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| |  | | Samuel Musabyimana | | | context : | Rwanda  | | judgement place : | ICTR (Rwanda) | | status : | Died before end of trial | | particulars : | Indicted by the ICTR, Musabyimana died in detention on January 24, 2003 | | position : | Bishop of the Anglican Church in Shyogwe Diocese |
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| | | | Samuel Musabyimana was born on 6 July 1956 in Mwendo commune, Kibuye préfecture, in the Republic of Rwanda. At the time of the events, Samuel Musabyimana was Bishop of the Anglican Church in Shyogwe Diocese, Gitarama prefecture.
During the period following 10 April 1994, groups of Tutsi civilian refugees fled to Shyogwe Diocese to escape attack from local militias that pursued them and set fire to their homes. They took refuge in various buildings in the Shyogwe church compound. Later, in late April 1994, numerous Hutu refugees (including civilians, soldiers and pastors coming from other dioceses) that had fled the combat zones between the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF), a politico-military opposition group, and the Rwandan government armed forces, also took refuge at Shyogwe diocese. During this period the total number of refugees at Shyogwe diocese was approximately 500, of which roughly 100 were Tutsi and 400 were Hutu.
According to the indictment, when the refugees arrived at the diocese, a pastor subordinate to Bishop Samuel Musabyimana in the Anglican church hierarchy registered their names in a book and indicated their ethnic or racial identity and their location on the church compound. It was alleged that Bishop Samuel Musabyimana had specifically instructed this Pastor to register refugees by ethnic or racial group or was aware that this Pastor had made such listings and that on several occasions, he was present while refugees were being registered.
This list of refugees, identifying them by ethnic or racial group and indicating their location on the church compound, was used to select Tutsi refugees at Shyogwe diocese to be transported to Kabgayi (a nearby massacre site), or to other unknown destinations, in order to be killed.
During April 1994, the killings started at Shyogwe diocese and intensified in number during the following month. Vehicles with soldiers and militias aboard arrived regularly at the diocese to transport Tutsi refugees to Kabgayi and other unknown destinations, where they were killed.
Bishop Samuel Musabyimana was present when civilian Tutsi refugees were loaded onto the vehicle and, fully aware of the fate that awaited the Tutsi refugees, only intervened to save a Hutu youth that soldiers and militias had mistaken for a Tutsi and loaded onto the vehicle to be killed with the others.
During the months of April and May 1994 roadblocks were mounted in the areas surrounding Shyogwe diocese under orders or authorization from or with the consent of Bishop Samuel Musabyimana. The roadblocks were manned by students and employees of the diocese and were used to identify and monitor and control the movement of Tutsi civilians in the area surrounding the diocese. As a direct consequence, numerous Tutsi civilians were killed at roadblocks adjoining Shyogwe diocese.
On or about the morning of 28 May 1994, Bishop Samuel Musabyimana was said to have sent a message to the Tutsi refugees that had taken refuge at the diocese and its surroundings through a Pastor who had the confidence of the refugees, encouraging them to abandon their hiding places, with the promise that he would help them to escape. As soon as the refugees came out of hiding, the bishop allegedly sped off in his vehicle.
The Tutsi refugees that followed Bishop Samuel Musabyimana‘s instructions and came out of hiding were attacked by militias. Those that could not escape were either killed or thrown alive into a pit, where they remained until they died.
According to the indictment, at the time of the events Bishop Samuel Musabyimana regularly met up with several ministers of the Interim Government, including the Minister of Information Eliezer Niyitegeka (see “related cases”), the Minister of Higher Education, Daniel Mbangura and Interim President Théodore Sindikubwabo. He also travelled abroad on State missions with members of the Interim Government and acted as an emissary of the Government in order to legitimize its policies, at a time when those policies were known to include a plan of extermination of the Tutsi and the Hutu political opposition.
During the events referred to in the indictment, Bishop Samuel Musabyimana reportedly organized and chaired meetings with high level government and military officials, ostensibly to discuss problems of security in the diocese. The objective of such meetings was to arm the civilian Hutu population and to encourage them to adopt the Interim Government policy of targeting, and killing, Tutsi civilians as accomplices of the RPF enemy. One of such meetings, held in May 1994, was attended by the Minister of the Interior Edouard Karemera and Lt. Col. Tharcisse Renzaho (see “related cases”), amongst others, during a period when the Interim Government policy of civil defence specifically encouraged the mounting of roadblocks by civilian militias for purposes of killing civilian Tutsi.
Samuel Musabyimana was arrested on 26 April 2001, in Kenya and transferred on the same day to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), in Arusha, Tanzania. | |     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. | |  |  | | nationality : | | | Rwanda | | | date of birth : | | | 06.07.1956 | | | period of charges : | | | 10.04.1994 - 05.1994 | | | charges : | | | Crimes against humanity
Genocide | | | profile last modified : | | | 21.12.2009 |
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