"Do you recognize that there was a genocide in Rwanda?" asked Jonathan Moses. "The tears run in my heart, you do not see them (...) the war evolved into a conflict of two blocks, one against the RPF, one for" answered Renzaho. "The first attacks, he added, aimed at people suspected of having ties to the RPF".
"The Prime Minister testified that you had a total control of Kigali" asked the prosecution. "It is surrealist!, answered Renzaho, if I had had a control of the situation, we would not have been driven out like chickens ". "The situation, he told, was chaotic and marked by combat, slaughters; people came from everywhere in complete disorder and despair ".
Questioned on his calls aimed at young people to disarm deserting soldiers and kill them, Renzaho answered: "we were at war, I left Kigali in July (1994), I did not receive any complaint from the government for the massacres of soldiers by civilians".
The cross-examination carried out by Jonathan Moses should continue until the beginning of next week. Tharcisse Renzaho, 63, is on trial for genocide, complicity in genocide, assassination as a crime against humanity, rape as a crime against humanity, assassination as a war crime and rape as a war crime. He has pled not guilty.
His trial opened on 8 January. It should end by the end of the year.
PB/AT/MM
© Hirondelle News Agency