The trial of genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga will continue on November 8 at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) with witnesses testifying via video conference from Arusha, Tanzania. During the past hearing sessions, a number of witnesses testified live in The Hague branch courtroom where the trial is taking place. “Our next evidence is intended to be presented via video conference from Arusha starting on the eighth of November,” prosecutor Rupert Elderkin told the judges at the end of the latest hearing that took place on Tuesday, October 25. Kabuga 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. The 89-year-old businessman allegedly played a big role in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, by providing weapons, financial and moral support towards the killers. So far, the IRMCT has heard from various witnesses who pinned Kabuga on such crimes. Among these, for example, is one who testified under code-name KAB38, who, in 1994 lived in the Muhima area of the city of Kigali, where a mega building owned by Kabuga was located. According to her testimony as presented to the court by the prosecutors, political parties like Juvenal Habyarimana’s MRND and the extremist CDR held meetings on the second floor of Kabuga’s building. She noted that she heard from the Interahamwe who attended the meetings that they were organised with Kabuga’s authorisation. “When they gathered for meetings, the Interahamwe used sling shots to throw stones at Tutsi nearby, drink alcohol, danced and sang,” said the prosecutor reading KAB38’s testimony. KAB38 noted that she saw Felicien Kabuga on two occasions in 1993 in the courtyard of his building surrounded by the Interahamwe. When the Genocide started on April 7, 1994, large numbers of the Interahamwe gathered at Kabuga’s Muhima building, according to the witness. She testified that they killed her cousin, and captured her along with her sister and another pregnant female relative and held them captive in several locations from around April 8 until May 1994. “The Interahamwe repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted them. Her cousin was also raped and killed and another cousin’s wife was raped. The rapists were Interahamwe who were amongst those using Kabuga’s Muhima building,” the prosecutor read part of KAB38’s testimony. Other witnesses that have testified so far presented to court evidence regarding how Kabuga was responsible for the broadcasts of radio RTLM which fueled genocide in various parts of the country, among other things.
