BUGESERA – Gacaca judges in the Musange sector of the Bugesera district face accusations of failing to exercise impartiality during trials as the courts close business.

Jean Claude Rukundo and several other survivors of the Nyamata Church killings claimed that cases in Musange were poorly handled.

"It would be a great disservice to end Gacaca trials in Musange on March 31. We have just appealed to Murama court to intervene and revisit some cases,” he said. 

The survivors added that no one has been found responsible for the deaths of up to 275 people who lost their lives in the area.

Another survivor, Jean de Dieu Rutagarama, claimed that the courts did not consider hearing evidence from many key witnesses.  He cited himself as among the witnesses who were never called to testify in the courts. 

"Tutsi were stoned to death, while others were killed with machetes and arrows,” he said. "It is surprising that no one has confessed for the crimes and yet they never call us to testify against the killers.”

When contacted, the District Director of Good Governance, Emmanuel Ndayishimiye, acknowledged that there were flaws in the handling of some cases.

"It is unfortunate that things never went as expected in Musange. This is bad because Musange ranks third in areas that were affected by genocide, after Ntarama and Nyamata,” he said.

However The New Times has since learnt that after several complaints about the trials in Musange, an impartial court was invited to revisit a number of cases that were not well handled.

Ends