Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a Rwandan Catholic priest who was dismissed by Pope Francis, has been accused of crimes committed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi for nearly three decades. Munyeshyaka, who has lived in France all this time, participated in the Tutsi killings in Kigali when he was vicar of Sainte Famille Parish.

This week it emerged that Munyeshyaka, the clergyman seen in a picture with a pistol tucked into his belt, was dismissed by Pope Francis, apparently for admitting he sired a child.

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What Munyeshyaka did in 1994 is contained in a 2021 document compiled by the former National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), which details how the Genocide against the Tutsi was planned and executed.

Among the killers who frequently came to the Hôtel des Mille Collines was Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, heavily involved in massacres of Tutsi at Sainte Famille Church located not far from the hotel.

Munyeshyaka participated in the massacre of Tutsi at the Sainte Famille Church and its surroundings.

Quoting survivors, the CNLG document notes that on various dates between April 8 and the first week of July 1994, at the Sainte Famille Parish, at Saint Paul Church, and at Centre d’Etudes des Langues Africaines (CELA) in Kigali, Munyeshyaka participated in meetings held to organise the massacres and kidnappings of Tutsi civilians with Colonel Tharcisse Renzaho, Odette Nyirabagenzi, Angeline Mukandutiye, Lieutenant Colonel Laurent Munyakazi, other soldiers and Interahamwe.

"Subsequently, Tutsi civilians who had taken refuge in the Sainte Famille Parish, the Saint Paul Pastoral Center, and CELA in Kigali were massacred,” the document reads.

According to survivors of the Sainte Famille massacres, on April 13, 1994, within the grounds of the Sainte Famille Parish, Munyeshyaka shot dead a young Tutsi. He also killed two young Tutsi, aged 18 and 20. The same day he shot a 22-year-old Tutsi girl.

On June 17, 1994, at the Sainte Famille Parish in Kigali, Munyeshyaka incited Interahamwe to kill a Tutsi girl named Hyacinthe Rwangwa, alias Baby.

"I saw Father Munyeshyaka two times in military attire and with a gun,” Romuald Mukwiye, who survived at Saint Paul church, told The New Times.

Mukwiye said he saw Munyeshyaka on May 25, 1994, standing by a military tank in Kigali and wearing military uniform. The other time, Mukwiye noted, was when Munyeshyaka came to Saint Paul to see two clergy men, one in casual attire and the other was Bishop Celestin Hakizimana.

Rape and sexual violence repeated on Tutsi girls

Victims of rape were able to testify that on April 21, 1994, Munyeshyaka, at the Sainte Famille Parish, encouraged Interahamwe to rape a young Tutsi civilian refugee. At the end of June 1994, Munyeshyaka raped a young girl at the Sainte-Famille Parish who herself testified to this rape.

Throughout the Genocide, Munyeshyaka raped girls he said he was protecting in his room.

Kidnappings followed by assassinations

On April 24, 1994, at the Saint Paul Pastoral Center in Kigali, Munyeshyaka helped Interahamwe, including Léonard Bagabo, to kidnap seven young Tutsi, including Emmanuel Rukundo, a journalist, Aristarque Batsinduka, a building and public works engineer, and Mazimpaka, a student, knowing that these people would be killed. These people were taken to the Rugenge Sector office to be killed.

On June 14, 1994, Munyeshyaka, helped soldiers search and identify Tutsi who had found refuge at the Saint Paul Pastoral Center in Kigali while knowing that they were on the list of people to be killed.

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On this occasion, 60 Tutsi civilians, including Antoine Marie, Zacharie Gasarabwe alias Gasindi, Charles Rutsitsi, Emmanuel Nyarwaya, Diogène Rubaduka, Twaha Sebajura and André Kameya, who had been identified by Munyeshyaka, were kidnapped by the attackers and killed.

On June 14, 1994, at the Centre National de Pastorale Saint Paul, a large attack, composed of Interahamwe, Col Laurent Munyakazi, and Father Munyeshyaka, inspector Mukandutiye Angelina, came and took away between 72 and 80 Tutsi to the Rugenge Sector from where they were taken to be killed at the CND.

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On the morning of June 15, 1994, journalist André Kameya went to see Father Munyeshyaka to ask for his help in fleeing, as he was very much wanted. Munyeshyaka immediately took him to Odette Nyirabagenzi’s place who was the Councillor of Rugenge Sector where the Interahamwe met.

One of the Interahamwe present, by the name of Ntambara, is the one who indicated where Kameya’s body was buried about 200 metres from Nyirabagenzi’s place.

On June 20, 1994, for the third time, the UN mission UNAMIR evacuated some Tutsi to the areas occupied by the RPF Inkotanyi, but were unable to take them all and the killers, with the complicity of Munyeshyaka, continued to take them one by one until the Inkotanyi captured the City of Kigali and rescued the Tutsi who were left at Sainte Famille.

Justification of the Genocide and negation

On August 2, 1994, Father Munyeshyaka and 28 other Rwandan priests signed a document in Goma, which was sent to Pope John Paul II, in which they justified the Genocide committed against the Tutsi and placed the responsibility for the killings on the RPF, thus exonerating the real perpetrators of the Genocide.

The ambiguities of French justice regarding Munyeshyaka’s crimes

Multiple warning signs have shown for almost 20 years that France did not want to try Munyeshyaka for the crimes he committed in Rwanda.

Indeed, it was on July 25, 1995, that information was opened against Munyeshyaka by the investigating judge of Privas (France) for ‘Genocide, crimes against humanity, and participation in a group formed or an agreement established with the intent to prepare these crimes based on the principle of universal jurisdiction provided for in the 1984 New York Convention Against Torture.’

In June 2007, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) issued arrest warrants against Munyeshyaka, and his indictment had been under seal since 2005. At the insistence of France, in November 2007, the ICTR relinquished the benefit of French jurisdiction over the proceedings against Munyeshyaka.