Genocide inmates face fresh charges

RWAMAGANA - Three genocide convicts at Nsinda prison, on Monday appeared before Gahanga Gacaca Court of Kigali, on fresh charges of looting property of genocide survivors. Court sitting in Kigabiro sector, Rwamagana district, heard that Eldaphonse Munyambo, Jean Baptiste Bizimana and Noel Kayinamura looted property worth millions of francs during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Another suspect, Stanislas Barahira, deceased, is alleged to have used his lorry, to ferry the loot from Rwamagana town and the surrounding areas during the genocide. Survivors want his family to compensate them. Earlier, Munyambo and Bizimana, a former Bourgmestre, were both convicted of genocide charges by Rwamagana Gacaca court and sentenced to life imprisonment, while Kayinamura was sentenced to 19 years imprisonment. However, the trio denied the charges, claiming they ‘all owned their own property,’ due to the positions they held.Jean Claude Furaha, the coordinator of Gacaca in the area told The New Times that property cases are complex, because suspects conceal the truth about what transpired. “The accused don’t want to reveal the truth…so it is up to the courts to decide depending on available evidence,” he said. Jean Marie Vianney Kayibanda, a survivor, insisted that the accused were responsible for their lost property. “One of these people was the Bourgmestre, the other was a sector coordinator, while the third was the leader of Interahamwe militia- with all the powers to supervise looting and killing. I don’t see why the court can’t ask them where our property went,” he said. Hearing of the case continues. Ends