).
During the end of 1994, Tutsis that had fled from massacres gathered in the clinic of Matyazo in the community of Ngoma, in order to seek refuge. Kanyabashi is said to have gone there and demanded them to stay for the sake of their own safety. Nevertheless, shortly thereafter Kanyabashi allegedly ordered the soldiers to open fire. Several people were killed in the shootings.
Kanyabashi is said to have held a reunion in the parish of Ngoma, around the end of April 1994, in order to assure the civilians that there would be no further massacres. Many Tutsis had sought shelter in the area after having fled massacres. Among them were survivors of the attack on the clinic of Matyazo. On the morning of 30 April 1994, a group of armed soldiers and numerous Interahamwe (extreme Hutu militia) came to the parish church of Ngoma and forced the refugees out of the church by telling them that they would be brought to a camp where they would be safe. However, they were attacked and massacred by Interahamwe on a nearby sport field, just adjacent to the parish.
In the beginning of Mai 1994, the Tutsis from the region of Mare, which had sought refuge in the University Hospital of Butare, were threatening to return to their region. Kanyabashi, who was present at the hospital, allegedly promised to protect them and to provide them with a military escort to accompany them safely back to their region.
Kanyabashi is said to have left the hospital first in a long row of refugees, who were then slaughtered on the spot. On 15 May 1994, Kanyabashi and members of the military are said to have controlled the identity cards of patients in the hospital of Butare in order to track down Tutsis. These were then allegedly abducted by military in the presence of Kanyabashi and then killed.
Between mid May and mid June 1994, Kanyabashi and Sylvain Nsabimana (see "related cases"), the prefect of Butare, ordered that Tutsis, who had fled to the office of the prefect in Butare, be transported to the community of Nyaruhengeri and especially to Nyange, in busses of the national transport agency "Office National de Transport en Commun (ONATRACOM)".
They were then attacked by armed groups. Many of them were killed during the attack. Few that were able to flee returned to the office of the prefect in Butare. During the weeks that followed Kanyabashi and soldiers allegedly selected refugees and forcefully lead them to the woods neighboring the evangelic school of Rwanda. Some of them were never seen again. During a meeting in the office of the prefect in Butare, in June 1994, between some of the main authorities of the prefecture and their subordinates, Kanyabashi is said to have told the prefect, that all Tutsis remaining in the office building would be exterminated.
On or around 4 July 1994, due to the continuously approaching troops of the FPR, Kanyabashi fled from Rwanda. On 28 June 1995 he was arrested in Belgium. | |     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 : | | | Arusha (Tanzania) | | | period of charges : | | | 03.1994 - 06.1994 | | | judgement period : | | | 12.06.2001 | | | charges : | | | Crimes against humanity
Genocide
War crimes | | | profile last modified : | | | 27.11.2007 |
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