The former senior official, 78, was acquitted as a perpetrator of genocide but found guilty as an accomplice to genocide and crimes against humanity for four massacres, after almost eleven hours of deliberation .
On July 12, after two months of hearings and 11 hours of deliberation, the Paris Assize Court dismissed the responsibility of Laurent Bucyibaruta as the perpetrator of the massacres of Tutsis perpetrated in his province of Gikongoro, between April and July 1994. For these killings where nearly 100,000 people lost their lives, the accused, considered “accomplice in genocide» et «accomplice in crimes against humanitywas sentenced to 20 years in prison. With a wave of his hand, the 78-year-old former prefect, clinging to his cane, greeted his sobbing family before leaving the dock, escorted by the gendarmes.
“Half measure”
The stakes of this trial were high. In the context of the genocide of the Tutsis, it was “the first time that a national court, outside Rwanda, judges such an important personality by his rank in the hierarchy“, recalled the prosecution in its indictment on Friday. The challenge of the judge and the six jurors, to determine the exact responsibility of this prefect. Had he been a spectator, executor or engine of the massacres within his prefecture?
Read alsoRwandan genocide: at the assizes of Paris, the horror of Murambi resurfaces
For the civil parties, the answer was clear. The prefect indeed ordered the attacks, invited the tens of thousands of Tutsis to take refuge in the church of Kibeho to burn it then, or in the technical school of Murambi to let the Hutu attackers land there, armed with machetes. and firearms. For these two massacres, the judge considered the elements insufficient to make the prefect the “auteurCrimes. «It’s not going to the end of what we would have liked, it’s clear“says Alain Gauthier, co-president of the Collective of Civil Parties for Rwanda (CPCR), describing this verdict as “half measure».
«On April 13, the prefect organizes a meeting where he summons the mayors and all the bodies of his prefecture. Coincidentally, Kibeho was attacked the next day. And there would be no cause and effect relationship?“, protested his wife Dafroza, co-president of the CPCR, whose family succumbed in the church of Kibeho. A vision that the public prosecutor seemed to share during his indictment on Friday. “This man did not kill anyone, but he has on him the blood of all the victims“, declared Cécile Viguier, one of the two general counsel, on behalf of the public ministry. The prosecution then demanded life imprisonment. He finally sentenced the septuagenarian to 20 years in prison.
Challenge
Twenty-eight years after the events, plunging back into an extremely complex genocidal context has been a challenge. Two months of hearings, scientific expertise, 115 testimonies of unprecedented violence were necessary for the new Crimes Against Humanity Unit in Paris to recompose the puzzle of the events. In this avalanche of testimonies, intertwining vivid memories, the jury had to decide. How to recompose a period when those who refused to take part in the massacres were themselves massacred? “Despite the thorough investigation, the file remainsvery nebulous“, himself confides one of the lawyers for the civil parties.
For their part, the defense lawyers defended a “Hutu moderate“, balanced on a “ridge line“. Hunched back, weak voice, the former prefect, who remained seated in the dock, defended himself until the end of the trial. “I wascompletely outdated“, he himself justified, repeating the very morning of the verdict not to have”never been on the killer side». «Mr. Bucyibaruta cannot claim to be 100% innocent, but he is not a fundamentally bad man. He just has to take responsibility“, tempered himself Me Harelimana, civil party lawyer.
A version that survivors’ associations reject. “There is no little person in a genocide», argues Étienne Nsanzimana, president of the Ibuka association («Remember“). Gikongoro was also only 50 km from the Burundian border. Why did Laurent Bucyibaruta not accept the dismissal and flee, as other prefects did during this period? “We always have the choice.If you don’t want to compromise yourself, you take the car and leaveDafroza said.
Read alsoGenocide: French historian Duclert submits his report to Paul Kagame
The civil parties particularly deplored the lack of empathy on the part of the accused, who did not hesitate to point out, according to them, “liesin some testimonials. “Not surprisingly, considers Étienne Nsanzimana, since denial constitutes a crime against humanity. These people always talk about war, events, but the word genocide does not come to their mouths». The president of IBUKA is sorry for the 20 years lost since the first complaint against the former prefect was filed in 2002.It altered the memories, blurred the facts that didn’t have the force they deserved, he believes. “The important thing is that the trial took placedeclared for his part Me Foreman, lawyer for the CPCR. The accused is forced to account, and a page in this story will be able to turn».