Philippe Hategekimana’s trial for “genocide, crimes against humanity, and participation in an agreement” for the preparation of these crimes began on Wednesday in Paris. Philippe Hategekimana became a French citizen under the name Philippe Manier in 2005.
The accused responded clearly when asked to identify himself by assize court president Jean-Marc Lavergne, “My name is Philippe Manier.”
Philippe Manier, 66, a chief warrant officer at the gendarmerie in Nyanza, in the prefecture of Butare, in southern Rwanda, was bald, wearing tortoiseshell glasses, and wearing a suede jacket over a checkered shirt.
He is suspected of killing dozens of Tutsis, including Narcisse Nyagasaka, the burgomaster of Ntyazo, who was putting up resistance to the genocide in his community.
Additionally, the accusation links his actions to the murders of Father Mathieu, “Maman Augustine,” a nun, and 300 Tutsi refugees on the Nyamugari hill. information that was spread between April and July 1994.
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Philippe Manier, who rejects the facts, is also suspected by the prosecution of having given the go-ahead for the construction of roadblocks “designed to control and assassinate Tutsi civilians,”
Philippe Hategekimana would have, according to the complainants, “played an important role in the perpetration of the genocide of the Tutsi”. He allegedly “used the powers and military force conferred on him by his rank in order to commit and participate as an actor, co-perpetrator and accomplice in the genocide”, in particular by participating “actively” in “the organization of the exterminations in Nyanza and in the surrounding villages.
Forty civil parties, including the Collective of Civil Parties for Rwanda (CPCR) , the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) and survivors or relatives of victims, have joined forces in this case.
The trial is scheduled until June 30. This is the fourth in France in connection with the “crime of crimes” committed in Rwanda in the spring of 1994.
