Augustin Bizimungu

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Augustin Bizimungu (* 28. August 1952 in Nyange , former province of Byumba in Rwanda) is a former General of the Army of Rwanda and because genocide convicted war criminals . Until April 6, 1994, when the genocide began in Rwanda , he held the rank of lieutenant colonel . With the death of the then Chief of Staff Déogratias Nsabimana , who died together with the President of the country Juvénal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994 under unexplained circumstances in a plane crash caused by rocket fire, Bizimungu was promoted to general and on April 16, 1994 to Chief of Staff of the Army appointed.

Life

He belongs to the Hutu ethnic group . Under his command, the Rwandan army took part in the genocide of the Tutsi and moderate Hutu on a large scale , through both active participation and support of the Hutu militias Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi . Bizimungu is accused of having worked with other people on plans for the systematic killing of the Tutsi in Rwanda since 1990. These plans included inciting the Hutu to hate and violence against the Tutsi, training paramilitary units and equipping them with weapons, and drawing up death lists with the names of prominent Tutsi.

Probably in July 1994, he fled Rwanda due to the advance of the Rwandan Patriotic Front . The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda issued 2,002 arrest warrant against Bizimungu on April 12, which at this point in the rebel movement Uniao Nacional para a Independencia Total de Angola (UNITA) in Angola was active. On August 12 of the same year he was arrested by Angolan government authorities in Luena in eastern Angola and handed over to the war crimes tribunal in Arusha , Tanzania two days later . On August 21, 2002, he pleaded not guilty in terms of the indictment against him, which included, among other things, genocide , conspiracy to carry out genocide, involvement in genocide, war crimes in accordance with Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions as well as murder, rape and politically, Includes racially or religiously motivated persecution as a crime against humanity .

At the request of the chief prosecutor, he was brought to trial together with four other formerly high-ranking members of the Rwandan army in a combined trial. The four co-defendants are Augustin Ndindiliyimana , chief of staff of the gendarmerie, François-Xavier Nzuwonemeye , commander of the army's reconnaissance battalion, its deputy Innocent Sagahutu and Protais Mpiranya , commander of the presidential guard . The trial began as Military Trial 2 (case number ICTR-2000-56-I) on September 20, 2004 before the Second Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

The current Rwandan government also accuses him of having carried out several armed attacks on Rwanda from the Democratic Republic of the Congo , together with former members of the Rwandan army and the Interahamwe. However, these allegations are not part of the proceedings before the International Criminal Court.

On May 17, 2011, the UN War Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda sentenced him to 30 years in prison for genocide.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 30 years imprisonment for ex-general. In: ORF . May 17, 2011, accessed May 17, 2011 .
personal data
SURNAME Bizimungu, Augustin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Rwandan general and war criminal
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Nyange , former Byumba Province in Rwanda