Rwandan Genocide: Munyemana Defends Actions During Trial

Former doctor Sosthène Munyemana has been accused of involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, claiming that he tried to save Tutsi people.

Munyemana has been answering questions before a Paris court on the merits of the accusations against him, which he has contested from the start. He is accused of holding the key to the Tumba sector office during part of the genocide and locking up Tutsi who were then taken to other places and executed.

Munyemana explains that he informed sector advisor François Bwanakeye about the deaths of Tutsi and girls raped around the sector office. The advisor sent Munyemana the key to the office, and he opened the door to the refugees gathered around it. Munyemana was later sentenced to 20 years of criminal imprisonment for incitement to genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

Munyemana opened the office door four times between April 23 and May 15, leaving only one person alive at the time of his transfer. He claims that he intended to save the Tutsi people and did not expect them to be killed where they were brought.

The president of the Assize Court, Marc Sommerer_, questions Munyemana about being abused and that the events in Tumba were a “copy and paste” of what happened in the rest of the country. Munyemana maintains that he intervened as a citizen and saw his objective as saving people. The trial is scheduled until December 19.