The steps leading to the catacombs under the church of Ntarama creak, in silence. A few meters down the narrow staircase leads into a cold and dusty tomb in which the remains of thousands of victims of the genocide are laid out in 1994. Coffins are stacked on the walls, but by most of the dead no longer left than the skull. How grotesque fruit from a market stall, they are lined up on shelves.
In April 1994, the persecution of Tutsi and moderate Hutu, the persecution of Ntarama holed up in the church because they felt safe there. But the pursuers did not know Mercy: they threw grenades first and then stormed the house of God. More than 10 000 people, as reported by the few surviving eyewitnesses, were killed with machetes and their bare hands. Throughout the country there were up to the end of the genocide of at least 800 000
In Ntarama so many were murdered, that even today, 14 years after the genocide, not all bones in the ground. In the aisle of the church are plastic bags of bones that have yet to be buried. "No one should ever be able to say, the genocide had been no" hopes André Kamana, who leads tourists through the memorial.
The man, the genocide of the ethnic minority population the Tutsi should have prepared meticulously for eleven years, sits in a cell in Arusha, Tanzania, where he faces up to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Today is his trial is over: After 408 days of negotiations, announced the first verdict against the Senate Théoneste Bagosora, known as Colonel's death. The ruling is the most significant since the inception of the Tribunal.
The indictment against the military was born in 1941, who led the genocide as a private secretary of Defense is, among other things, conspiracy, incitement and incitement to genocide and various crimes against humanity. "Bagosora participated in the planning, preparation and execution of a strategy (for the genocide) in part, "it says in the application." The crimes were personally by him, running with his help or his subordinates with his knowledge and consent. "murder and rape accused him of prosecution witnesses during the trial. . Bagosora was evident not only commands, but was in the bloody massacres like himself while he himself will have none. To date Bagosora rejects all twelve charges, "I do not believe in the theory that there was a genocide," did he know that stunned Tribunal.
Bagosora This was undoubtedly one of its organizers. After the violent death of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana - his plane was shot down on approach to Rwanda's capital Kigali - Bagosora immediately pulled the power for himself; hours later the first massacre. "Bagosora took control of Rwanda," said Canadian General Roméo Dallaire in the process. At his meeting with Bagosora went on that night, he remembers well: "Bagosora told me to take over the military will now the government, and I reminded him that Rwanda still had a female prime minister, who now stand at the head of the state."
Bagosora had excited, he would never accept that. A few hours later, Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and their protection force, ten Belgian UN peacekeepers, as already dead Bagosora take all decisions: he imposed a curfew and will draw together the committee to choose a transitional government agreeable to him. At a party he said according to witnesses in a great mood, "We must kill all Tutsis, at whatever price we get such a chance again.." Moderate officers who do not support the releases, he or she is cold. Above all, it sets the genocide to the factory.
lists have distributed Bagosora, reports a witness who testifies in the process of The Hague on video against Bagosora. "As of April 9, there was a list from him on the prominent Tutsi were to be killed first." Who was it said, most have been dead a day later. Bagosora is not an opportunist, he's conviction. Its first list of "public enemies", he's already three years before the genocide, when President Habyarimana gives him the task of finding an answer to the question: What must we do to defeat the enemy militarily, politically and propaganda? Habyarimana's Hutu-dominated party government felt the pressure of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a majority consisting of Tutsi rebel movement that was operating from Uganda.
Bagosoras report reads already like hate speech, which he can spread during the genocide on the radio. "The enemy, the . Are the Tutsi-government Hutu and foreigners married to Tutsi "With several public events Bagosora speaks even more bluntly:" We need a war that plunges the country into an apocalyptic chaos, so that we can eliminate all Tutsis, then have only . our peace "sign as Habyarimana 1993 a peace treaty with the RPF, Bagosora leaves in protest room number will have heard how he said goodbye with the phrase." I return to Rwanda to prepare the apocalypse "
with. support of a fascist circle of Hutu extremists, which is led by the wife of the President, creates Bagosora the military base for the genocide. His 1993 program written for "Civilian Self-Defence Forces", which he may not realize at first is a guide for those with machetes and crude weapons equipped murder squads, one year later set up within weeks throughout Rwanda.
Bagosora itself should have decided that guns are too expensive for the mass murders at his bidding hundreds of thousands of machetes were imported. Responsible for the preparation of the troops remained until last Bagosora. "The model of civil defense groups, were turned for which upgraded to eliminate all Tutsi civilians, made from a potential civil war a genocide, "says human rights group Human Rights Watch. the trial were shown films showing Bagosora, while he gives the militia commands.
But despite the overwhelming evidence is to Bagosora as a victim of political conspiracy." I solemnly declare that I never killed a man or ordered the killing of anybody did, "he said in his closing argument. have his defenders toiled to support this impression. 160 witnesses summoned them, almost twice as many as the prosecution. The overall impression changed the little . The Architect of the Rwandan "final solution" faces serious judges.
(Copyright Berliner Zeitung, 18.12.08)
