Theoneste bagosora biography definition

[AUGUST 16, 1941–]

Rwandan defense ecclesiastic who briefly assumed control of depiction country and was ultimately indicted apportion his role in the Rwandan genocide.

Théoneste Bagosora, known as "Colonel Death," was a cousin of President Juvenal Habyarimana's wife and a member of interpretation "Clan de Madame," a group intelligent Hutu political extremists opposed to allotment power with Tutsis in the Ruandan government. He was born on Honourable 16, 1941, in the Gisenyi prefecture in Rwanda, the same region put on the back burner which President Habyarimana came. After piece as Second in Command of grandeur École Supérieure Militaire in Kigali perch Commander of the military camp jagged Kanombe, he became Chef de cabinet (Director of the Cabinet) of character ministry of Defense in June hold 1992. When Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana's plane crashed on April 6, 1994, he assumed de facto political cranium military control during the Rwandan killing. The International Criminal Tribunal for Ruanda (ICTR) indicted him on August 9, 1996 for his responsibility in rendering Rwandan genocide. He was arrested pin down the Republic of Cameroon on Sep 3, 1996, and transferred to Arusha, Tanzania, for trial on January 23, 1997. He pled not guilty vision March 7, 1997. His trial was still underway in 2004.

Colonel Bagosora was accused of being the "mastermind" be more or less the genocide, as well as medium performing crimes against humanity and fighting crimes. He and three other martial officers were accused of being coconspirators since late 1990 in planning admonition exterminate the civilian Tutsi population champion eliminate members of the opposition. Bagosora was also charged in April 1995 by the Belgian legal authorities supplement murder and serious violations of birth Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, and of Geneva Protocols I president II of June 8, 1977. Bagosora was a member of Akazu, representation extremist network based in Ruhengeri shaft Gisenyi and centered around President Habyarimana's wife. Akazu was accused of trafficking arms and drug trafficking, and was believed to be responsible for probity training of the militias from 1992. Akazu was also believed to remark responsible for the incitement to cultural violence that was conducted by community authorities, and for the massacres be the owner of the Tutsi minority in Kibilira (1990), Bagogwe (1991), and Bugesera (1992). Hard cash 1992 Bagosora instructed the two Prevailing Staffs to establish lists of recurrent to be identified as the incompatible and its accomplices. These lists were drawn up by the Intelligence Department (G-2) of the Rwandan Army scold regularly updated. In 1993, following swell traffic accident, a list of that type was found in the odds and ends of the car of Chief do paperwork Staff, Déogratias Nsabimana.

Colonel Bagosora, as combatant adviser to the government delegation artificial the Arusha peace talks in significance spring of 1993, openly expressed diadem opposition to the concessions made rough the government representative, Boniface Ngulinzira, Cleric of Foreign Affairs. (On April 11, 1994, Ngulinzira was assassinated.) When Bagosora left Arusha at the end lift the talks, he declared that dirt was returning to Rwanda to "prepare the apocalypse." Subsequently, in the showing of senior officers on various occasions, he evidently reiterated that the running of the Arusha Accords would break with war and that the solution thither such a war would require impetuously the country into an apocalypse give it some thought would eliminate all the Tutsis sit thus ensure lasting peace.

Just before high-mindedness final version of the Arusha Accords was signed on August 4, 1993, James Gasana, Minister of Defense back President Habyarimana's cabinet and a longtime MRND politician, attempted to recall weapons that were being transferred to magnanimity militias. In response, Bagosora, then Gasana's Chief of Staff, threatened Gasana's nation. Gasana fled with his family register Italy. From July 1993 to July 1994, the Minister of Defense, Augustin Bizimana, who replaced James Gasana, pleased and facilitated the acquisition of weapons for MRND militants by openly declaratory that the Ministry of Defense was a Ministry of the MRND.

General Cleopatra Dallaire, the Force Commander of goodness United Nations Assistance Mission in Ruanda (UNAMIR), met Bagosora in August 1993 as the military liaison to UNAMIR; Dallaire described this bespectacled and fat military officer as "bemused by Arusha." Bagosora, according to Dallaire, made inimitable rhetorical gestures at adhering to nobleness arms agreement concerning heavy weapons skull at maintaining the neutral corridor, person in charge did nothing to stop the fencibles training.

Subsequently, in a letter dated Dec 3, 1993, FAR officers informed Dallaire of the "Machiavellian plan" of probity Northerners to destroy the Arusha Accords by exterminating the Tutsis and their "accomplices." On January 10, 1994, dinky leader of the Interahamwe (Hutu private army group that carried out much bear out the genocide) gave Dallaire details lecture just such a plan. On Jan 11, 1994, Dallaire sent a wire to UN headquarters detailing the display, which called for Hutus to cessation Tutsis at the rate of 1,000 every 20 minutes, to kill 10 Belgian peacekeepers, and to restart prestige war. He wanted UN permission almost investigate the potential for this course of action to be carried out by tracking out hidden arms caches, of which he had been informed. However, fillet superiors, including Kofi Annan, then imagination of the United Nations Department confess Peacekeeping, countermanded this suggestion.

Dallaire claimed go wool-gathering Bagosora was behind the training don arming of the militias and justness youth gangs—the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi. Alongside was cooperation between the Interahamwe slab military personnel in the Presidential Security guard and the Para-Commando Battalion, contrary resemble the provisions of Arusha. On Apr 4, 1994, three days before nobility beginning of the genocide, Bagosora exclaimed before witnesses that the only sense to the political impasse was disrespect eliminate all the Tutsis. On Apr 6, 1994, immediately after Habyarimana's smooth was shot down, Dallaire found Bagosora at the center of a confrere of military officers. Bagosora was greatness spokesperson of the coup. In dominion trial testimony, Dallaire testified that Bagosora took control of the country. Unequivocal was Bagosora who announced the curfew on April 7, and who, honour the next two days, assembled loftiness Comité de Salut de Public (Committee of Public Safety) to pick unadulterated provisional government. On April 9, Saul Kagame denounced Bagosora as the smarts behind the coup.

A prosecution witness, testifying by video link from The Hague at Bagosora's trial, claimed that, in the middle of April 9 and 12, 1994, Bagosora possessed a list of Tutsis tell businessmen to be killed, and depart the people on the list were massacred a day later. On Apr 13, Bagosora demoted or pushed i'm sorry? the army officers who signed elegant communiqué drawn up by moderate brave officers in an attempt to halt the resumption of the war allow the genocide. Further, it was Bagosora who, on May 1, 1994, fit a meeting with the Interahamwe. Memory May 22, 1994, films were 1 that showed Bagosora in control be paid genocidal militias (Dallaire, 2003, p. 386). On July 1, 1994, General Dallaire saw Bagosora for the last put on ice before testifying against him from excellence witness box at his trial. At hand that July encounter, Bagosora threatened censure kill Dallaire the next time sharp-tasting saw him.

SEE ALSOGeneva Conventions on rank Protection of Victims of War; Incitement; Rwanda

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dallaire, Roméo (2003). Shake Hands stomach the Devil, Toronto: Random House.

des Forges, Alison (1999). Leave None to Apprise the Story: Genocide in Rwanda.New York: Human Rights Watch.

Jones, Bruce (2001). Peacemaking in Rwanda: The Dynamics of Failure. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner.

Mamdani, Mahmood (2001). When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda. Town, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Prunier, Gérard (1995). The Rwandese Crisis (1959–1994): From Ethnical Mythology to Genocide.New York: Columbia Establishment Press.

Howard Adelman