Ottawa judge to rule in Rwandan genocide suspect Mungwarere

 

OTTAWA — A former teacher accused of  organizing and executing vicious attacks to eliminate the Tutsi minority in his  native Rwanda nearly two decades ago is expected to learn his fate in an Ottawa  courtroom Friday.

Jacques Mungwarere, who is accused of  organizing and executing vicious attacks to eliminate the Tutsi minority in his  native Rwanda nearly two decades ago, is expected to learn his fate in an Ottawa  courtroom Friday.

Jacques Mungwarere settled in Windsor, Ont. after the brutal 100-day genocide  that killed about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the small east African  country during the spring of 1994.

He was arrested in November 2009 after a six-year RCMP investigation.

Mungwarere is accused of planning attacks, distributing guns and shooting a  baby as part of a systematic and deliberate plan to rid the country of the  minority ethnic group. He was 22 at the time.

Mungwarere pleaded not guilty to genocide and crimes against humanity at the  outset of his trial in May 2012.

Over the course of 26 weeks, witnesses testified that Mungwarere participated  in a mass attack on a hospital complex in the lakeside city of Kibuye where  Tutsis were hiding on April 16, 1994. Water and electricity were cut off before  a group armed with machetes, guns and grenades stormed the complex. Some Tutsis  escaped into the rolling hills only to face more bloody attacks almost every  day.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Michel Charbonneau heard testimony from more  than 40 witnesses during the trial, including Mungwarere.

According to the Canadian Centre for International Justice, Mungwarere  testified that he was not aware of the plan to attack the hospital complex — and  that he had even taken a group of those who were threatened into his home for  protection.

The charity, which works with survivors of genocide and torture, had  a representative in the courtroom to monitor the trial nearly every day, said  legal director Matt Eisenbrandt.

“Mungwarere basically said he saw people coming and going from the attacks  but that he wasn’t there and that he did not have a role in it,” Eisenbrandt  said.

The passage of time was a key challenge during the trial, as witnesses  struggled to recall specifics surrounding the horror, Eisenbrandt said. That  challenge was amplified when witnesses testified via video link from Rwanda and  their words had to be translated from Kinyarwanda, he said.

It’s “ideal” to prosecute cases in the country where the alleged crimes  occurred, Eisenbrandt said, but exceptions can be made if there are concerns  that an accused person will not get a fair trial and an overloaded justice  system.

The Mungwarere case is one example of how Canada is “contributing to that  international system of justice to make sure that there isn’t impunity for these  types of heinous crimes and that we build deterrence against them happening in  the future,” Eisenbrandt said.

The only other person to be tried under the Crimes Against Humanity and War  Crimes Act was Désiré Munyaneza, who was found guilty for his role in the  Rwandan genocide in 2009. He is serving a life sentence.

cfedio@ottawacitizen.com