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Father Emmanuel Uwayezu in Italy
The Massacre of His Students At Kibeho College of Arts, 7 May 1994
May 2009
Charge Sheet Series No.10
 African Rights
P.O. Box 3836Kigali, RwandaTel: (250) 50 36 79Email:rights@rwanda1.com Web:www.africanrights.org 
 
Charge Sheet Series, Number 10Fr. Emmanuel Uwayezu in Italy: Massacre of His Students at Kibeho College of Arts, 7 May ‘94
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................2
Summary of the Charges Against Fr. Uwayezu for the 7 May 1994 Massacre...........................6
1. THE PATH TO VIOLENCE.....................................................................................................82. FEAR, THREATS AND DESPONDENCY: 7-30 APRIL....................................................12
A Catalytic Event: The Arrival of Gendarmes at Marie Merci..................................................14A Desperate Gamble: 30 April, Fleeing to Burundi...................................................................18
3. A TIME OF UNCERTAINTY: 1-6 MAY..............................................................................20
2 May, Enforcing Separation Along Ethnic Lines.....................................................................21A Moment of Hope.....................................................................................................................24
4. “WE REALIZED WE WERE ON OUR OWN”: 7 MAY, THE MASSACREUNFOLDS……………………………………………………………………………………….295. A QUESTION OF RESPONSIBILITY..................................................................................376. SOME OF THE VICTIMS KILLED AT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS ON 7 MAY 1994.39
 
Charge Sheet Series, Number 10Fr. Emmanuel Uwayezu in Italy: Massacre of His Students at Kibeho College of Arts, 7 May ‘94
INTRODUCTION
Schools, like churches and hospitals, were among the most common sites for large-scalemassacres during the 1994 Rwanda genocide of Tutsis. Thousands upon thousandscongregated in schools and hospitals, many of them attached to parishes, as well as inchurches precisely because they regarded them as safe havens. Others were taken thereunder military escort by government officials, after assurances that they would beprotected. Instead, they died there, from Gikongoro to Gisenyi, from Kibungo to Kibuye,in ways and in numbers which defy the imagination. Places intended for worship andprayer, reflection and learning, healing and recovery instead became slaughterhouses.More than any other profession, teachers, school inspectors and the directors of schools—from primary school teachers to distinguished university professors—participatedactively in the genocide. Some of these teachers and directors of schools included womenand members of the clergy. Throughout Rwanda, scores of teachers killed their ownstudents, their colleagues, the parents of the children they taught and the refugees whosought shelter in their establishments. They turned children in their care against eachother and often armed and encouraged their pupils to take part in the killings. Some of them raped young girls in their schools or women and girls among the refugees atschools. Others helped to organize militia forces, manned roadblocks, checked ID cardsand handed those identified as Tutsi to the militia. Some of these teachers and academics,armed with guns or traditional weapons, wore military uniform throughout the genocide.
1
 The perpetrators of the 1994 genocide showed no mercy to children. On the contrary,wiping out Tutsi children, especially males, was a central feature of the propagandaaimed at ensuring mass participation in the killings. Those who justified the killingsnever tired of telling the Hutu population that the rebel movement, the RwandesePatriotic Front (RPF), had been created by those who left Rwanda as toddlers in 1959-60.This time, they said, there was to be no repeat of such “mistakes.” In April, many Hutusdid, in fact, hide the children of their friends and neighbours. Most of those children diedin May and June after politicians, the media, local government officials and militialeaders intensified the threats against anyone suspected of sheltering Tutsi children.Another strategy was to frighten them into handing over the children voluntarily bysaying these children would seek the return of the land, livestock and belongings whichhad been robbed from their families.The result is that children and young people were subjected to a wide range of abuses.Thousands died alongside their parents and siblings in their homes, on the road, in the
1
A significant number of professors and lecturers at the National University in Butare, including doctors,were instrumental in the genocide at the University and more broadly in Butare. See
 Death, Despair and  Defiance
, African Rights, August 1995, 1234 pages. Vincent Ntezimana, a lecturer at the University, wasconvicted of crimes related to the genocide in Belgium in June 2001. In Kigali, one of the best knownperpetrators is Angéline Mukandutiye, a school inspector in the commune of Nyarugenge and herself themother of four children. See
 Not So Innocent: When Women Become Killers
, August 1995,
 African Rights.
 
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