KAGAME’S CLERGY ASSASSINATIONS
3 Bishops, 9 Priests, 1 Brother and 2 Civilians Were Brutally Murdered.
On June 5th of 1994, in Gakurazo, Bishop Joseph Ruzindana of Byumba (North), Bishop Thaddée Nsengiyumva of Kabgayi (Center), Archbishop Vincent Nsengiyumva of Kigali who was also the President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Rwanda and several others religious leaders were murdered. Today, the light has began to be shed regarding the execution of this barbaric act and who the authors thereof are. Indeed, an eyewitness who was present during the brutal murder of these religious leaders has just delivered an unprecedented testimony: not only does she explain in detail the unfolding of this atrocity, but also, she claims to hold the evidence that the orders to exterminate members of the Clergy came directly from Paul Kagame, the current President of Rwanda! The witness’s name is Espérance Mukashema, a Tutsi survivor who first fled to Uganda in 2000 for three years before settling in the Netherlands. She gave her testimony on Ikondera info, an online television network. On this famous June 5, 1994, Espérance Mukashema was present in Gakurazo when several ecclesiastics including 3 bishops, 9 priests, 1 Brother and 2 civilians were savagely murdered by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). During the massacres, Richard Sheja, an 8-year-old boy who is also the son of Espérance Mukashema was among those killed.
Transfer of clerics from Kabgayi Dioceses to Gakurazo Before the Killings
It starts on the 2nd of June 1994 when the RPF 157 battalion led by Colonel Fred Ibingira (A General today) took Kabgayi. The latter decided shortly afterwards to move refugees who had settled there: half of the refugees were transferred to Ruhango, including the murdered clergy men, and another half was brought to Gakurazo, in a novitiate of the Jesuit brothers led by a Burundian brother Balthazar. Three days later, on June 5, 1994, the clergy were again transferred, this time from Ruhango to Gakurazo, Esperance Mukashema reported. She also said that a group of clerics, including three bishops, arrived under an RPF escort around 11:00 am in Gakurazo.
“We welcomed them, I even remember that Bishop Nsengiyumva of Kigali said a mass in the chapel because that day was Pentecost. When these clergymen arrived in Gakurazo, I had been there for three months. Those who were there were mostly Tutsi refugees, but there were also some Hutus. I lived in room number four. Balthazar asked me to give my room to Bishop Nsengiyumva. I was placed in a common corridor with other refugees; I was with three of my children: Sheja, Gaju and Shema. My husband died on April 28, 1994, murdered near Nyanza in a place called Gasoro,” she continued.
Massacres at Dusk
In her story, Mukashema goes on to say that the clerics were murdered the very day of their arrival. Thus, “At Gakurazo the same day (June 5th, 1994) around 7:00 pm, a soldier named Wilson Ukwishaka came to ask Barthazar to pick up the people they had brought in the morning to have a meeting with them. He did not solicit all the refugees who were there; he made it clear that only the refugees who had arrived from Ruhango had to report to the refectory for a meeting. Balthazar went to fetch for them. At that time, Bishop Nsengiyumva was in his room. Everyone came to the refectory, I was there too, sitting on a bench in the back, and I was with one of my children. There were people who prepared the tables because it was meal time. Next to me was Monsignor Gasabwoya, who held on his knees my eldest son of 8 years old. When everyone had finished settling, Wilson said only these words: “We just took the country, we are in control of all this area, I will talk with you about how we can work together.” These are the only words I heard from him. My youngest son who was about four years old was not feeling well, so I went out. Arriving at the door, a young soldier who was there asked me to go back and take my other child who had stayed with the bishop. I did not know why he was asking me that, so I went back into the room to pick him up. But Bishop Gasabwoya insisted, “Why do you want to take this child when he seems to get along well with me?” At that moment, the soldier who had advised me to pick up the child came in and pushed away the girls who served the meal all the way to the door. I too left leaving the child with Mgr. Gasabwoya. Arriving at the door, several soldiers came running, and several others entered through the windows. Immediately, they began shooting!”
“I think the soldiers started shooting from one side because I heard my son screaming loudly, calling me, he thought maybe I could save him. I heard him shout ‘Mom, Mom,’ and because the door was open, I could hear him. At that moment, they killed everyone, the bodies were there, lying on the ground. Hearing the gunshots, people from outside got scattered everywhere; some went to hide in the showers, others went out of the novitiate. I remained paralyzed for a few seconds in front of the door. Then I regained my senses and went to hide in the showers with the child I had in my arms. I felt the pain that I do not know how to express,” said Espérance.
Murders Attributed to an Imaginary Maniac
Esperance Mukashema explains how the killers she saw with her own eyes in the very act tried to fool people and attribute their wicked deeds to a mad ghost. “Shortly after the shooting had stopped, they whistled and gathered us on the ground. There was this Wilson and several other soldiers whose names I do not remember. He told us: “I would like to tell you that a misfortune just happened; there is a young man who has entered the refectory, he has murdered the people and has subsequently committed suicide! Come, I will go ahead of you and show you.” He had a flashlight in his hands because at that moment electricity was cut off, he brought us behind the chapel, and showed us something lying on the ground, covered by several clothes, and told us, ‘here is the person who murdered these people, and who subsequently committed suicide.’ It was hard to tell if it was a man. all we could see was a pile of clothes covering an object that could not be identified. He did not take off the clothes to show us the person himself, he did not even say who it was”, Espérance said.
“Shut up, or the Rest of Your Children Will Become Orphans”
In her story Mukashema goes on to say how she was forced to remain silent about the death of her son. She reports that “suffering in anonymity” was her only option to save her life, she had just lost her husband and the eldest son in a span of three months. “We spent the night there. In the morning a lot of people arrived, even General Ibingira [Colonel at that moment, NDRL]; the military went everywhere. I was angry to the point of beginning to call them and treat them like [Interahamwe’s RPF /NDRL soldiers]. It was at that moment that a person approached me and said, “You treat them as Interahamwe? Do you want your remaining children to become orphans? You have not yet understood how these people work, have you! I advise you to shut up and remain calm, if you continue to treat them as Interahamwe you will die and your remaining children will become orphans,” she said.
Burial Worthy of Animals
After the barbaric assassination of the clergy and those who accompanied them, the victims were entitled to an “animal-worthy” burial from their executioners. “They dug a common grave behind the novitiate, and all the dead were thrown in, buried like how animals are buried. My son’s body was there, I touched him, and even said goodbye. After that, life continued. We stayed there until the arrival of the French soldiers of Operation Turquoise who evacuated us, and brought us to another, more secure site”, continued the witness.
One of the Executioners Turned Diplomat
Mukashema points to General Innocent Kabandana as one of the brains behind these assassinations in Gakurazo. “Among the people who came to pick us up, there was Kabandana who is now Chargé d’affaires at the Rwandan embassy in the United States. The latter was also part of the group that brought the bishops on June 5, 1994. He was a lieutenant and was one of the people we called “the psis”. These were the people who organized meetings. Kabandana was involved in making all the decisions, he could not be ignorant of this murderous project, in which he was actively involved. Espérance also said that the killings of refugees who had settled in Gakurazo continued elsewhere in order to remove potential witnesses.
“When we left Gitarama, many were transferred to Kinazi. I was among the group that was transferred to Bugesera, nevertheless I followed closely the news of the people who had been transported to Kinazi. That’s how I learned that when he arrived in Kinazi, Balthazar, who also helped us so much, was murdered on the spot, with Vivens, the little brother of Bishop Kalibushi of Gisenyi”, she continued. Espérance Mukashema says that she wrote a letter to a US minister asking for the arrest of Kabandana, who in his eyes is one of his son’s killers. “I do not understand how an assassin can go to represent Rwanda in the United States, as if among millions of Rwandans there are no respectful people who can do this job!” She denounced, “a diplomat must be an irreproachable person. The one I denounce today is Kabandana, the diplomat who is currently on American soil.”
“A Credible Eyewitness … I would Never Have Been Safe in Rwanda”
As a credible eyewitness of the massacres committed in Gakurazo by the RPF and knowing that this organization does not like to leave witnesses alive, Mukashema says that she was forced to flee Rwanda in 2000, because the threat hovered over her; because of what she had seen and heard. “I left Rwanda in the year 2000. People told me that General Ibingira had killed my people, and that he was involved in several other massacres. Since I am a credible witness against the ignominies of this General, I would never have been safe in Rwanda”. It’s true that I felt danger everywhere, I cannot tell everything here, but all I can say is that I was seriously in danger”, she continued to say,” the RPF government erases anyone who knows more about their atrocities.”
The witness claims that the massacres at Gakurazo were in no way a reprisal for some Tutsi who were avenging their murdered families, because among the slaughtered people there were many Tutsi, such as Bishop Joseph Ruzindana, bishop of Byumba; Father Denis Mutabazi of the Diocese of Nyundo; Brother Jean Baptiste Nsinga, Superior General of the Joséphist Brothers, Fr. François Xavier Muligo the priest of the Kabgayi Cathedral, etc.
“The Order to Slaughter the Clergymen Came Directly From General Paul Kagame”
According to Mukashema, the religious leaders were not killed by the people of Rwanda, but by the soldiers coming from Uganda on the direct orders of Paul Kagame, the current strongman of Rwanda. “I saw everything, even after the assassination I conducted my little investigation, and questioned a lot of people,” she affirmed, continuing, “There are many details that I cannot communicate here. It is the business of justice, when the time to do justice arrives, I will put at the disposal of the investigators all that I know. But to quell the curiosity, I can tell you that the massacres were perpetrated by some people from Uganda who were personally seeking to eliminate the three bishops. However, to erase any evidence, they murdered everyone in the room. I was told personally that Ibingira contacted Kagame by radio to warn him that there was a child in the room; Kagame ordered him to “kill everyone”.
The witness assures that killing the child was not a coincidence, but a calculation on the part of the executioners because “they wanted to fool people and make them believe that an enraged person entered the room, and killed everyone even a child, because the message was deceive people and show that “only a maniac can murder a child”, she said.” I cannot reveal to you for now the person who told me that the order to kill everyone came from Paul Kagame, but when the time of justice arrives, that person will be known, and she is ready to testify. They were talking to each other (Paul Kagame and Ibingira NDRL) by walkie talkie, so the witness heard the words “there is a child”, “kill everyone”. All I’m saying are the things I eye witnessed, this is not coming from a third party,” she insisted.
Mock Trial
As a reminder, in 2008 at the Military Court of Kigali, “a mock trial” took place, to try those responsible for the assassinations of clergymen in Gakurazo. However, the Kigali regime hastened to organize a trial, because the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was beginning to take an interest in this case, following the pressure from the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW). At the dock, Brigadier General Wilson Gumisiriza, Major Wilson Ukwishaka, and Captains John Butera and Dieudonné Rukeba, who were their subordinates in the 157th RPF battalion, were all accused of murdering the clergy at the time. General Wilson Gumisiriza and Major Wilson Ukwishaka were both acquitted. Yet Captain Kayijuka Ngabo, a military prosecutor, had requested life imprisonment for them. Captains John Butera and Dieudonne Rukeba each received eight years of secure jails.
the ICTR prosecutor, Hassan Bubacar Jallow, had warned the day after the arrest of these officers, that Rwandan justice could be unsuccessful if the trial did not meet international standards in this area. Cameroonian William Egbe, charged by Jallow with following up on this procedure, refused to give his assessment of the course of the trial. According to a source at the military prosecutor’s office in Kigali, contacted by the Hirondelle Agency in October 2008, there was at each hearing a representative of the Prosecutor’s Office of the ICTR and all the information were brought to the attention of the team Jallow.
The massacres of Gakurazo are, however, neither the first nor the last massacres of the clergy perpetrated by the RPF. The RPF is also accused of perpetrating several other massacres against clergy in Rwanda and Congo. In Rwanda, there are for example the following clergy assassinations:
· In April 1994, 9 priests were murdered at the Minor Seminary of Rwesero
· In April 1994, 9 Spanish missionaries were massacred in Kibungo
· On October 17, 1994, Quebec priest Guy Simard, parish priest of Ruyenzi (Butare)was murdered
· February 02, 1997 during a religious homily by Father Guy Pinard, parish priest of Kampanga (Ruhengeri) was shot dead
· On August 1, 1995 Father Pie Ntahobari, pastor of Kamonyi (Gitarama) was brutally murdered
· May 11, 1997, two priests from the parish of Cyahinda (Butare) were killed
· In August 1997 Father Ignace Mubashankwaya of Mushaka Parish (Cyangugu) was killed
· On January 31, 1998 in Kigali, Croatian father Vijeko Curic was killed
· On April 28, 1998, the parish priest Boniface Kagabo from Ruhengeri Parish was murdered
· On the night of January 7 to 8, 1998, six sisters of the Resurrection of Christ in Busasamana were massacred
to these assassinations is added the disappearance in 1996 of Bishop Phocas Nikwigize of Ruhengeri, returning from the refugee camps in Easter DRC (former Zaire); the imprisonment of Mgr. Augustin Misago and the death of Mgr. André Sibomana, who died after Kagame’s regime refused him traveling documents to go for treatment abroad. In Congo, there was also the assassination of Bishop Christophe Munzihirwa on October 26, 1996, as well as the assassination of several dozen priests and nuns.
