APA – Kigali (Rwanda) – Dr. Sosthene Munyemana, a former medical doctor at the University Hospital in Butare (CHUB) in southern Rwanda has incited the killings of Tutsis in his village, a prosecution witness told a French court.
Judicial reports seen by APA Thursday suggest that at the Cour d’ Assises de Paris, Dr. Sosthene Munyemana is being tried for allegedly being at the forefront of massacres in Tumba – a locality in current Huye town, southern Rwanda – a role that earned him the nickname “butcher of Tumba”.
In her testimony before the Cour d’assises de Paris, a survivor of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi recounted the brutal nightmare she endured under the orders of Dr. Sostherne Munyemana.
She testified in the ongoing trial which focuses on Munyemana’s alleged role in the genocide, particularly in the Tumba Sector.
The witness, who was 25 years old at the time and married with two children, described the horrors she experienced during the genocide. She detailed how she was held captive alongside other Tutsi women, raped and tortured on the orders of Munyemana.
In her testimony before the Cour d’assises de Paris, a survivor of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi recounted the brutal nightmare she endured under the orders of Dr. Sostherne Munyemana.
She testified in the ongoing trial which focuses on Munyemana’s alleged role in the genocide, particularly in the Tumba Sector (Southern Rwanda).
The witness further revealed that Munyemana, in collaboration with other sector leaders, initiated roadblocks where numerous Tutsi were targeted and killed. She alleged that Munyemana maintained a list of people to be killed.
The killings did not stop at physical violence. The witness claimed that Tutsi women were injected with syringes containing deadly substances in their private parts.
These needles, provided by Munyemana, were allegedly filled with medicines aimed at causing rapid death. The witness spoke of the unimaginable moment she witnessed, such as removing syringes from her mother-in-law’s body.
According to the survivor, Munyemana, a gynaecologist, actively participated in encouraging the Interahamwe to commit further killings.
The suspect applied for refugee status, which was denied in 2008. In 2010, Rwanda requested France to extradite him, without success.
In 2007, Gacaca courts tried him in absentia and sentenced him for 30 years in jail, for genocide crimes he committed at CHUB and in Tumba where he lived.
In 2010, the Ngoma Gacaca court, on appeal, upheld his sentence in absentia after proving his role in the planning and execution of the genocide in the city of Butare, especially at CHUB where he killed women and children.
CU/as/APA
Witness claims ‘Butcher of Tumba’ incited genocide
