Bucyibaruta trial: the defense completely denies his implication in genocide, shifts blames to French army

Laurent Bucyibaruta who’s tried by the assize court of Paris kept denying his implication in genocide against Tutsi until the very last minute; and his defense denies it completely but shifts the blame to the French and Belgian armies which had commandoes and power to save Tutsis but choose to save their white people instead.

Me Biju-Duval told the court in his pleas that their client was not that much powerful during genocide , that he couldn’t do anything to save Tutsis because he was the ‘prefet’ only by name, the power belonged to the armed forces and he was not the one controlling them in that times.

Bucyibaruta affirms that the decision to direct people to Murambi was taken in order to ensure the protection of refugees. “The barriers were erected on the initiative of the Ministry of Defense (MINADEF), their purpose was to report infiltrations, since 1990, there was an atrocious war with Ugandan soldiers of Rwandan origin,” he said.

“I could not dismantle the barriers erected by MINADEF, I could not oppose this decision, I would have been considered an accomplice of the RPF,” he added.

About the water cut in Murambi, Bucyibaruta says: “I was told that the pipe had been repaired, I was not informed, decisions were made in Kigali and the information also came from the capital.”

Bucyibaruta precise that all that happened was not his will; “The only force we could count on was the gendarmerie, but a part had made a pact with the killers, I was overwhelmed.” “What would you have done in my place? I did what I could. I had no way to do more,” he added.

Bucyibaruta told the court that all massacres in Gikongoro were done by uncontrolled ‘gendarmes’ under the authority of Sebuhura, who was responding to no one at that time, which made Bucyibaruta unable to do whatever to save any Tutsi.

The defense affirms that Bucyibaruta was incapacitated by the presence of gunmen in his prefecture, that his word was no longer holding any authority to command or to save.

The defense doesn’t deny the existence of genocide

They don’t deny the existence of the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, they even recognize that it was well prepared by the government, but in everything they don’t sees what may link their client to that genocide.

Bucyibaruta is being prosecuted before the assize court of Paris for the crimes of genocide, complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity committed in the prefecture of Gikongoro of which he was the ‘prefet’, precisely at Kibeho Catholic Church, ETO Murambi, the catholic churches of Cyanika and Kaduha, the Gikongoro prison as well as the school of letters of kibeho (Marie merci).