Emmanuel Nkunduwimye – Brussels court finds him guilty of genocide and rape
Emmanuel Nkunduwimye – a killer finally unmasked
10 June – Brussels Assize Court
Guilty!! After a near two month trial, Emmanuel Nkunduwimye, who has been avoided justice for 25 years in Belgium, finally received a verdict that his crimes fully deserved. The 65 year-old former garage owner in Kigali, a close friend of Interahamwe deputy leader Georges Rutaganda (who was found guilty of genocide at the ICTR but has since died) had a number of witnesses testify to his horrific crimes. These included running two road blocks outside his premises where he had literal power of life and death over those who were stopped. His defence – that he was a ‘friend’ to some Tutsis and that he could never kill, was rejected by the court who instead saw a man committed to the extermination of Tutsis and the degradation and sexual abuse of Tutsi women and girls.
He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Of great concern for justice going forward is that during his trial ONE THIRD of witnesses did not attend – these included the infamous Paul Rusesabagina, now living in America. A close friend of Interahamwe deputy and convicted genocidaire Georges Rutaganda, Rusesagabina clearly did not fancy having his reputation further tarnished on the witness stand trying to defend a killer with whom he was allegedly on excellent terms. Both Nkunduwimye and Rutaganda would come by Hotel Mille Collines in Kigali, where Rusesabagina was manager, to sell food and drink that had been looted during the genocide. Rusesabagina refused even to appear by video-conference. Two other key witnesses – interahahmwe leaders Eugene Mbarushimana – who lives in Belgium – and its former treasurer Dieudonné Niyitegeka – who is in Canada, did not appear before the court either. Other witnesses had died, were unwell or did not show up. Sadly, with 30 years now passed since the crime, it is likely more and more trials will suffer from this issue making the need for cases to be dealt with as soon as possible even more acute.
8 April – Brussels Assize Court
Emmanuel Nkunduwimye – long-time genocide suspect – has finally arrived in court to face trial.The investigation against him started started way back in 2007 – 17 years ago. He had been arrested and charged in 2011, but it has taken fully 13 more years to begin the trial against him. The 65 year old is accused of a number of murders and rape at the AMGAR complex in Kigali. He has been living in Belgium since 1998, having fled there from Kenya where, along with many other high profile and affluent members of the former regime, he had holed up in the years immediately after the genocidal regime and its supporters were forced from Rwanda in July 1994.
Despite considerable suspicions about his role during the genocide against the Tutsi, not least because his vociferous support for the defence of Interahamwe Deputy leader George Rutaganda at his trial at the ICTR, Emmanuel Nkunduwimye was given refugee status in 2003 in Belgium and citizenship in 2005.
Wearing military fatigues and carrying arms for much of the period of the genocide, Nkunduwimye, known under his alias of Bomboko, was often seen alongside Rutaganda and interahahmwe leader Robert Kajuga. It was alleged by Ephrem Nkezabera, a former convicted official of the militia, that Nkunduwimye was even a member of the national committee of the interahahmwe, though not listed as he did not have an official function. He owned a garage which a witness, in testimony on 18 April, noted became a place where interahahmwe from a nearby road block would use to rape Tutsi girls and women.
In court, Emmanuel Nkunduwimye is very smartly turned out, speaks fluent French. In a change to the previous (unsuccessful) defence tactics, such as employed by the lawyers of Twahirwa and Basabose in their trial in December 2023, it seems his lawyer will be content to allow the facts to do the work, rather than try to make the coming 6 weeks a legal referendum on the RPF/President Paul Kagame’s current government.
Also notable is that Emmanuel Nkunduwimye has already somewhat change his story from that told when questioned back in 2011. He now agrees killings did happen at the AMGAR complex where he had a garage – or at least in the compound. And that his close friend Georges Rutaganda, convicted of genocide at the ICTR and who died in 2010, was a killer – a fact he had denied when called by his defence team to give evidence on his behalf at his trial.