A former Rwandan lieutenant-colonel, Cyprien Kayumba, is at risk of trial at the Paris Assizes for complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity, accused of being linked to the supply of weapons used in the massacres of Tutsi between April and July 1994, which he denies.
Cyprien Kayumba “deployed significant resources (…) to scrupulously fulfill the mission entrusted to him by the Minister of Defense and to ensure the delivery of weapons that would be used to commit the genocide,” claims the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) in its final indictment, dated August 9 and of which AFP became aware on Wednesday.
The special investigating judge from the crimes against humanity unit of the Paris judicial court in charge of the case must now decide whether or not to send him for trial.
“Our client is relieved by the imminent closure of this investigation. He intends today to fully demonstrate that he is completely unrelated to the facts with which he is accused,” his lawyers, Jean-Yves Dupeux and Pierre-Eugène Burghardt, told AFP.
The genocide in Rwanda, instigated by the Hutu government between April and July 1994, left at least 800,000 dead according to the UN, mainly among the Tutsi minority but also among moderate Hutus.
– 450.000 dollars suspects –
Cyprien Kayumba, of Hutu origin and born in 1955, had spent his entire career in the army and was, at the time of the genocide, director of financial services within the Ministry of Defense.
On the evening of the attack on the plane of Hutu President Juvénal Habyarimana, considered to be the trigger for the genocide, on April 6, 1994, he participated in the crisis meeting of the general staff, where Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, considered to be the “mastermind of the genocide”, was present.
About fifteen days later, he was sent abroad, notably to France, to try to enforce arms contracts that had already been signed but suspended. Without success.
However, according to the Pnat, he allegedly paid $450,000 to an obscure British company, Mil-Tec Corporation Ltd.
The Pnat recalls that it is “undisputed” that this company made at least six deliveries of arms to Rwanda during the genocide, including two after the United Nations embargo on arms sales imposed on May 17, 1994. Ammunition, grenades, mortars, rifles, rockets, from Albania or Israel, having transited through Goma or Kinshasa.
Cyprien Kayumba, who has lived in France since 1998, was indicted in 2018 and placed under judicial supervision.
During the investigation, he claimed that he was carrying out the orders of the Minister of Defense, Augustin Bizimana, who died in 2000, that he was not responsible for the distribution of weapons and that he was unaware that they could end up in the hands of the Interahamwe militiamen who were perpetrating genocide.
– Not a “fanatic” –
Not described in the final indictment as either an “extremist” or a “fanatic driven by hatred of the Tutsi”, he “always denied having adhered to the genocidal ideology”, and said he had saved Tutsi.
During the investigation, opened in 2002 following a complaint with civil action by several associations, the judge and investigators from the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes (OCLCH) attempted to trace the Mil-Tec company.
Thanks in particular to documents discovered in a bus abandoned by militiamen in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), the British press revealed in 1996 that Mil-Tec had supplied the Rwandan government with firearms worth more than £3.3 million.
The judge heard from former members of the company. One of them, who said he was “the manager”, assured that he had been in contact with Mr Kayumba at the time.
“I was introduced to a company in Israel, we bought the ammunition and it was sent to Rwanda,” he explained to investigators in 2021, from Kenya where he is believed to be living.
He also denied having delivered weapons during the genocide, although payments did take place during this period.
Neither the Isle of Man nor the Guernsey authorities, which have jurisdiction over the island of Sark where a shell company was registered, have responded to requests for assistance from the French courts.
jpa/clw/mat/ybl
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