Nyamasheke is a district (akarere) in Western Province, Rwanda. Its capital is Nyamasheke town (Kagano).
Nyamasheke district is divided into 15 sectors (imirenge): Ruharambuga, Bushekeri, Bushenge, Cyato, Gihombo, Kagano, Kanjongo, Karambi, Karengera, Kirimbi, Macuba, Nyabitekeri, Mahembe, Rangiro, Shangi.
Nyamasheke was originally part of the colony of German East Africa, which included what are now Burundi, Rwanda and Tanganyika. Nyamasheke's Lake Kivu is the site of the first German colonial military post, founded in 1898 by Kapitan Berthe, a German Army officer. Shangi sector was chosen by the Germans for its strategic position on Lake Kivu border with the Congo. The site is also known for having served for the first Rwandan religious mass in 1899.
The District saw considerable bloodshed during the Rwandan genocide. In 2006, Nyamasheke became home to the Rwanda National Genocide Memorial.
In 2009, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) announced that it was in possession of evidence implicating former businessman Yussuf Munyakazi in the genocidal massacres that occurred in 1994 in Nyamasheke. [1] Munyakazi, a former wealthy rice farmer in the Western Province, was charged with counts of genocide, or complicity in the alternative and extermination as a crime against humanity. [1] On 30 June 2010, the ICTR found Yussuf Munyakazi guilty of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity, and sentenced him to 25 years’ imprisonment. [2] The ICTR specifically found that Munyakazi was a leader in massacres in Shangi sector on 29 April 1994 and Mibilizi sector on 30 April 1994 that resulted in the deaths of over 5,000 Tutsi. [2]
After reports of harassment of genocide survivors in the district, several genocide survivors were murdered in Nyamasheke. [3] [4] In April 2009, Séraphine Uwankwera, a resident of Kagatamu cell, was killed between 7:45-8 pm on April 12 and dumped on the roadside in the Bushenge sector of Nyamasheke District. [4] The deceased was murdered as she was coming from Gashirabwoba Genocide memorial site also in Bushenge sector where she had gone to attend a Genocide commemoration ceremony where some of her family members who were killed are buried. [4] Uwankwera was found lying in a pool of blood April 13. [4] A relative of Uwankwera stated that the murderers are Genocide suspects who wanted to prevent testimony conceal evidence attesting to their role in the 1994 genocide. [4]
The district is home to the COPMONYA (Coopérative de Potérie et des Matériaux Ornementaux de Nyamasheke) a cooperative that produces ornamental pottery. [5] Coffee beans are produced at several collectives, including the Rwanda Impala Collective near Shanga. Nyamasheke also hosts the 137-member Abizarana coffee cooperative centered on the Shangi washing station. The district features an active TVET program designed to improve the quality of the work force. [6]
The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu militias. The most widely accepted scholarly estimates are around 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsi deaths.
Théoneste Bagosora was a Rwandan military officer. He was chiefly known for his key role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). In 2011, the sentence was reduced to 35 years' imprisonment on appeal. He was due to be imprisoned until he was 89. According to René Lemarchand, Bagosora was "the chief organizer of the killings". On 25 September 2021, he died in a prison hospital in Mali, where he was being treated for heart issues.
Protais Zigiranyirazo commonly known as Monsieur Zed, is a Rwandan businessman and politician and was governor of the Ruhengeri prefecture in northwestern Rwanda from 1974 to 1989. Zigiranyirazo was a member of the Akazu, an elite circle of relatives and friends of former President Juvénal Habyarimana who pushed the Hutu Power ideology.
The Gacaca courts were a system of transitional justice in Rwanda following the 1994 genocide. The term 'gacaca' can be translated as 'short grass' referring to the public space where neighborhood male elders (abagabo) used to meet to solve local problems. The name of this system was then adopted in 2001 as the title of the state's new criminal justice system "Gacaca Courts" to try those deemed responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide where over an estimated 500,000 people were killed, tortured and raped. In 1994, the United Nations Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to try high-ranking government and army officials accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The Gacaca Courts were established in law in 2001, began to operate on a trial basis in 2002 and eventually came to operate as trials throughout the country by early 2007.
Jean-Paul Akayesu is a former teacher, school inspector, and Republican Democratic Movement (MDR) politician from Rwanda, convicted of genocide for his role in inciting the Rwandan genocide.
Nyarubuye is a district (akarere) of the East Province in Rwanda. Its area is 439 km², and its population in 2002 was 49,565.
Athanase Seromba is a Catholic priest from Rwanda who was found guilty of committing genocide and of crimes against humanity during the Rwandan genocide.
Augustin Ndindiliyimana is a former Rwandan General and Chief of the Rwandan National Gendarmerie. He was convicted of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda but he was acquitted by the tribunal upon appeal.
Kangura was a Kinyarwanda and French-language magazine in Rwanda that served to stoke ethnic hatred in the run-up to the Rwandan genocide. The magazine was established in 1990, following the invasion of the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and continued publishing up to the genocide. Edited by Hassan Ngeze, the magazine was a response to the RPF-sponsored Kanguka, adopting a similar informal style. "Kangura" was a Rwandan word meaning "wake others up", as opposed to "Kanguka", which meant "wake up". The journal was based in Gisenyi.
Major Bernard Ntuyahaga is a Rwandan army officer convicted by a Belgian court for the murders of ten United Nations peacekeepers at the start of the Rwandan Genocide
Fulgence Kayishema is a Rwandan Hutu militiaman arrested for war crimes in relation to his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Born in Kivumu, he was the inspector of the judicial police there at the time of the genocide. His indictment cites his involvement in massacres from April 6, 1994, until April 20, along with Athanase Seromba, Grégoire Ndahimana, Télesphore Ndungutse, the judge Joseph Habiyambere and the assistant mayor Vedaste Mupende.
Grégoire Ndahimana is the former mayor of Kivumu, Rwanda. Indicted and arrested for alleged war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Ndahimana is thought to be one of the key figures in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and is claimed to have had up to 6,000 Tutsi killed. In 2013, he was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Emmanuel Rukundo is a Rwandan Roman Catholic priest who in 2009 was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for his participation in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
Rubengera, also known as Mabanza, is a sector and town in Rwanda. The town is the capital of Karongi District in Western Province, Rwanda.
During the Rwandan genocide of 1994, over the course of 100 days, up to half a million women and children were raped, sexually mutilated, or murdered. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) handed down the first conviction for the use of rape as a weapon of war during the civil conflict, and, because the intent of the mass violence against Rwandan women and children was to destroy, in whole or in part, a particular ethnic group, it was the first time that mass rape during wartime was found to be an act of genocidal rape.
Eliézer Niyitegeka was a journalist, former politician, and high level participant in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. After studying journalism in Romania, Niyitegeka became first a journalist and presenter with Radio Rwanda and subsequently a Member of Parliament, then executive in a textile company and businessman. In 1991, with the coming of multi party democracy to Rwanda, he was one of the founding members of the opposition party, the Republican Democratic Movement (MDR). MDR advocated democracy, individual freedoms, the reunion of Rwandans regardless of ethnic considerations, and the end of violence. Its motto, as shown in the party's statute, was: "Liberty, Justice and Work. From 1991 till 1994, he was President of the MDR in Kibuye prefecture. Niyitegeka also held a seat in the national political headquarters of his party.
Segun Jegede is an international lawyer from Nigeria who has practiced law for over three decades at domestic and international level. A prolific writer and author, Jegede's career highlights comprise his extensive work of over 13 years at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UNICTR), and advocacy work in international criminal law through the Legal Watch and Human Rights Initiative, a registered non-profit organization he co-founded. His work at the UNICTR mainly revolved around the investigation and prosecution of some of the known masterminds of the egregious crimes committed during the Rwandan genocide. His perspectives of the historical events which led to the Rwandan genocide and the ground breaking case law generated by the UNICTR established to prosecute those who bear the greatest responsibility for the genocide are documented in his book, “The Rwandan Genocide: Historical Background and Jurisprudence”. In the book, Jegede provides a riveting account of the pre-genocide history of Rwanda, including the often overlooked elements that make the Rwandan genocide one of the worst human tragedies of our time. Through the cases, in an engaging and candid style, the Author reveals several ground breaking decisions of the UNICTR such as the pronouncement of rape as genocide and the conviction of a woman for rape as a crime against humanity. Jegede serves as a consultant for the International Labour Organization (ILO) on human trafficking issues and the National Human Rights Commission.
André Rwamakuba was the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education in the interim government during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. He was born in Nduba, Gikomero commune in Kigali province and is a medical doctor who has studied at Butare University, and in Zaire and Belgium. He was arrested on 21 October 1998 in Namibia and indicted for complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity including extermination and murder. He was acquitted of all charges on 20 September 2006 by the ICTR.
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