Augustine Bizimana

Augustin Bizimana (* 1954 in the province of Byumba , today part of the Northern Province , Rwanda ; † around 2000 in Pointe-Noire , Republic of the Congo ) was a Rwandan politician and military and from July 1993 to July 1994 his country's defense minister . He is considered one of the main actors in the preparation and implementation of the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and was one of the most wanted persons by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and its successor organization, the International Residual Mechanism for Ad Hoc Criminal Courts (MICT). He has been charged with genocide , conspiracy to commit genocide, aiding and abetting genocide, incitement to it, crimes against humanity including murder , rape and other serious crimes. In 2020 it was finally determined that Bizimana, who had never been caught, had died a few years after the crimes in the Republic of the Congo.

Role in the Rwandan genocide

In July 1993, Bizimana became Rwanda's Minister of Defense . As such, he was in control of both the Rwandan armed forces, of which he was in command, and of the distribution of weapons to the civilian population. He was also responsible for the gendarmerie, organized on the French model, with around 6,000 members.

In late 1993 and early 1994, Bizimana admitted that the government was deploying militias, but said the young men recruited were intended for use as rangers in the country's national parks, not for military use.

When the airplane of the Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down on April 6, 1994 , Bizimana was in Cameroon at a meeting of the Olympic Committee. The downing of the plane is believed to have triggered the genocide. In Bizimana's absence, military command was taken over by the country's highest-ranking soldier, Colonel Théoneste Bagosora .

Bizimana was responsible for the government's communications with the United Nations (UN) and was thus the main source of information for many international observers who tried in 1994 to gain a picture of what was going on in Rwanda. His statements were often in drastic contradiction to the reports that foreign correspondents of the international mass media and UN officials sent from the country. In the months before the start of the genocide, he had complained to members of the Hutu majority about atrocities committed by the Tutsi- dominated rebel movement, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), to members of the Hutu majority at the UN. He also reported to UN officials and international media representatives on May 16, 1994 that the massacre in Rwanda had ended, although there were clear indications that this was not the case.

Bizimana belonged to the inner circle around the first wife Agathe Habyarimana , whose members are considered to be the main figures behind the genocide. He was accused of being personally involved in the murder of several high-ranking politicians, including Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana , and of ten Belgian UN soldiers, and of having drawn up lists of Tutsis and opposition Hutus for their targeted arrest and murder since 1990. As Minister of Defense, Bizimana made sure that no military units opposed the genocide.

Like other members of the circle around Agathe Habyarimana, Bizimana probably worked with French agencies immediately before and during the genocide. Military sources revealed that a French captain, Paul Barril, was hired by Bizimana to train a force of 120 men in the north-west of the country. The training was codenamed Operation Insecticide . In June 1994, Bizimana over had 1.2 million US dollars from an account in Nairobi on one in Paris , ostensibly to pay Barrils.

After the end of the genocide, Bizimana fled abroad. During his escape from the RPF, he enjoyed extensive protection from the regime of the Kenyan ruler Daniel Arap Moi . The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda brought charges against Bizimana in 1998 and issued an arrest warrant against him, albeit without his subsequent arrest. On May 22, 2020, shortly after the wanted Félicien Kabuga was arrested in France, the UN tribunal announced that Bizimana had died, presumably in August 2000. A body from a grave in Pointe-Noire , Republic of the Congo was identified by DNA analysis as the Bizimanas. The analyzes had already started at the end of 2019 and had taken several months, including reviews.

With the clarification of the whereabouts of Bizimana and the arrest of Félicien Kabuga a few days earlier, the prosecution of the MICT had succeeded in locating two of the three main wanted 26 years after the genocide. The third and still volatile main wanted is the former commander of the Presidential Guard , Protais Mpiranya . In addition, as of May 22, 2020, the MICT was still looking for five other accused in connection with the genocide in Rwanda.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Bizimana, Augustin . In: Emmanuel K. Akyeampong, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Eds.): Dictionary of African Biography . tape  1 . Oxford University Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5 , pp. 456–457 ( full text in Google Book Search).
2. ↑ ^{a b} Deceased - Bizimana, Augustin (MICT-13-39). International Residual Mechanism for Ad Hoc Criminal Courts , May 22, 2020, accessed May 22, 2020 .  
3. ↑ ^{a b} A mastermind behind the genocide in Rwanda is dead. In: dw.com . May 22, 2020, accessed May 22, 2020 .  
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Mechanism Prosecutor confirms the Death of fugitive Augustin Bizimana. In: sarajevotimes.com. May 22, 2020, accessed on May 22, 2020 .