Case No. ICTR-96-4-T - International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

witness was lying because he or she wished to take the accused's property. In thesecircumstances, Defence counsel's attempt in his closing arguments to tar all prosecutionwitnesses with the same broad brush of suspicion cannot be accepted by the Chamber.Thus the credibility of each witness must be assessed on its merits, taking into accountthe witness's demeanour and the consistency and credibility or otherwise of the answersgiven by him or her under oath.1.5. The Accused and his functions in Taba (paragraphs 3-4 of the Indictment)48. Paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Indictment appear under the heading, "the Accused".Taking these paragraphs in turn, paragraph 3 reads as follows:The Accused3. Jean Paul AKAYESU, born in 1953 in Murehe sector, Taba commune, served asbourgmestre of that commune from April 1993 until June 1994. Prior to his appointmentas bourgmestre, he was a teacher and school inspector in Taba.49. The Chamber confirms paragraph 3, which is common cause between the Prosecutionand the Defence. On the basis of the evidence presented at trial, the Chamber finds thefollowing facts have been established with regard to the Accused generally.50. The Accused, Akayesu was born in 1953 in Murehe sector, Taba commune inRwanda, where he also grew up. He was an active athlete in Taba and a member of thelocal football team. In 1978 he married a local woman from the same commune, whomhe had then known for ten years. They are still married and have five children together.51. Before being appointed bourgmestre in 1993, the Accused served as a teacher andwas later promoted to Primary School Inspector in Taba. In this capacity he was in chargeof inspecting the education in the commune and acted as head of the teachers. He wouldoccasionally fill in as a substitute teacher and was popular among pupils and students ofdifferent educational levels in the commune. Generally speaking, the Accused was a wellknown and popular figure in the local community.52. Akayesu became politically active within the commune in 1991 and on 1 July of thesame year, following the transition into multipartyism, he was one of the signatories tothe statute and a founding member of the new political party R called,MouvementDémocratique Républicain MDR Politically the goal of the MDR was not to be anextension of the traditional MDR Parmehutu, but rather an updated version thereof,diametrically opposed to the MRND. The MDR focused on pointing out the errors of theMRND such as delays in the provision of infrastructure, roads, schools, health facilities,lack of electricity, etc.. Eventually, Akayesu was elected local president of the MDR inTaba commune. A sizeable proportion of the population in Taba became members of theMDR, and as the party grew, a certain animosity between members of the MDR and theMRND began to appear, resulting in several acts of violence. The other parties within theCommune, the Parti Social Démocratique, PSD and the Parti Libéral, PL cooperated with