A witness testifying before judges at the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) has pinned Felicien Kabuga on coordinating the purchase of weapons that were supplied to Interahamwe in the former Gisenyi prefecture.
The protected witness who was testifying under code-name ‘KAB007’ is a convicted genocidaire.
In order to protect his identity, most of the hearing was conducted in a closed session.
The witness, who was an Interahamwe and a member of the youth wing of the MRND ruling party, described how the youth wing of the MRND became the Interahamwe in November 1991.
According to his account, they received military training in 1993 and then transformed into a militia that attacked the population instead of protecting it.
He noted that Kabuga, who was a prominent member of the MRND, provided free office space for them in his building in Kigali and in 1993, he also bought uniforms for the Interahamwe.
KAB007 particularly recalls that on April 25, 1994, Kabuga chaired a meeting that was also attended by Mathias Nyagasaza and Anatole Nsengiyumva, where he pledged to buy weapons to fight the "enemy", which, according to the witness was no longer the RPF, but the Tutsi.
Nsengiyumva, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the ex-FAR was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 2008, along with Colonel Theoneste Bagosora and Major Alloys Ntabakuze, for playing a key role in the Genocide against the Tutsi.
KAB007 noted that by the end of May 1994, the weapons had arrived, onboard two trucks (with Kabuga's name written on them) which parked at Meridian Hotel in Gisenyi, alongside a bus.
He explained that the weapons provided by Kabuga were distributed to the Interahamwe who used them to kill Tutsi in the Kibuye prefecture and that the persons picking up the weapons in Goma were appointed by Colonel Anatole (probably referring to Anatole Nsengiyumva).
"The vehicles drove in front of the hotel, the drivers stopped and gave papers to Kabuga, and then they continued towards the military camp. After that, one of the trucks went on to the Umuganda Stadium, where they gave the weapons to those who had just finished their military training,” KAB007 narrated.
The witness said some of the young soldiers who received weapons left for Kigali after sunset, and he accompanied them with his own car.
The rest of the hearing continued as a private session.
Notoriously known as the "financier of the genocide,” Kabuga, 89, allegedly played a big role in the Geoncide against the Tutsi by providing weapons, financial and moral support towards the killers.
He is charged with genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, and persecution on political grounds, extermination, and murder as crimes against humanity.