Prosecutor in genocide case takes court on tour of Rwanda village

Local judge would be willing to take over case

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A convoy in the south of Rwanda turns off the good asphalt road that leads toward Burundi and onto an unpaved and bumpy road. A red cloud of dust billows around the cars.
      Heading the convoy through hills and farms is a flatbed lorry with lights flashing, full of Rwandan police. The convoy brings members of Porvoo District Court to locations where Francois Bazaramba, who is currently on trial in Finland for murder and genocide, is claimed to have been in 1994.
      Bazaramba himself has stayed behind in Finland while the court has travelled to Rwanda to hear witness testimony and to visit places where killings took place.
     
The court needs to see the places that the witnesses are talking about. Accompanying the court are prosecutors and defence lawyers, as well as a group of Finnish police and journalists.
      The guide in Francois Bazaramba’s home village Birambo is State Prosecutor Raija Toiviainen.
      With the daytime sun blazing, the group climb to the first site that they are visiting - the ruins of a kiosk that had been owned by the defendant.
     
Police officer Juha Lode sets up a large video camera next to the ruined buildings. Standing with papers in her hand, Toiviainen looks like a TV jounralist.
      She introduces all of the places that the court is to visit. There are about a dozen of them. Lode records what Toiviainen's commentary and all of the locations on video.
     “Thomas”, shouts a man standing on the edge of a dusty village road as police officer Thomas Elfgren walks past. The men shake hands.
     Elfgren has visited the village a number of times because he led the preliminary investigation in the case. He says that he knows all of the villagers by now.
     
The group approach Bazaramba’s former home. The house is surrounded by a wall with shards of broken glass along the top.
      “I would like to draw attention to the fact that the house is in a central location, and that it is an impressive house by local standards”, Toiviainen says to the group, and to the camera. She says that a woman by the name of Bellansilla was killed in front of the house.
      Next to it is another house, where Toiviainen says a man by the name of Anderea was killed.
     
Next door to Bazaramba’s house lives a 29-year-old Tutsi woman by the name of Mamasani. She knows that the group of outsiders in the village are linked with Francois Bazaramba’s trial.
      “I heard on the radio that the trial had begun”, Mamasani said to Helsingin Sanomat.
      Mamasani is one of the judges of a local Gacaca court. He was Bazaramba’s neighbour already during the time of the genocide.
     “I have heard that Bazaramba gave orders to kill Tutsis, but did not kill anyone himself”, Mamasani says. She feels that the final truth in the matter could be reached only if Bazaramba and the witnesses in the case would come before the local people.
     “When he is not there, people can say anything they like.”
      Mamasani feels that a Gacaca court would be the right place to deal with the Bazaramba case.
     
As the outsiders walk around the village, they are followed by a gradually growing crowd of children. The police follow and move the children further away. Nevertheless, at the end of the round in the village, the entire group remains surrounded.
     After a break, the group moves on to the Cyahinda church, where several thousand Tutsis who had fled there were killed in the spring of 1994. Francois Bazaramba is alleged to have been there.
     The judge was shown a room under ground level where there were bones, skulls, and clothing of the dead. On the floor there are machetes, clubs and mattocks that were used in the killings.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish genocide trial in Rwanda interrupted twice by technical difficulties (16.9.2009)
  Finnish police set up courtroom in Rwanda for genocide trial (14.9.2009)
  Genocide trial opens: defence motion to disqualify judge denied (1.9.2009)
  Porvoo court to travel to Rwanda to hear testimony (8.6.2009)
  Police suspect Rwandan-born Porvoo resident took part in 1994 genocide (5.2.2009)
  Finland holds Rwandan man suspected of involvement in genocide (10.4.2007)

Helsingin Sanomat