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

Hilson, Mr. Cox, Dr. Desforges and General Dallaire, but also from the witnesses whotestified with regard to events in the commune of Taba. Witness JJ testified that she wasdriven away from her home, which was destroyed after a man came to the hill near whereshe lived and said that the bourgmestre had sent him so that no Tutsi would remain on thehill that night. At the meeting which was held on the morning of 19 April 1994, at whichthe Accused spoke, Witness OO testified that it was said by another speaker that all theTutsi should be killed so that some day a child could be born who would have to ask whata Tutsi had looked like. She also quoted this speaker as saying "I will have peace whenthere will be no longer a Tutsi in Rwanda.". Witness V testified that Tutsi were throwninto the Nyabarongo river, which flows towards the Nile, and told to "meet their parentsin Abyssinia", signifying that the Tutsi came from Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and that they"should go back to where they came from" (hearing of 24 January 1997, p.7)169. In light of this evidence, the Chamber finds beyond a reasonable doubt that the actsof violence which took place in Rwanda during this time were committed with the intentto destroy the Tutsi population, and that the acts of violence which took place in Tabaduring this time were a part of this effort.170. Paragraph 7 of the indictment alleges that the victims in each paragraph charginggenocide were members of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. The Chambernotes that the Tutsi population does not have its own language or a distinct culture fromthe rest of the Rwandan population. However, the Chamber finds that there are a numberof objective indicators of the group as a group with a distinct identity. Every Rwandancitizen was required before 1994 to carry an identity card which included an entry forethnic group (ubwoko in Kinyarawanda and ethnie in French), the ethnic group beingHutu, Tutsi or Twa. The Rwandan Constitution and laws in force in 1994 also identifiedRwandans by reference to their ethnic group. Article 16 of the Constitution of theRwandan Republic, of 10 June 1991, reads, "All citizens are equal before the law,without any discrimination, notably, on grounds of race, colour, origin, ethnicity, clan,sex, opinion, religion or social position". Article 57 of the Civil Code of 1988 providedthat a person would be identified by "sex, ethnic group, name, residence and domicile."Article 118 of the Civil Code provided that birth certificates would include "the year,month, date and place of birth, the sex, the ethnic group, the first and last name of theinfant." The Arusha Accords of 4 August 1993 in fact provided for the suppression of themention of ethnicity on official documents (see Article 16 of the Protocol on diversequestions and final dispositions).171. Moreover, customary rules existed in Rwanda governing the determination of ethnicgroup, which followed patrilineal lines of heredity. The identification of persons asbelonging to the group of Hutu or Tutsi (or Twa) had thus become embedded in Rwandanculture. The Rwandan witnesses who testified before the Chamber identified themselvesby ethnic group, and generally knew the ethnic group to which their friends andneighbours belonged. Moreover, the Tutsi were conceived of as an ethnic group by thosewho targeted them for killing.172. As the expert witness, Alison Desforges, summarised: