The Cour d’ assises de Paris, will today, November 14, 2023 begin proceedings in a case involving the seventh Rwandan to be tried in France for his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, writes Aurore Teta Ufitiwabo for New Times.
Dr. Sosthene Munyemana, 68, will be tried for allegedly being at the forefront of massacres in Tumba – a locality in current Huye town, southern Rwanda – a role that earned him the nickname “butcher of Tumba”. Munyemana is a Hutu and at the time of the genocide was a practising gynecologist at the university hospital.
His trial follows that of several other alleged genocide perpetrators who were found hiding in France or other countries around the world, several of whom have been sentenced in France.
The Rwandan genocide occurred between April 7 and July 15,1994 when for about 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu militias.
The French Court of Appeal in June 2023, recommended an investigation into French military inaction at the Bisesero massacres during the genocide.
