Suspects appear before Gacaca at NUR

HUYE - The long awaited trials of suspected perpetrators of Genocide at the National University of Rwanda (NUR) kicked off on Monday. In the trials, three former university staff were charged with different Genocide- related crimes. All the three have already been convicted of Genocide crimes committed outside the university. Appearing before the Butare town Gacaca Court, Denis Mutagoma, a former Human Resources Manager at the university denied any involvement in Genocide at the university. Mutagoma is already serving a 30 year jail sentence.He is accused of compiling lists of Genocide victims at the university, playing a key role in the killings at the campus and torturing Tutsi students. He is also accused of denying Tutsi students the necessary marks they attained on merit during his short stint as a part time lecturer in the department of social sciences.“You had unlimited access to all files of employees at the university. All employees were labelled either Tutsi or Hutu in these files so the allegation that you used these files to compile a list of Tutsi to be killed holds water,” said the court president. In defence, Mutagoma said that he left the university on April 7 1994 and did not return until May 15. He said that by the time he returned, killings at campus had already taken place. However, a witness who testified in court on Monday said that he saw Mutagoma on campus during the period he claims to have been off-campus. Also appearing during Monday’s hearing was another convict, Francois Ndutiye, who is already serving a 19- year jail term for Genocide crimes committed at NUR. Ndutiye faces fresh charges of being part of the mob that killed the Queen Mother Rosalie Gicanda, who was his close neighbour, and for performing inhuman acts on dead bodies during the Genocide. Court was left dumbfounded when Ndutiye claimed that he did not see any dead body during the Genocide. Forty-five people are expected to appear before court for Genocide crimes at the university- where 400 students and staff were killed. Ends