Hategekimana - JUDGEMENT & SENTENCE - Refworld

The Prosecutor v. Ildephonse Hategekimana, Case No. ICTR-00-55B-T
provided details of the circumstances of the attack; 620 and (ii) from an Ngoma Camp soldier, who
informed him that Hategekimana had ordered Ngoma Camp soldiers to kill “in Matyazo.” 621
366. Only the first source is specific concerning the location of the attack. The Chamber notes
that, according to Father Masinzo, the survivors, who fled to the Ngoma Parish after the attack on
the Matyazo Health Centre, included many children as well as “young people and adults.” 622 From
these survivors, Father Masinzo learned that soldiers had led members of the Interahamwe in killing
the refugees at the centre. 623 While the survivors did not name or identify the soldiers, Father
Masinzo expressed the opinion that “particularly soldiers from the Ngoma Military Camp”
committed the killings at the Matyazo Health Centre. 624 He became convinced that Hategekimana
was also involved in the massacre. 625
367. With respect to the first source of information, Father Masinzo based his opinion of
Hategekimana’s involvement in the massacre on the accounts of survivors, who fled to Ngoma
Parish between 22 and 27 April 1994, after having experienced a traumatic, life-threatening
experience at the Matyazo Health Centre. Specifically, Father Masinzo testified that “the survivors
from the Matyazo dispensary massacres told [him] that soldiers and Interahamwe – or, rather,
soldiers had led Interahamwe in carrying out those killings.” 626 The Chamber notes that Father
Masinzo did not provide a detailed testimony of the survivors’ descriptions of the attack at the
health centre or of the assailants. Nor did he single out any specific survivor’s account, leading him
to identify the soldiers from the Ngoma Camp with the attackers, which included Interahamwe. In
the Chamber’s view, Father Masinzo’s evidence lacks requisite precision as to the identity of the
soldiers or the camp where they were based. The evidence, derived from the accounts of unnamed
and deceased victims, is uncorroborated, and his personal opinion of Hategekimana’s involvement
is based solely on conjecture. 627
368. The Chamber notes that Ntezimana also heard that the refugees at the health centre were
killed by armed soldiers. However, he was unable to specify with certainty the camp from which
the soldiers originated, and his evidence does not provide specific or substantial corroboration of
Father Masinzo’s evidence. 628 As such, the first source, survivors’ accounts, of Father Masinzo’s
identification of Ngoma Camp soldiers as among the perpetrators of the Matyazo Health Centre
620 T. 18 March 2009 pp. 57, 58.
621 T. 18 March 2009 p. 59. Father Masinzo also received a telephone call on 20 April 1994 from a woman, who
informed him that soldiers were preventing people from leaving Matyazo, and that killings had commenced there.
However, as the call was placed two days prior to the killings at the Matyazo Health Centre, it may not directly relate to
the specific massacre at the Matyazo Health Centre.
622 T. 18 March 2009 p. 62. “There were 302 children. When I talk about children, I'm talking about children from one
year old to 12 years old. And then you had young people and adults, and they were 174 in number. ”
623 T. 18 March 2009 p. 58: “People who survived the massacres at the dispensary and at the primary school came
gradually on the 21st at night and even on the 22nd, and up to the 27th. So those people came to the parish and they told
us exactly what had happened in respect of the killings that had been perpetrated in Matyazo and Ngoma.”
624 T. 18 March 2009 p. 58.
625 T. 18 March 2009 p. 65: “I thought that the massacres had stopped. […] As I told you, there had been massacres
prior to that in Matyazo and in Ngoma. So I thought that the refugees who were at the parish would survive. I also
thought that I had to speak to a soldier whom I knew well, who was the Ngoma Camp commander,
Idelphonse Hategekimana, but I realised that I had made a mistake in thinking that way. ”
626 T. 18 March 2009 p. 58.
627 T. 18 March 2009 p. 58 “I can confirm that there were soldiers, particularly soldiers from the Ngoma military camp.
Those soldiers were guarding the refugees who were at the Matyazo dispensary. And the survivors from the Matyazo
dispensary massacres told us that soldiers and Interahamwe – or, rather, soldiers had led Interahamwe in carrying out
those killings.”
628 T. 23 March 2009 pp. 8, 9.
Judgement and Sentence 90 of 201 6 December 2010