By Dr BIZIMANA Jean Damascène*
INTRODUCTION
As the genocidal government was progressively losing the battle, it did everything to intensify the Tutsi massacre in its controlled territory. In order to achieve this, Jean Kambanda had assigned to each minister a region to control and to ensure that the extermination was done according to the extermination plan in place.
The genocidal government, intensified its extermination policy by setting up “crisis committees”, that is to say extermination committees which started to wipe away genocide evidences especially destruction of houses and traces of Tutsi who had just been massacred.
KAREMERA EDOUARD played a leading role in the implementation of the genocidal policy in Kibuye prefecture. Karemera was born on September 1, 1951, in the Rucura sector, Mwendo commune, Kibuye prefecture. He has been a member of the central committee of the MRND since 1979, in June 1992, he was elected national secretary of MRND. In April 1993, he became the first vice-president of the MRND and member of its executive committee. In 1994 he was the Minister of the Interior in the genocidal government led by Jean Kambanda.
1. Karemera Edouard created the Interahamwe militia in Bwakira commune, his home commune for the extermination of Tutsi
On October 13, 1993, Karemera held a meeting in the multi-purpose hall of Bwakira commune in the prefecture of Kibuye. The meeting was attended by Karemera, Ruhigira Enoch, Munyampundu, Andre Kagimbangabo, Colonel Ndahimana, a CDR official by the name of Amani Mugabo, and the Bourgmestre Kabasha.
On this occasion, Karemera had invited assistance to contribute to the training of the Interahamwe. Karemera added that the Tutsi was the enemy. He explained how to identify the Tutsi. He showed the importance of identifying the enemy, by asking the prefect to put in place all the necessary mechanisms for the identification of Tutsi and for their extermination. After this meeting, the training of the Interahamwe who had already been selected before this meeting started immediately.
Karemera then proceeded to the distribution of guns. The military training of the Interahamwe took place in the Mashiga valley, near the wood below the communal office, as well as in the Ndoha forest.
The military training program of the Interahamwe set up before the genocide aimed at the extermination of Tutsi throughout the Rwanda territory.
2. Karemera Edouard has extended the so-called “pacification” policy of Tutsi extermination in the entire country.
On April 10, 1994, at the Hôtel des Diplomates, Ngirumpatse, Karemera and Joseph Nzirorera called a meeting of the 11 members of the national committee of the Interahamwe. They informed the Interahamwe of the “pacification mission” which consisted of transmitting the message requesting the continuation of the massacres on behalf of the genocidal government but concealing the corpses. The genocidal government has said that it was facing difficulties with the international community because of the bodies exposed along the roads. The bodies had to be collected, picked up by trucks, to avoid being seen.
As interior minister and first vice-president of the MRND, Karemera extended the so-called “pacification” Tutsi extermination policy, which consisted of provoking, helping and further encouraging attacks against Tutsi. The ministers were then sent to their prefectures of origin to encourage the killings and exercise control over the Interahamwe.
On May 25, 1994, Karemera wrote to the prefects about measures to implement Jean Kambanda’s directives. These measures included the establishment of committees, lists and inventories to identify the available resources at the prefecture level, such as human and material resources as well as weapons. The aim was to coordinate and accelerate the massacres across the country.
3. Karemera, Ngirumpatse and Mugenzi have ordered the bourgmestres of Gitarama prefecture to stop protecting the Tutsi
On April 18, 1994, Kambanda, Karemera, Ngirumpatse, Mugenzi and Barayagwiza organized a meeting in Murambi, with several bourgmestres from Gitarama prefecture. The bourgmestres asked Kambanda to provide them with supports to protect the Tutsi population and restore order in the region.
Instead of that, Ngirumpatse, Karemera and Justin Mugenzi, ordered the bourgmestres to stop protecting Tutsi and to allow the Interahamwe to continue killing Tutsi.
4. Karemera organized several meetings in the prefecture of Kibuye to accelerate the genocide in this region
– Kibuye, May 3, 1994: Karemera paid tribute to the interahamwe, urging them to continue the genocide
During this meeting, Jean Kambanda addressed the audience and promoted “civil defense” as a means of fighting the Tutsi, and informed the public that the war had been spread to all the communes of Rwanda. This coded language meant that the genocide had spread throughout the country, that it should continue by means of civil defense.
Karemera also addressed the participants, paying tribute to the lnterahamwe, he urged them to dislodge, stop and fight the Tutsi in collaboration with the youth organizations from other parties.
Karemera, like all members of the genocidal government, called all Tutsi the enemy. Karemera asked the Interahamwe to physically attack and destroy all the Tutsi. This speech was resumed and rebroadcast by Radio Rwanda on May 9, 1994.
– Kibuye, May 16, 1994: Karemera asked the population to look for traditional weapons to massacre the Tutsi
During this meeting, he thanked the Prefect of Kibuye, Clément Kayishema, for having accomplished his mission, referring to the massacre of the Tutsi in Kibuye. He asked the Interahamwe to attack the Tutsi and eliminate them.
Karemera asked the population to look for additional weapons, for example, bows, arrows and spears.
5. Karemera and other genocidaires set up a “national defense” fund to finance the genocide
On April 25, 1994, Félicien Kabuga in agreement with Karemera and Ngirumpatse, and other genocidaires organized a meeting in Gisenyi with a purpose of creating a “National Defense” fund which was to be used to replenish the Interahamwe who massacred the Tutsi.
On several occasions, such meetings were organized during the genocide, especially when the genocidal government was installed in Gisenyi.
6. Karemera asked for reinforcements from the Interahamwe of Mwendo commune in order to exterminate the Tutsi refugees on the hills of Bisesero
Karemera went to his home commune of Mwendo to mobilize the Hutu to come and kill the Tutsi in Bisesero. He lied that the Tutsi refugees were attacking the Hutu in Bisesero and that they had to go there because they had finished with the Tutsi in this region and that a problem was arising in Bisesero.
7. Karemera wrote to Lieutenant-Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva asking for reinforcements in order to exterminate Tutsi who had survived on the hills of Bisesero
On June 17, Karemera addressed a written request to Lieutenant-Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva, commander of the operational sector of Gisenyi on behalf of the genocidal government. He asked the military authorities to send reinforcements from Gisenyi prefecture to eliminate all Tutsi survivors of Bisesero. The genocidal government aimed at completely terminate the Tutsi of Kibuye prefecture in order to conceal the massacres of the previous months which could be seen in the explanations of the Tutsi survivors. Reinforcements from Gisenyi killed many Tutsi.
Karemera asked the prefect Kayishema and the commander of Kibuye to whom he had sent a copy of this letter, to take the appropriate measures to allow the implementation of this operation within the prescribed time which had to be completed by June 20 at the latest. Karemera called on the participation of the populations of the communes of Gishyita, Gisovu and Gitesi.
CONCLUSION
The massacre of Tutsi continued in the area held by the genocidal government, which intensified its extermination policy by setting up “crisis committees”, that is to say extermination committees, and the policy of the civil defense which aimed to leave no living Tutsi in Rwanda. It was around this time that the criminal government started to eliminate evidence of the genocide, including the destruction of houses and traces of massacred Tutsi. (End).
*Dr BIZIMANA Jean Damascène, Executive Secretary National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG)