A man who lost three children in the Karama primary school massacre that was allegedly committed by a group of Interahamwe loyal to Felicien Kabuga, testified at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) on Wednesday. ALSO READ: Kabuga trial resumes as new witness details suspect’s role in Kimironko killings According to the witness’s testimony, when the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi had just broken out, he took his children to Karama primary school, while he and his wife along with other family members took refuge in another place in Kimironko. Karama in Huye District (former Runyinya Commune) is considered one of the deadliest site of massacres of the genocide. More than 75,000 Tutsi were killed in 48 hours in Karama. On April 10, when he went back to the school to look for his children, he saw a Toyota truck full of Interahamwe entering the school compound. They started killing the Tutsi, the witness’ account states. He said that he fled the area when he saw an Interahamwe attack a man called Sylvester Gatwa. Later on, he discovered that three of his seven children had been killed during the massacre that took place at the school. On the morning of April 13, the witness encountered some Interahamwe who beat him with a club pierced with nails (ubuhiri), and the flat side of their machetes. When he started to bleed, one of the Interahamwe taunted him for “smearing him with Inyenzi blood.” The witness was made to dig his own grave, and as he did it, he saw several women nearby who were doing the same. Fortunately, before things could get worse, a communal police officer arrived and told the Interahamwe that the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) soldiers were nearby. When they heard this, the Interahamwe ran away. On April 16, the witness and the women were rescued by RPF soldiers. Kabuga, who a wealthy businessman before and during the genocide, is accused of having played a big role in financing the tragedy, offering material support to the killers, in addition to spreading anti-Tutsi propaganda through the Comité d’initiative of Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), a radio for which he was president.
