Augustin Ndindiliyimana

Augustin Ndindiliyimana (born 1943) is a former Rwandan general.

Background

Ndindiliyimana was born in Nyaruhengeri commune, Butare prefecture, Rwanda. He joined the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) and, as of 1994, held the rank of Major General. On 2 September 1992 he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Gendarmerie nationale. He was also president of Zone IV (Africa) of the International Olympic Committee.

Role during the genocide

Ndindiliyimana was falsely accused and acquitted by the ICTR of conspiring with other high-level FAR officers to plan the logistics of the Rwandan Genocide. He was also falsely accused and acquitted of the charge that in early April 1994, he informed interahamwe leaders of a plan by UNAMIR force commander Roméo Dallaire to search for a cache of weapons, a cache which never existed.

Following the death of President Habyarimana, Ndindiliyimana was one of the senior FAR officers to serve on the Crisis Committee, along with Théoneste Bagosora and Tharcisse Renzaho. which committee lasted only two days. The judges of the ICTR found that his role on the Committee was a positive one and that he always tried to achieve a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

Ndindiliyimana is mentioned frequently in Roméo Dallaire's chronicle of his time as UNAMIR force commander. Dallaire writes that he "had always found his [Ndindiliyimana's] loyalties an enigma" and initially assumed he represented a moderate voice in the crisis committee which was correct. Dallaire admitted at the trial that the reason he called Ndindiliyimana an enigma was because he expected Ndindilyimana to mount a coup against the government but the coup never took place as Dallaire had expected. General Dallaire testified on his behalf at his trial and stated that Ndindiliyimana was essentially stripped of his command as of April 7th, 1994 and that he worked with Dallaire throughout the war to try to stop killings and to protect civilians.

In his autobiography, Paul Rusesabagina says that Ndindiliyimana was more of a moderate who did not seem to entirely approve of the genocide. He also notes that Ndindiliyimana was responsible for dismantling a potentially disastrous roadblock in front of the Hôtel des Mille Collines. In fact, the evidence in the Military II trial was that Ndindiliyimana's gendarmes initially protected Tutsis at the Hotel Milles Collines assisted later, at Ndindiliyimana's request, by UNAMIR units. Rusesabagina's claim that he protected Tutsis at the hotel are without foundation. Dr. Alison Desforges testified at his trial in November 2006 that Ndindiliyimana was opposed to genocide, and acted to stop killings and was himself threatened because he had Tutsi officers and men in his close protection escort. The transcripts of these testimonies are available from his counsel, Christopher Black of Toronto, Canada and the ICTR.

Arrest and trial

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) issued an indictment against Ndindiliyimana and three other former FAR officers, charging them with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, and related crimes.

On January 29, 2000 he was arrested in Belgium and handed over to the custody of the ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania. He was defended by Canadian lawyer Christopher Black. . In 2011, the ICTR acquitted him of numerous charges but convicted him of failing to punish subordinates who allegedly committed crimes at two locations, Kansi Parish and St. Andre College both of which convictions were appealed. He was acquitted of all other charges of committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes though the judges of the Appeal Chamber later found that it was very doubtful that gendarmes were ever involved at Kansi Parish. The ICTR trial judgment recognised Ndindiliyimana's “consistent support for the Arusha Accords and a peaceful resolution of the conflict between the Rwandan government forces and the [Rwandan Patriotic Front] RPF his opposition to the massacres in Rwanda. and the fact that he had saved the lives of many Tutsis. The Tribunal also held that his arrest and indictment appeared to be politically motivated. He was sentenced to time served since his arrest eleven years prior to the judgment. The ICTR ordered his release but Ndindiliyimana was unable to return to his home in Belgium and was forced to stay in a UN safe house in Arusha, Tanzania.[1]

The Appeals Chamber of the ICTR reversed the convictions and acquitted him on all counts on February 11, 2014. In late September, 2014 the Belgian government permitted his return to Belgium to rejoin his family after almost 15 years in unjustified detention. However, 10 other men who have been acquitted remain stuck in forced exile as the UN has taken no action to force the countries in which they had status or where their families have status to accept them back so they can rejoin their families.

References

Notes
  1. ↑ "ICTR: 11 years, 3 months and 19 days". Radio Netherlands Worldwide. Archived from the original on 2012-03-23.

External links

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