A former Rwandan gendarme appears before French justice for genocide

Three decades after the civil war in Rwanda and the genocide of the Tutsis which left hundreds of thousands dead, a former Rwandan gendarme is on trial, from Wednesday May 10, by the Paris Assize Court. Naturalized French in 2005, the 66-year-old ex-soldier is accused of crimes he categorically denies.

>>> Genocide in Rwanda: “It will certainly take more than 20 years to judge all the people against whom we have filed a complaint”, deplores a collective

Before acquiring French nationality, this man was called Philippe Hategekimana. He was chief warrant officer in the gendarmerie of Nyanza, a small town about a hundred kilometers south of the capital Kigali. The prosecution suspects him of being involved in the murder of the mayor of a neighboring locality and in the assassination of dozens of Tutsis, crimes which he formally denies.

Refugee in France then naturalized in 2005 under the name of Philippe Manier, he left for Cameroon in 2017 before being arrested and then extradited there. The former non-commissioned officer, now 66, is not the first Rwandan to be tried in France for acts related to the civil war in Rwanda and the massacre of Tutsis in 1994. A captain of the Rwandan presidential guard and two burgomasters were sentenced in France to 25 years in prison and life imprisonment respectively. A former prefect and a former hotel driver have appealed their conviction.

A sensitive historical context between France and Rwanda

Nearly 30 years after the events, the trial of Philippe Manier opened on Wednesday May 10 before the Paris Assize Court, he is tried for “genocide” and “crime against humanity”. His lawyers argue that the evidence is difficult to establish and first insist on the chaos reigning in the country at the time after years of civil war, a mainly ethnic clash between Hutus and Tutsis. They claim that their client has done his best in this troubled period and that he has nothing to reproach himself for.
Defenders of the former Rwandan gendarme also insist on the disappearance of some survivors three decades later. The civil parties, on the contrary, believe that the long time allows the reliability of the testimonies to be assessed.

This trial is part of a sensitive historical context between France and Rwanda. Diplomatic relations severed by Rwanda between 2006 and 2010 because French justice had implicated the entourage of the current Rwandan president Paul Kagame in the attack which cost the life of one of his predecessors Juvénal Habyarimana during the civil war in 1994. He had killed in the explosion of his Falcon hit by a missile. French justice having given up on this track, relations have been restored.

From now on France multiplies the gestures to attract the good graces of the Rwandan president, a rather finicky leader, in power for 23 years.