The trial of the former Rwandan prefect Laurent Bucyibaruta continues at the assizes of Paris. Two witnesses to the massacre at the Murambi technical school took the stand this Friday, May 20: a man who participated in this massacre, and a survivor, a young mother in April 1994 with a moving testimony.
With our special correspondent at the Paris court, Claire Fages
On April 21, 1994, at dawn, the gendarmes attacked the Murambi technical school with grenades and guns. ” We people from the neighborhood went to surround the establishment so that none of the Tutsi refugees could escape. “says Vincent.
This former official at the Gikongoro health center therefore participated in the massacre. ” I had no particular anger against the Tutsis. I went to join the others. It was like defending myself. I’ve been weak “, he will repeat three times. ” From the prefecture, did we have visibility on the Murambi technical establishment? asks a lawyer for the civil parties. ” Yes, very good he replies.
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Next comes at the helm Juliette Mukakabanda. At length, this Hutu woman, wife of a Tutsi, will recount her ordeal. Led on foot by the gendarmes, his family arrives at the center of Murambi.
” There is no more water. We were counted supposedly to give us food, but nothing came. The few cows the refugees had brought, we had to eat the raw meatshe said in tears. We knew we were there to be killed. »
She tells how the gendarmes would have agreed to her leaving on the basis of her Hutu identity card if she had abandoned her children. It is finally a Hutu militiaman who takes pity on her and her three-week-old baby. Her husband and her two other children will be shot dead in Murambi.