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| |  | | Obed Ruzindana | | | context : | Rwanda  | | judgement place : | ICTR (Rwanda) | | status : | Sentenced | | particulars : | Sentenced to 25 years imprisonment | | position : | Businessman |
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| | | | Obed Ruzindana was born in 1962 in Gisovu, Rwanda. In 1986-1987, he left his home in Kibuye for the capital, Kigali, and set himself up in the business of shipping merchandise abroad and importing goods into Rwanda. In a short period of time, he became a prosperous businessman. Ruzindana and his family lived in Kigali until the death of President Habyarimana on 6 April 1994, after which date they left for Mugonero to stay with Ruzindana’s father. During the period when the crimes were being committed, that is from April to June 1994, Ruzindana carried on with his commercial activities.
Ruzindana was said to have played a preponderant role in the systematic extermination of the Tutsis who had sought refuge in the Bisesero region located in the Kibuye prefecture. The massacres in the Bisesero region went on for several months, from April to June 1994, and resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.
At various different places, most notably on the hillside of Muyira on 13 and 14 June 1994, Ruzindana reportedly provided transport for the assailants and incited the latter into attacking the Tutsis who had sought refuge in this region. He allegedly drew up the plan of attack to be implemented, commanded the assailants and took part personally in the massacres. He distributed traditional weapons to the assailants and launched the attack by opening up fire on the Tutsi refugees.
At the Kigamara cave, in the Gishyita commune, where dozens of Tutsis had sought refuge, Ruzindana was reorted to have played a prominent role in the attack by leading the charge of the assailants who perpetrated this massacre.
At various other places, both Ruzindana and Clement Kayishema (see "related cases"), Prefet of Kibuye at the time of the events, were said to have escorted units of the gendarmerie and the communal police as well as the Interahamwe militia and armed civilians in the Bisesero region and to have given them orders to attack the Tutsis who had sought refuge there. Both took part and encouraged others into carrying out the mass killings. Ruzindana reportedly offered a monetary reward for the severed head or the identity card of any well known murdered Tutsi shown to him. He was also alleged to have provided the assailants with transportation and weapons.
Moreover, on 15 April 1994, it was reported that Ruzindana himself first mutilated a young sixteen year old Tutsi girl at a mine in the Nyiramurego hillside by cutting off her breasts before then killing her by disembowelment with a machete
In the month of July 1994, confronted with the advance of the troops of the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front,- an opposition movement composed essentially of Tutsi refugees and led by Paul Kagame), Ruzindana fled Rwanda in the direction of the Democratic Republic of Congo, then afterwards to Kenya where he went into hiding. On 20 September 1996, he was arrested in Nairobi, Kenya at the request of the Chief Prosecutor of the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda). | |     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 : | | | Bamako (Mali) | | | period of charges : | | | 04.1994 - 06.1994 | | | judgement period : | | | 11.04.1997 - 01.06.2001 | | | charges : | | | Genocide | | | profile last modified : | | | 30.11.2009 |
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