Gen. Rwarakabije acquitted

GASABO - A Gacaca court in Kacyiru sector yesterday acquitted Maj Gen. Paul Rwarakabije of all cases levelled against him. Presided over by Françoise Gahamanyi, the court ruled in favour of Rwarakabije due to lack of factual evidence from all the witnesses, about ten in all. Relatives and friends hugged the former top commander of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). Rwarakabije has been accused of having planned the killing of some people who were hiding in his house and others who sought refuge at the Gendarmerie headquarters in Kacyiru during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. He fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) after the defeat by the Rwanda Patriotic Front Army in July 1994. Because he was a Lt. Col. in the gendarmerie before and during the Genocide, the court placed him in the 1st category of suspects. Currently a commissioner in the National Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission, Rwarakabije was repatriated and reintegrated into the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) in 2004. Rwarakabije, had appeared before the traditional court four times during the course of his trial to answer for his alleged role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Some other former military officers like Colonel Alloys Nsekarije appeared before and were acquitted by Gacaca courts. Ends