Rwamakuba

This case summary is part of a collection of summaries describing the cases before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). See the Online Resource Hub pages on the ICTR and International Criminal Law, and table of ICTR case summaries for additional information.

 

Rwamakuba (ICTR-98-44C)

Trial Judgment: 20 September 2006

André Rwamakuba, the former Rwandan Education Minister, was indicted for allegedly providing weapons to attackers in Ndatemwa trading center in Kigali prefecture, ordering crowds to attack Tutsis in Kigali, making public radio statements calling for the audience to hunt down Tutsis, and participating in massacres of Tutsis at Butare University Hospital. The prosecution charged Rwamakuba with direct responsibility for genocide, complicity in genocide, extermination as a crime against humanity, and murder as a crime against humanity.

In 2006, an ICTR Trial Chamber acquitted Rwamakuba on all counts after determining that the prosecution’s witnesses were not reliable or sufficiently consistent with respect to the events in question. The prosecution did not appeal the trial judgement.