Where was Alfred Musema ?

« I was not there ». The former director of the Gisovu tea factory gave a detailed account of his whereabouts on key dates when the crimes he allegedly committed took place. For the great majority of these dates, Alfred Musema claimed he was simply elsewhere. For four days, the court followed the movements of the accused-cum-witness from April 6th to June 17th 1994. Supported by dozens of documents filed by the defence, Alfred Musema described the fear and personal failings which prevented him from actively resisting events, events which were indeed, in his eyes, a genocide. The proceedings were to resume on May 24th. « I request that the phase of the defence be opened and call Mr Musema to the dock. » It was 9.50 a.m. on May 10th, when Steven Kay asked his client to take the stand. The testimony of the accused was clearly the backbone of the version of events in the Musema case which is to challenge that presented by the prosecution. In customary fashion, the accused was sworn in, and reminded that he « faced very severe punishment if he did not tell the truth ». After a whole day mostly given over to the family background of the accused and of the years and months leading up to the period covered by the indictment, the chamber heard a daily account of the movements of Alfred Musema, starting from April 6th 1994, where the latter found himself the unexpected witness of a fundamental and extraordinary event.

« In the hell of Kigali »

April 6th On the evening of April 6th, Alfred Musema was at his private residence in the Rwandan capital in the district of Remera 3, with his wife and three children. He explained, in an unexpected detail, that he was in his garden with friends when he saw « the lights from gunfire in the sky » and heard « an explosion ». The time was approximately 8.30 p.m. The witness was unaware at this stage that the presidential plane had just been shot down, and he did not see it crash. It was only the next morning, at around 5 a.m. that he heard the news on the national radio and on RTLM. « During that night, we stayed put. We heard noises outside, gunshot sounds coming from the airport, but we did not see any sign of shooting near our house. » Yet already, he said « we were shuddering with fear. » « From April 7th », the witness continued, « almost everyone was in the grip of panic ». Alfred Musema's neighbour had a telephone, and on the evening of April 7th, Musema called the préfet, Kayishema. He left a message with the latter's wife saying that he was not at the factory and asking the préfet to protect the goods and the employees of the tea factory. However, from April 8th « telecommunications in the Remera district were cut off ». The witness continued: « I stayed in the hell of Kigali - for it was indeed hell - until April 12th. » It wasn't until the morning of April 13th that Musema was able to call Gisovu for the first time, from a telephone box in the small town of Nyanza in the commune of Nyabisindu. « Did the situation in Kigali make you fear for what might be happening in Gisovu ? » asked his lawyer. « Not only that, but in 1990, during the RPF attack, we were charged with supervising the factories and had been called to our posts. I was to monitor anything which might occur at the factory and report back directly to the préfet » replied Alfred Musema.

April 12th, towards Butare

With the bombing, the burning houses, people fleeing, the shortage of food, water and medicine and « the houses of neighbours where people had been massacred », the situation became « unbearable ». On April 12th, the accused enlisted the help of a soldier loaned to him by a patrol lieutenant in the district to cross the roadblocks and leave the town. He left Kigali at around 4 p.m. in his company car, a red Pajero, number plate A7171, and headed for Butare, where his wife's family had a house. « In normal circumstances », he told the court, the journey to Gitarama took 35 minutes. Yet the convoy took over three hours, owing to the network of roadblocks scattered across the Rwandan capital. « I saw the most atrocious things. When we left my house we crossed roadblocks manned by youths carrying arms and machetes. There was gunfire all over the district. We were lucky to have got through. When we arrived in the heart of the city, in Gikondo, we had passed corpses strewn across the road. » Those controlling the barriers had « an arsenal of weapons - they looked as if they were drunk ». At one of the roadblocks, Alfred Musema and the other passengers were threatened. « They said that we were inyenzi ». The journey was « hard, traumatic, dreadful to see ». Without the escort of the soldier, the witness said he thought « the worst would have happened ». « *those at the roadblocks+ were trying to establish people's identity. They were scrutinising identity cards, and saying »you look like an inyenzi« . They were asking for money. » Judge Kama asked the witness to clarify this, and if it could be deduced that the Tutsis were being sought out. « This is a perfectly accurate deduction » replied Alfred Musema. The convoy arrived very late in Gitarama, so the Musema family had to spend the night there. « The place was teeming with people » the witness recalled. The préfet Fidèle Uwizeye, whom Alfred Musema knew well, pointed out a small training centre where they could stay.

April 13th Between 7-7.30 a.m., Alfred Musema left Gitarama to go to Rubona, about fifteen kilometers north of Butare, where his wife's family lived. « From Gitarama to Rubona, the situation was almost normal. There was no movement on the road as the majority of refugees had stopped in Gitarama. There were two or three roadblocks manned by gendarmes, but these had been there before. The situation was not alarming. » He spent the next day and night in his mother-in-law's property, a building which had originally belonged to the 'Institut des sciences agronomiques du Rwanda' (Isar). « There was no fighting there, only an anxious atmosphere. » « What were your intentions at that point ? » asked the defence lawyer, a question which he repeatedly put to his client at various stages in the establishment of the latter's whereabouts during the period. « I thought that as soon as I recovered from the tiredness and emotion of it all, I would try and calmly return to my workplace in the following days » replied the witness. On the very same morning, whilst on the road, he was able to make contact with the Gisovu tea factory for the first time, via telephone. He spoke to a factory security guard, Donat Rutayisire. « He told me that the situation was calm, that nothing untoward was happening. I told him that I had left Kigali and that I would be returning to the factory. I said I'll see you soon. » The witness asserted that no information had been given to him. « An announcement on the radio said that everyone should remain in their homes. I could extrapolate from that » he said.

April 14th Other members of the family turned up at the Rubona residence. Alfred Musema went to fetch food from Butare, and got information through conversations with folk from Kigali, Butare, Gikongoro and Kibuye. One of the group of people he met was the missionary sisters working on the 'Crete-Zaïre-Nile' (CZN) project. Alfred Musema knew them well. « They told me that even the CZN site had been threatened and they had been forced to flee ». The witness saw this as « reliable information » and formed a judgement of the situation accordingly. Other people spoke to him of the « deteriorating situation in Kibuye where it appeared that the massacres had already begun ».

The image of barbarism

At about 11.30 a.m. he returned to Rubona. However, before doing so, Musema had taken a decision. He went to the NCOs' training school and asked the commander to help him cross the Gikongoro zone. He was given a young soldier as an escort. « I told my wife and mother-in-law that I had just received alarming information about Gisovu and Kibuye, and that I had to leave for the factory. They couldn't accept this when I told them, and insisted that it was too dangerous *to go+. » Roadblocks had already been set up across the road. The accused reached his factory at 4-4.30 p.m. « Please allow me first to pay homage to the victims of man's barbarism. What I saw is unimaginable, unbelievable » said the witness straightaway. He described how, on his arrival, he saw « men armed to the teeth with traditional weapons. They were carrying furniture, crops and bags ». The « first image of this barbarism » continued Alfred Musema, « was a mass of killers on the road, dragging along cattle, carrying all sorts of materials. » After crossing the wooded areas of the factory in his car, he entered the tea plantations. There, he saw the first two corpses on the roadside. Even inside the plantations, there were « killers looking for people ». The director took the path which led to the factory and « down below, at the fork of the road » were another two dead bodies. « I didn't stop, I couldn't control myself - I put my foot down. I beg you to understand, even if some of you don't want to understand, one has very little self-control in such a moment. » Arriving at the factory gates, he saw security guards, the maintenance manager and head of administration. « They told me that for the last two days the factory had been under attack by killers from Gikongoro, that they had killed the plantations manager, the chief accountant and people from the factory. They told me that my house had also been attacked. » Alfred Musema described how he had « ruined the suspension in the car » after « driving so abnormally ». So he left the Pajero with the factory mechanics and exchanged it for a blue Daihatsu, asking the head of personnel and administration Joseph Nyarugwiza, and the head of maintenance James Barawigirira, to accompany him. He drove off up to his house, where he found his cook and gardener. « They told me that armed killers were seeking out the factory's Tutsis - they were very specific about this » recalled the witness. He knew already that the plantations manager and chief accountant had been massacred and perhaps also the cashier and the electrician. Together with the two factory managers, Musema drove to the residence close to the plantations manager's house, where he saw « corpses stretched out and hacked to pieces in front of the house - it was horrible. » At the chief accountant's house « it was the same scene of horror », which « no words could describe ». At the home of the cashier Ndori « known to everyone as Padri » because he was « a man with as much integrity and kindness as a priest », Alfred Musema did not see any bodies but the house had been looted. « I didn't know what the world had come to. I couldn't take it all in. » After this macabre visit, the witness said he just « couldn't take any more ». « For me, men had become no more than animals. I did not see why these people had been killed » recalled Musema. He then drove down to the guest house. « I wanted to talk to the head of personnel and the maintenance manager, so that they could explain to me what had happened. It was a place where you could sit down away from it all. My immediate intention, if you can call it an intention since I was so sickened and tired, was to find out exactly what had gone on. »

The cough of a woman and child

Alfred Musema parked his vehicle in the front yard of the guest house. He went and sat inside the pergola with the two factory managers and a soldier who had been accompanying him from Butare. It was about 5 p.m. Five minutes later, the bourgmestre of Gisovu Aloys Ndimbati suddenly appeared, accompanied by an inspector of the police judiciaire (IPJ) and a primary school teacher called Emmanuel. « He told me that he was in charge of the security of the commune and had just come from Wisumo where there had been fights. I told him that I had just arrived and that I was living in a nightmare. That was the kind of conversation it was. » « Did he give you any explanation about events at the factory ? » asked Mr Kay. « No » replied his client. Musema remarked that the bourgmestre was armed with a « large pistol » and the other two « were carrying long knives that we call swords in Rwanda ». « All of a sudden » continued Musema, « I heard a voice, like the sound of a coughing woman, and that of a child, too. The IPJ and the teacher, armed with their swords, ran towards the exit. When you take that direction, you get back on the road which lies above the guest house and which connects all the houses above. I got up [and went] towards the guest house. Ndimbati followed me. There was a small lounge inside, and that's where I went. » « Why ? » asked the lawyer. « Frankly, I was frightened. When I saw the two men run out with their weapons, I was afraid. I shouted out: »For pity's sake - don't kill these people !« It was definitely fear that made me go back into the guest house. A few moments later, about five or six minutes, the soldiers and the maintenance manager also left in the same direction. I had asked them to go and see what was happening. After about ten minutes they all came back - the teacher, the IPJ, the soldier and the maintenance manager. Emmanuel was wiping his sword with bunches of grass. He was wiping off blood. I realised that the worst had happened. I remember saying that such crimes would never go unpunished. After they had left, I asked James and the soldier [what had happened] and James told me that the chief accountant's wife had just been killed and that they had arrived too late. He didn't mention the child. » Judge Kama asked whether, at that moment, Alfred Musema had associated the coughing he had heard earlier with the news of the murder of Anunciata Mujawayezu. « I didn't figure it out in this way. At the time of the events, I didn't see the link. My first reaction was shock. I couldn't imagine if the child had been there too or if the child had been killed. It was definitely the coughing which caused the departure [of the IPJ and the teacher] but I didn't immediately reason in that way. Of course, I did think that afterwards. When I saw the blood, I thought it was a man's blood. I didn't see the link with the woman straightaway, only afterwards. »

Relations with Aloys Ndimbati

The Senegalese judge asked the witness what impression he had formed of the bourgmestre. « He didn't react. He just stayed there. Then they all left together. For me, Ndimbati was already a man whom I could suspect of being part of the group of killers » declared the witness, who added: « I don't know why he came. The circumstances didn't allow me to ask such questions ». Steven Kay resumed: « Judge Kama said that the bourgmestre was dubious. Before April 14th, did you have any reason to question the bourgmestre's behaviour ? » Alfred Musema recalled that Aloys Ndimbati had been elected in March 1993 by the communal council, but that « he wasn't my choice of candidate. He was an MRND supporter and a large part of the population backed the MDR. Our relationship was very distant. He knew that I hadn't voted for him. » The British barrister asked again whether there had been any previous incidents with the bougmestre. « I might have had a few doubts about his administrative skills, but not about his criminal nature » replied the witness. « What was your reaction as a director ? » « I had taken the risk to come. I was in the midst of a drama and a catastrophe and I had no way of intervening. I felt like a useless coward and I had no idea at all where I was heading. » « Could you have been brave enough to confront him ? Would you have had the courage ? » « No. I have to admit before the court that I am no hero, that I could not do that. I don't have that kind of bravery, I'm sorry. » Alfred Musema analysed his capacity to intervene and to influence others. « We were at war. There was already a curfew. The bourgmestre and the préfet had all the administrative power. I had no sway with the bourgmestre - he could even have arrested me, and done what he wanted with me. » « Did you think you might have been able to control the situation ? » asked Mr Kay. « Impossible. I had no plan whatsoever, no possibility to act. We usually act by consultation. Those with whom I consulted were the ones who had been massacred. I was lost at the scene of barbarism. » « Had you already seen corpses before then? » « Unfortunately, I had. In town, in Kigali. On about April 9th, in Remera, we were made to go out and bury the people who had been killed. I saw the corpses of neighbours among them. These were awful sights. There were women and children. When you remember them, you go back into the nightmare of it all. There was also the case of the director of the factory, about twenty days previous to that. But the thing that shocked me most was the corpses in the district. I didn't understand that at all. I didn't have the courage to play with death. Nor the skill to challenge the bourgmestre. Asking questions of that nature would have cost me very dearly. I didn't do it. » « Do you think that you were protected by the fact that you were the director and that your name was Alfred Musema? » « No, not at all, as I was already accused of having Tutsis at the factory and also because I was from Byumba. Neither my name nor my job protected me. » The lawyer asked his final question: « Did you kill any person at the factory or at any other time afterwards? ». « I swear before this chamber and before God that I have never killed anyone in my life and I will never do so. » The session was adjourned. When the hearing resumed, Alfred Musema completed his description of the events which took place on April 14th. He estimated that Aloys Ndimbati remained at the guest house for about half an hour, then asked James « to try, with Joseph, to find people to help bury the bodies *that he had+ seen in front of the chief accountant and plantations manager's houses ». Then he went home.

April 15th

« I hadn't slept. I think that at about 8.30 a.m. I went to check on the situation at the factory. When you drive down, there is a view over the roads from Gikongoro. I could already see the gangs of killers coming back en masse. At the main factory doors, the day guards were taking over from the night guards. I also saw three kids, and I recognised two of them. They were the children of Jean-Paul Ndamage, the factory electrician » recalled Alfred Musema. « Did you take any steps? » asked Steven Kay. « I could already see the killers arriving. I feared for their lives. I immediately looked for a means to get them away from the factory and their houses. I asked a driver with an armed guard to drive them to the health centre in Gisovu, about ten kilometres from the factory. The driver took the children out of the reach of the killers, together with an armed guard. I went up to a hill a little higher up, on Mount Mgiga, about 9 kilometres away where there was a sweeping view. I had already been told that I was under threat from the killers. I saw the hills below, particularly the communes of Rwamatamu and Gishyita. I saw the smoke and the houses on fire, even more to add to the horror. I tried to understand. I didn't know what to do. I did nothing in particular for about an hour. The soldier was with me. Afterwards, I went to the health centre to see if the children had been taken there. The nurse in charge told me that the children had not arrived. I returned to the factory to enquire after the whereabouts of the children and to find out if the vehicle had returned. »

The fate of the children

Judge Aspegren asked Alfred Musema why he had « believed that he was being chased when he was well known and not a Tutsi ». « I knew I was in danger because of the protection I had given to the Tutsis in the factory. In 1990 there had been a huge wave of arrests mostly involving the Tutsis » explained the former director. He listed the names of those who had been the victims of the arrests at the Gisovu factory: Alphonse Rwagapfizi, Jean-Paul Ndamage and Jean Nzamuvamba, a driver. The chief accountant had also been searched at his home. « I personally intervened to stop these arrests. I went to see Joseph Bugingo, the bourgmestre, and announced that they had been wrongfully arrested, that I had worked with them for years and that they had never shown any bad conduct. It lasted a week, then they were released. When they were freed, we had a small reception for them at the guest house. This was not appreciated. Most of the people arrested in 1990 had been forced out of their jobs. I had kept these people on, had earned their trust and we continued to work together at the factory. Since then, there had been constant threats. I always knew that this protection would one day cost me dearly ». The witness backed up his words with a description of an attack on him in the media in 1991, when he was accused of having kept the plantation manager in his post « while he had been in hiding outside the country »(NDT - qui - Musema or le manager?) Alfred Musema continued his story of the children's fate. « Before arriving at the factory, we passed by the house of the head of personnel. I called [him] and asked were there children were. He replied that the bourgmestre had refused to let the children be taken to safety, that the driver had gone off with them and that killers from Gikongoro had killed them. » A document which had already been partially used by the prosecution was then carefully scrutinised by the defence. Entitled « preparation of a meeting of April 15th », the document was written, according to the witness, by the head of personnel and administration, Joseph Nyarugwiza, and annotated by Alfred Musema. The latter began by asserting that the said meeting never actually took place, and then explained in detail what each point referred to. Alfred Musema recalled having spent the rest of April 15th at his home « practically for health reasons. The situation was affecting me and I had no reason to be at the factory. »

April 16th Alfred Musema said he had spent the whole day at home. He was thinking of how to « get help - but in the situation, I wondered who from and where. I didn't have a plan. »

April 17th « During the night of April 16th-17th, at about 3 a.m., I was at home with the soldier when the watchman and two guards came and woke me up, saying that people were attacking the factory and that they had heard that I was going to be killed. I asked the soldier what we could do. He replied that we could try and flee. I took the car and headed for Butare. It was the red Pajero. The vehicle had been repaired and had a full tank of petrol. I arrived at Butare at about 9 a.m. » On the way, Alfred Musema noticed that roadblocks springing up all over. When he arrived in the southern préfecture, he dropped off the soldier at his military base and went on to Rubona where « apart from the anxiety caused by the information broadcast on the radio and the fleeing people, the situation in the region was totally calm. » « Did you have any idea what you would do? » asked an indefatigable Steven Kay. « I was completely bushed » replied his client. The latter said he had thought he might contact 'OCIR-Thé' « to inform them of the situation » but did not feel up to it that day and stayed in Rubona.

April 18th Alfred Musema went to Gitarama, where the government had already arrived. He was anxious to try and find members of his family among the mass of refugees and also to get in touch with people from the 'OCIR-Thé'. Unable to find any of the latter, he came across the Minister of Trade and Industry, Justin Mugenzi. « I met him by chance. I gave him a verbal report and told him that people had been killed and that I had had to flee » recalled Alfred Musema, who in the same breath asked for « protection for the factory, the goods and the personnel ». According to Musema, the Minister « was shocked by the situation » and assured him that he would make the necessary arrangements. The director of Gisovu returned to Rubona, where he remained until April 22nd.

April 21st Musema made a fresh trip to Gitarama to seek out members of his family or news from Byumba. A document presented by the defence was aimed at tracing the movements of the accused over a period of several weeks. It was an order of assignment issued to Alfred Musema to make a tour of the tea factories and set up conditions for their resuming operations. Steven Kay pointed out that the start date of the mission was April 22nd and that it extended up to May 7th. But the document was dated « Kigali, April 21std ». The witness rectified this first point by stating that the mission order had indeed been issued in Gitarama and not in the Rwandan capital. « I met Mugenzi again by chance near the filling station *at the entrance to Gitarama on the way to Kigali+. He had been in touch with the gendarmerie for the factory but had not been able to reach Michel Bagaragaza, the general manager of OCIR-Thé in Gisenyi to see if he was in his native region and in order to establish whether the tea factories were operating. When he gave me the order, I first of all said that I was incapable of carrying it out for security reasons. He told me that he was dealing with security and was going to fetch some gendarmes. He was also with the Minister of Energy and Civil Engineering (Minitrape). He game me vouchers to buy petrol. I said that I didn't have any documents to get me through the roadblocks. He told me he'd put things in order and that I could pick them up at Nyagahina's house. I collected the document on the morning of April 22nd ». A little later, Judge Kama, clearly suspicious, hurled : « Look, you know well enough the history of the world. A government that relocates - that's already happened. Do you think that it needs to be dated in Kigali? » « I have no explanation for that. They could have put Gitarama, it's true » the witness modestly contended. « If you have no response, then nor do I » snapped the Senegalese judge, obviously indifferent to the context of the war, and later added « and you believed that? ». Mr Kay ventured an explanation: « Do you think that it would have been an acknowledgement of defeat to have written Gitarama and not Kigali? ». But Mr Musema was unable to follow: « This is a difficult question for me. I don't know how they reacted. I wasn't a minister. » At the start of the next day's hearing, the lawyer cleared up the quarrel by brandishing a letter from the Interior Minister dated May 25th 1994...at Kigali.

An unusual mission order

During the deposition made by prosecution witness BB, the prosecutor remarked upon the unusual nature of such an order of assignment. « Is it possible for a minister to send a factory director to supervise other factories? » asked senior trial attorney Jane Adong. « To my knowledge, that had never happened before » BB had replied. Alfred Musema also had an opinion on the subject. He confirmed that it was indeed an « unusual situation » since « in normal circumstances, the procedure is not used » and is usually the duty of the director of the Tea Board. But he pointed out that there had been « no news » of the latter and that the minister « told him that he had not been able to locate the general manager or a member of the head office. » The famous mission order required further explanation, not least in the 'originality' of its bearing the stamp of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minafet). « There are certain irregularities on the document linked to the situation at the time. Normally, this would be impossible, but the Minafet was then the only ministry to have relocated with its own stamp. That's what Faustin Nyagahina explained to me. It was irregular, but was linked to the exceptional circumstances » explained the witness. Another anomaly was pointed out: the order of assignment was signed not by Justin Mugenzi but by his counterpart in Minitrape, Hyacinthe Nsengiyumva. « I heard Mugenzi tell the Minister of Civil Engineering to sign, since he was leaving. Once again, it was not a normal situation. The usual procedure is that only the director *would sign+. If everything had been organised, there wouldn't have been cases like these. But it was a muddle. » Elsewhere, mention was made of which budget would cover the expenses for the assignment. « On a normal order, it is clear who would foot the bill. The minister did not ask me to carry out the mission in the name of the OCIR. He asked me to do so in the framework of the OCIR. I did not represent OCIR-Thé. The factory was to cover the costs of the factory director's assignment. » Finally, an additional note was tagged onto the document: « assignment extended from 07/05 to 31/05 ». The lawyer had the witness point out that the note had been added at a later stage and did not exist when he had collected the document on April 22nd. Without waiting for the witness to finish explaining, Judge Aspegren asked when the extension had been added. « I'd say it was approximately May 7th, but I can't recall the exact date. It was approved in Gitarama » replied Alfred Musema, who, the next day, explained why the extension had been signed by another minister, this time the defence minister, Augustin Bizimana.

Meeting with Augustin Bizimana

The accused began his third day in the dock. The hearing began with an hour's delay owing to the visit of « eminent personalities » from the Organisation of African Unity. When the judges finally made their entrance, they wore an air of stern bitterness. Alfred Musema, unruffled, was instructed to explain the extension of the assignment signed by Augustin Bizimana. « It was during the month of May, if I remember rightly, after the 7th, perhaps the 10th. By chance, I came across the Minister of Defence, who was based in Kabgayi. He was an agronomist and I knew him - he also came from Byumba. We debated the issue of the inhabitants of Byumba. At that time, a group of refugees had arrived from Byumba and we were discussing their security. We had a debate over the whole issue of the war. I still had to hand in the [assignment] report. My brief was to visit the factories, no longer for the OCIR-Thé but to promote inter-factory contacts. I asked the minister for a stamped document to use as a travel pass to cross the roadblocks. The extension was thus granted by the Defence Minister - not under the aegis of the Trade and Industry Ministry but for an inter-factory assignment. It was more of an opportunity than a mission, for purely practical rather than administrative reasons. I was simply facing an opportunity. » Lennart Aspegren asked: « You were nevertheless able to find the Minister of Civil Engineering on May 21st. Why weren't you able to find him on the 7th to prolong the assignment? » « It should have happened that way, but the situation was very chaotic. I don't have any other explanation. » « Why did he not sign another paper? Why would a Defence Minister try to find an order of assignment for tea factories? » « I agree, but it wasn't like that. The situation in a time of war is not normal. Things didn't happen like that. » « But you were friends with Bizimana and you had the opportunity to talk about the war, didn't you? » « I knew him but we weren't friends. » « Why was the extension not dated? » asked judge Kama. « It was an error, I admit that. »

April 22nd The witness collected the mision order from the director Faustin Nyagahina, went to the military camp where two gendarmes were waiting for him and then headed north with them at around 10 a.m. At the end of the day they reached the Pfunda factory, twenty kilometres from Gisenyi, near the diocese of Nyundo. From that date onwards, and for the following days, the defence traced the steps of the Gisovu director, indicating to the court the stamps placed on his order of assignment at every stage of the way, with the occasional rectification. The Pfunda stamp, signed by the factory director, bore the date 21st May, which Alfred Musema assured the court was an error, since, according to him, it was actually the 22nd. Other documents were brought in on occasions to back up the testimony, such as that confirming the reimbursement of expenses incurred during the assignment for the two gendarmes from April 22nd to May 2nd, as indicated by a payment slip made in Gisovu. Alfred Musema stayed at Pfunda until April 25th. The factory was operational, despite some of its « employees having fled or been killed ». The witness also recalled that he had learnt that priests and nuns had been massacred in the diocese. A letter written on April 24th in Pfunda, uncovered by the lawyers at the Gisovu tea factory, was filed as evidence.

April 25th On his return to Rubona, Alfred Musema handed the letter to the general manager of OCIR-Thé, whom he came across on his way home to Kabaye. He also gave Bagaragaza an interim report. The report included a list of potential export routes, a recommendation to open a bank account in Giseyni and the proposal to re-open the factories in three phases from April 25th. The judges quibbled. Navanethem Pillay wondered why the general manager had not been in Kigali, at the organisation's headquarters. « But Kigali was being bombarded - it was war at the time » the witness tried to explain. Lennart Aspegren pointed out a spelling error and Laïty Kama observed that an order of assignment ought to include a list of specifications. « In normal times we would set up a memorandum of objectives with clear specifications » admitted the witness, who tried to explain that, under the circumstances, this had happened orally. Steven Kay returned to his client's travels and in particular to the meeting with Michel Bagaragaza in Mukamira, about 25 kilometres from Pfunda. Bagaragaza's wife was also present at the meeting, as well as the director of the Nyabihu factory. « He read and approved *the report+ and confirmed that I could continue to visit the other factories » recalled Alfred Musema. Did he ask why the director was in Gisenyi? « It's difficult to ask a superior that kind of question. He told me that he had come before April 6th for his brother's wedding and that he had not returned to Kigali since the start of the war. But I couldn't ask questions. I didn't show him my order of assignment. » Musema arrived late in Gitarama and spent the night there.

April 26th Very early next morning Musema left Rubona. What he said he had heard about in Gisenyi was confirmed: the situation had « completely deteriorated ». « When I arrived in Rubona, I was confronted with the attacks of looters and killers who had invaded the Isar research station. All the family had assembled at the brother-in-law's house who worked at Isar. » The visit was again verified by a stamp on the mission order, dated April 28th, at the Kitabi factory, about fifty kilometres away. « To get to the factory [we had to cross] roadblocks manned by people who were armed and very agitated. The director informed me that some employees had been massacred or had fled. »

April 29th Still accompanied by the two gendarmes, Alfred Musema left Rubona to go to Gisovu, where another stamp testified to his arrival at that date. « At that time I didn't see any sign of the killers. There were roadblocks over the routes but they weren't that difficult *to cross+. The factory was calm but wasn't operating. » A new piece of evidence was brought out: the minutes of a meeting held at the factory on the same day, chaired by Alfred Musema. Baragirira, Nyarugwiza and Gaspard Bitihuse were also present at the meeting. The minutes, written by the head of personnel, stated that the director of the factory had explained that the government had asked him to do a round trip of all the factories to assess how they could become operational again. They also said that everyone must participate in the war effort.

April 30th Another meeting was held at Gisovu, again backed up by minutes taken from the factory archives. This time the subject was « how to get the factory up and working » with « the heads of services and those who could fill in for the employees who had disappeared ». It was noted that a request for petrol supplies had been made to the préfet, since, in the time of war, « the préfet requisitions the service stations; since we need petrol we must make our request to the préfet » explained Alfred Musema. He described the atmosphere of the meeting as « completely cold ». The defence counsel then asked: « Did you have any suspicions about members of staff being involved *in the killings+? » « I had a few doubts but I didn't show it. I knew that people were aware of something. Further investigation would have brought it to light. » « So why didn't you investigate? » « At the time it would have been a personal risk. In the circumstances, it was difficult. I feared for my life. »

An appointment with Clément Kayishema

When the meeting was over Alfred Musema went to Kibuye. He met préfet Kayishema in his office at around midday. « The aim of the meeting was to obtain authorisation to leave the préfecture and continue the assignment at the factories. The préfet had decreed that all departures from the préfecture were to be officially authorised by him and that any movement from one commune to another should be authorised by the bourgmestre. I could have enquired about the possibility of getting some petrol but the circumstances did not allow this. It was a very brief meeting - perhaps a quarter of an hour at most. » The director of the Gisovu factory thus obtained an authorisation from Clément Kayishema to « travel from Kibuye to other préfectures, such as those stipulated in the mission order of 21/04 by the Minister of Minicomart *Ministry of Trade and Industry+ » as confirmed in that document provided as evidence. « Did you know Kayishema well? » asked Mr Kay. « No, I practically never met him » « What was the situation like in Kibuye? » « Even before I arrived, I had heard that there had been spectacular and appalling massacres in the préfecture. Driving along the lake road I saw houses burnt to the ground and banana groves slashed. When you enter [the town] it opens out onto the stadium. The entrance had been demolished and there were red stains on the walls, even though the stadium was brand new. And there was an intense nauseating smell which must have been from decomposing corpses. I passed in front of the St-Jean Church and saw that the windows had been broken and a fire had been lit in front of the main door. There was the same smell. So that's the sight I had of Kibuye before going into the préfet's office. »What attitude did he take with you?« »It's difficult to say. He wasn't really comfortable, and seemed a bit uneasy, squirming a little in his governor's chair- a bit strangely.« Alfred Musema then went to the telephone company Rwandatel to see whether he could obtain a connection as the factory telephone had been cut off. He then went up to Gisovu. »After checking that the machines were working I had to leave on May 2nd - if I remember rightly - to continue the assignment.« Two further pieces of evidence were brought out: a warning given on May 1st to Gaspard Bitihuse, head of stocks and quality control, reprimanded for having delegated his responsibilities and a credit letter dated May 2nd.

May 2nd Alfred Musema arrived at the Shagasha factory, about twenty kilometres from Cyangugu at around 7 p.m. However, the stamp on the order of assignment was dated May 3rd, which the witness explained as his »own error« . He said he had first visited the Shagasha factory, then the one in Gisakura, even though the stamps showed the reverse order. »Why did you alter the normal order?« asked Steven Kay, keen as ever to leave no unexplained loopholes. »I don't have a particular explanation for this« replied his client, who continued to think about this while another question was put to him, then added: »Perhaps it had been signed later as I was returning to Shagasha afterwards.« Musema remained in Shagasha until May 5th, during which time he made two or three trips to Gisakura »for work and family reasons« since he had a cousin working there as a mechanic.

May 5th Musema returned to Rubona to check on the family and visit another factory, this time in Mata. The situation was »still sad and chilling - news from the inside was that the fighting was intensifying and people were fleeing. But there were no killings or house-burnings« . On May 6th, »if I remember rightly, since by then I had stopped keeping a diary, I must have stayed in Rubona.« Another stamp, dated May 7th and signed by the chief accountant, attested to his »arrival in Mata« . The testimony was edging towards the crucial dates in the indictment - May 13th and 14th - dates on which Alfred Musema is accused of having led the attacks on refugees on Muyira Hill, in the Bisesero region, the cornerstone of the genocide charge hanging over the former tea factory director. The tension mounted in the courtroom as the witness calmly declared: »I stayed in Rubona until May 19th.« The former silence of the prosecution bench was broken by sudden activity. Mr Kay drove ahead with his advantage. His client continued: »I didn't set foot outside the town of Butare. I went to Gitarama. I never went to Kibuye.« An ill wind blew across the courtroom, fusing with the electric atmosphere. The lawyer then brought out a new exhibit: his client's mission report, which the latter told the court had been produced with the help of the Isar typing services in Rubona. An attached letter addressed to the director of the Tea Board mentioned »a few travel difficulties« to explain the delay, and stressed that »at this present time, all the units are operational« but that, if no solution was found, »we will have to go back to zero« . Alfred Musema stated that he filed the report and the letter »around May 10th at the offices of the Gitarama Commercial Bank« and »the manager had promised *him+ that he would give them to the director« of the OCIR in the next convoy for Giseyni. The report was then studied in fine detail by the defence counsel. He presented the scenario of his client restoring tea production: on April 25th for the Pfunda and Rubaya factories, May 2nd for those in Shagasha and Gisakura and May 9th for Gisovu and Mata. Export routes had been identified in Goma (ex-Zaire) and Bujumbura (Burundi). Consultations were envisaged with the OCIR, the National Bank and the ministries of Finance and Trade to transfer the different currencies. Another section dealt with personnel considerations. »I had to rewrite this part three times« the witness explained, »to give information on the loss of human life« . Finally, the author of the report mentioned »disappeared persons« and stressed that this was »not only on a management level« but also affected »labourers and harvesters« . »It was an important section for me, even though the paragraph was quite short« he concluded.

May 14th It was May 12th, 1999, practically five years, day for day, after the events. At 5 p.m., the third day of the testimony of Alfred Musema was nearing its end. Thirty five pieces of evidence had so far been filed by the defence. It was time for the Queen's Counsel to pluck the thirty sixth from his swathe of defence documents: a simple, hand-written letter, with the words »Butare, 14/05/94« in the top right hand corner, and an opening address to »my dear Nicole« . The witness confirmed having written the letter himself. »When was the last time that you saw this letter?« asked Steven Kay. »When I gave it to someone who was on his way to Burundi« replied Alfred Musema, who added, in an afterthought, »the last time that I saw it was when my lawyers brought me a copy« . »Who is Nicole?« asked the barrister. The witness hesitated, concerned to protect the person's identity. Mr Kay reassured his client: »She is filed as a non protected witness.« This was another original aspect of the defence in the Musema case: certain witnesses will appear without requesting anonymity. These are the wife of the accused and Nicole Pletscher. With his consummated talent for surprising the court, Mr Kay handed over the original of the fragile and spectacular document to his client.

»A cry for help«

»It's the first time that I have seen the original« said the witness slowly, before glancing discreetly at the prosecution. »Nicole is a lady of Swiss nationality who I met in Kibuye in 1986 when she was working with her husband in an agricultural project. We became friends.« They kept in touch afterwards. Nicole Pletscher and her husband later visited Rwanda on two occasions, and then »Madame Nicole« returned to work in Ruhengeri, for an intergovernmental project with Austria. Alfred Musema said he thought he had seen her for the last time on April 3rd, 1994, on Easter Monday. »Why did you write to her on May 14th?« »To let her know about the situation we were in. I gave a general description of how I saw things. It was a cry for help.« What words did Alfred Musema use in the letter to describe the situation ? How exactly did he see »the situation« on May 14th, 1994? The director of the Gisovu tea factory spoke of the »tragic events which have plunged Rwanda into a the depths of an abyss« and that »since April 6th, the country has experienced an incredible bloodbath: ethnic troubles, massacres, theft, all that can - or perhaps cannot - be imagined on the level of human horror« . The prosecutor Charles Phillips stood up from the bench. Steven Kay forged ahead, driving the point home: »Did you write this letter on May 14th?« . »I remember it very well. I was in Butare. It was May 14th. There is no doubt about that« replied the witness. Charles Phillips made a bid to stop the flow of events: »If this letter had been kept so carefully, it would have been kept in an envelope. Where is this?« he interrupted. With a haughty tone and stern look on his face, Steven Kay was cutting: »We have serious work to do here. This comment is irrelevant. I am defending this case with the means available to me.«

The passports of his three sons

The defence then pulled out another series of documents. Firstly, a 'certificate of good conduct' issued to the eldest son of the witness, applied for from the bourgmestre of Ruhashya and dated May 16th. Alfred Musema stated that »It was me who went to the communal offices. The situation was deteriorating more and more and we were thinking of leaving the country« . Next came the passports of his three sons, dated May 18th at Gitarama. After casting another glance at the prosecutor, Musema continued: »It was me who took them to the immigration office. There was myself, two soldiers, my eldest and second eldest sons« . For the youngest, who was not old enough to own an identity card, Alfred Musema explained that he collected the passport in his son's name. The document bore the signature of the witness, with the inscription »his father, on his behalf« and the further note »see identity card of his father, Musema- Uwimana Alfred« . The prosecutor stood up once again: »I have an interpretation to offer. An identity card was produced but this does not say when the passport was collected.« Mr Kay retorted: »In my experience, when an issue date is given and when the photograph is signed, that is the moment *the document+ is delivered. But others might think that it had been signed before being prepared« he quipped. »The date when the passport was issued is not the date on which it was delivered« continued Charles Phillips. »These documents are from the prosecution's files. I have no idea whether they researched this point« replied the British counsel, sarcastically. President Aspegren saw this as a fitting moment to close the debate and the hearing for the day, saying »conclusions will be drawn later« .

Petrol receipt and letters from the factory

The defence sought to further concretise its alibi for the crucial mid-May period. More documents were produced from the Gisovu factory, whose probative value lay in the time span between their arrival at the factory and replies sent back by Alfred Musema. Two letters requesting employment, and a third asking for accommodation, dated May 5th, 11th and 16th were thus filed, together with the director's replies, almost a month later, on June 14th. Another document filed for the period was a letter to the bourgmestre written by the head of personnel James Nyarugwiza, on May 16th, which the defence counsel pointed out bore no trace of Musema's handwriting. The letter listed five persons in charge of security and authorised to carry arms. The witness told the court that he did not recognise the names. Still more documents had been uncovered at the factory, including an expenses request for the Pajero, dated May 19th, a receipt for the purchase of platinum plated screws for the same car, recorded on the same date as well as a receipt for petrol issued by the Fina service station in Gitarama, for 7000 Rwanda francs, and dated? May 14th. »I would like to thank my counsels for these documents« declared the witness, who stated that he had not seen the petrol receipt until just the last week, when his lawyers showed it to him after a second visit to Gisovu. Again more documents, this time a declaration of debt, containing a mysterious written annotation dated October 10th, 1996. Since the witness had been in a Swiss prison at the time, he obviously had no explanation for this. His face set in a stern look, Mr Kay added, with heavy innuendo aimed at the prosecution who he knew to have been running investigations at that precise period, »I won't ask any farther questions on that point« . The final documentary piece of evidence was another letter from Alfred Musema, dated May 18th and addressed to préfet Kayishema. »Kindly find enclosed an order from the Ministry of Defence pertaining to the security of the factory« a document which »should allow the gendarmerie to take the necessary steps« . The witness, who pointed out that he carried around with him letter-headed paper from the Gisovu factory, assured the court that the letter had been written by him in Gitarama and that he had given it »to someone who was travelling to the Kibuye préfecture« . The order by the Minister of Defence was dated May 10th. Addressed »to who it may concern« , it stated : »The commander of the *gendarmerie+ base in Kibuye is instructed to guard the factory. The factory plays such an important role in the zone that its close protection is indispensable.«

May 19th Alfred Musema left Rubona and arrived in Gisovu at around 4.p.m., accompanied by the two soldiers, Félicien and Alphonse as well as a locksmith. The witness described the general situation at that date: »At that time, the fighting on the eastern front was intensifying where the RPF were advancing towards the centre and south of the country. The flow of refugees was increasing. As for the killings, as far as I heard, the massacres were not as vehement. There was still a major problem in Kibuye - a very, very big problem.« A new stamp on the order of assignment by the head of personnel confirmed that Musema had »arrived in Gisovu, on 19/05« . Minutes were produced of a meeting held there, signed by the same person. The second paragraph read: »The director stated that he had just spent a few days doing the rounds but that he had not been able to return because his vehicle had broken down, even though he had sent a message asking to be helped out.« On the same date, a request was made to withdraw funds from the bank. The minutes contained a reference to Canisius, the chief accountant, saying that he »hadn't been seen since April 13th« and that they were awaiting his replacement by the Tea Board.

May 20th Accompanied by the cashier and the guards, the director of the factory travelled to Kibuye to make a cash withdrawal »of several thousand francs to pay the wages« .

May 21st The document produced for the above date was a request for funds made to the director of OCIR-Thé for the months of April and May. »At the end of each month we asked for financial provisions to see us through the following month, with a forecast budget« explained the witness, who pointed out that the one for April had not been made »because of the war« and that he had signed for both months at the same time. President Aspegren asked: »How did you remember that it was on the 21st?« »I had just sorted out the pay. It stuck in my memory.« »Did you take notes?« »No, I didn't keep a diary.« »So five years later you are able to remember a particular date?' « I did a lot of research and so was able to trace the succession of things that I did. The documents confirm what I did. I didn't keep notes in a diary, but I know very well that during May I carried out many transactions and made trips, and that I went to the bank and then I left the next day. When the lawyers brought me the documents, they confirmed these dates. Before that I didn't have specific days in my mind. I wouldn't have been able to know. » « In other words, Mr Musema, if we had seen each other before you had possession of these documents and if I had asked you »when did you sign the treasury document?« would you have been able to reply? » « I would have told you that I had carried out a transaction but I wouldn't have been able to tell you that this was on the 21st. » Steven Kay counteracted the exchange : « When were you first arrested Mr Musema? »On February 11th, 1995.« »That was four years ago. Since that time, have you thought about the dates of your movements at the time of the crimes?« »I have thought about them but without knowing the dates. I remembered the events.« »Before we did so, did anyone else do the work of looking for documents to see where you were?« »The Swiss courts and the prosecutor saw these documents but I never had them. The Swiss examining magistrate had some documents, but otherwise it was really my lawyers who had to travel to Rwanda *to get them+.« The questioning continued. On the same day, May 21st, at about 11 a.m., Alfred Musema left to return to Rubona »to check on the situation with my family« . The witness referred to »discussions on the possibility of leaving the country« . Over the following days, he travelled to Nyanza and Gitarama, where he delivered the letter requesting funds to keep the factory operating.

May 27th »I spent the night of the 26th and 27th in Rubona but my wife and children were in Kitabi. The fighting was getting closer« said the witness. Still accompanied by the two soldiers, but this time also with his family, Alfred Musema set off for Gisovu on the morning of the 27th, where he held another meeting in mid-afternoon. »The factory was operating. There was a lot of movement from deserters. The factory was later the victim of an attack. There was still a big problem of massacres and killings in the Bisesero region.« A note on the meeting of May 28th was brought out, stating that the director »showed three Karashinikof (sic)« . The witness explained: »I got them in Gitarama. This was around about May 25th . [They were given to me] by the commander of the Gitarama military camp on the orders of the Minister of Defence. I had met with the Defence minister and informed him of my worries concerning the security of the factory and that nothing had been done. He asked me if there were any reservists at the factory and I told him that there were five of them. He agreed to give me three guns to arm the guards. By May 28th, we had five weapons in total.« At that time, Alfred Musema was keen to »protect his family« . He also had to take part in a »technical commercial trip« which had been set up whilst he was in Gitarama on May 25th. »The journey was to take us to the customs and ports of Congo, with members of the National Bank, the transport company, OCIR-Thé, the Ministry of Finance and a few local authorities.« The aim was to »prospect for a corridor for export and import to and from Rwanda.« The court was presented with receipts for the withdrawal of cash to cover the expenses of the trip from »May 21st to 29th« , in addition to an advance payment of salary and expenses for the assignment for Alfred Musema, entitled »advance on Zaire assignment« .

May 29th The director of the factory left Gisovu with his family, and travelled to the house in Shagasha used as a stopover. On May 30th, he went to Cyangugu for a preparatory meeting with the group from the technical mission. He then returned to Shagasha. »What was your intention at that time?« asked the lawyer, sounding somewhat like a metronome. »To flee. We had been trying *with family members+ to group together and not to abandon each other. If things went wrong, the objective was to cross the border and escape« replied the witness. Musema's passport was brought out as evidence. It revealed that on May 31st, the latter had crossed the border between Rwanda and Zaire, at the border posts of Bugarama and Kamanyola. On the evening of the same day, he slept at the Hotel des Chutes in Cyangugu. On June 1st, he returned to Shagasha, where he recalls having stayed until June 10th. An authorisation to travel in the economic zone of the countries of the Great Lakes was issued to him on June 3rd in Cyangugu. On letter-headed paper from the factory, date June 6th, Musema wrote to a shopkeeper in the region requesting petrol supplies and oil for the tea factory. The witness related that, whilst he was there, the directors of Shagasha and Gisakura had received a message, written in Nairobi, from the general manager of OCIR-Thé instructing them to report to Bujumbura immediately. Both directors travelled there, and Alfred Musema awaited their return with »fresh information« . When they came back, he said that there had been »no instructions« in particular The two gendarmes from Gitarama were recalled to their posts, so Musema returned to the factory in Gisovu with a gendarme from Cyangugu.

June 10th On this occasion, Alfred Musema stayed at the factory for a week, until June 17th, for »office duties and supervision mainly« . On June 14th he sent a memo to all the factory drivers. »It was a warning. There had been a lot of complaints about the lack of discipline of the drivers and of unjustified expenditure on petrol« explained the witness. The consumption of petrol was unusually high. »Right from the minute I arrived in the factory, I was alerted to the abnormal consumption of petrol. It was *tabled+ at all the meetings. So we took note of this and I didn't approve« recalled the witness, who noted that 1900 litres of petrol had been used between April 6th and the date of the meeting. Three days of testimony came to an end at the date of June 17th . The court still has to examine four to six weeks' worth of alibis presented by the defence before the prosecutor launches into his cross-examination. The hearing resumes on May 24th. » A Personal Weapon

The contract is dated October 14th 1992. It was valid for a year and renewed once. It was signed by Alfred Musema and the Minister of Defence, James Gasana. It says that a Browning pistol was delivered to the former. The witness referred to the sense of fear prevalent at the time and talked of two attacks he had escaped from on the road to Kibuye. He described the region as « a relatively troubled and dangerous area far from any chance of action by the security forces », 42 kilometres from the factory. In isolated Gisovu, the witness described a dozen or so families of management staff of the company, three or four kilometres from other people. « I went to explain the situation to the Minister of Defence, James Gasana. He agreed that I be granted a weapon for personal protection ». When the judges expressed surprise that he had such easy access to a Minister, Alfred Musema replied that he actually had « a special relationship with James Gasana », as the latter had been a director of the 'Crête Zaïre Nil' project and was also from Byumba. However, the witness explained that it was not « that relationship that had prevailed », but the fact that « the Minister had to make himself available for that kind of scenario ». Alfred Musema kept the weapon at home, « in a safe place » and without « ever having the need to use it ». He sometimes travelled with it, on the road to Kigali for example. On July 24th 1994, the weapon would be handed over to French soldiers involved in Operation Turquoise.

« Is it for this fear, this weakness, that I should be condemned ? »

At 1.40 p.m. on Thursday May 13th Alfred Musema was allowed a small reprieve. Suspending the hitherto relentless description of his client's movements and documents establishing his alibi, his lawyer allowed the accused a few minutes to plead his innocence. Steven Kay asked the former director of the Gisovu tea factory two key questions. First of all: « Between April and *mid-July+, were you responsible for sending vehicles to Bisesero or elsewhere to Kibuye » to transport people to the scenes of the massacres? « No, this is not true or exact, for two reasons. First of all, it was not in the least in my interest to go and kill people in Bisesero or elsewhere. Secondly, all the reports show that I never gave the order to go to the killings or to give people the means to do this. I was not there. And for the short while that I was present, I never gave any orders or instructions. » Alfred Musema, with his hands neatly folded in front of him, continued his plea, explaining : « there were employees inside the factory, there were employees who didn't even live in the vicinity of the factory, there were the daily labourers. The director of the factory can only take responsibility for what happens inside the factory. That said, we never organised any expeditions with groups of factory workers to go and carry out the massacres. » It was the barrister's second question which allowed Alfred Musema to truly plead his case. One remarkable fact is that Musema is the first ICTR accused to have pleaded not guilty but at the same time to have acknowledged the nature of the crime committed in Rwanda in 1994. « Did you induce people to go and carry out the killings ? » asked his lawyer. « I did not. The killers whom I saw were from Gikongoro. After that I was absent from the factory on several occasions. I did not lead the gangs by radio-control. My task was to run the factory. I never lead gangs of criminals. Once again, I condemn the massacres which constituted without question a genocide to which I do not subscribe. How can you think me capable of leading such a gang of killers? I am not a monster. I am a weak man - I could have done something but I wasn't able to. I was afraid, I admit this. Is it for this fear, this weakness, that I should be condemned ? »

Lateness

Thwarted by a handful of days, the Musema trial will not reach its conclusion at the end of May, after all the chamber's hopes of a four-month hearing. As planned, the Tribunal will be busy holding its plenary session and the timetable announced way back by the defence lawyer precludes the possibility of finishing the trial in June. The final defence phase has now been tabled for the month of September. The justifiable prolongation of the accusation phase, and the far less understandable participation of Judge Pillay in the Hague Conference, will no doubt cast a shadow over the ICTR's near-victory of the long-expressed but foiled attempts to speed up the trials. The progress shown in the way the Musema trial has been run is widely ackowledged, but this still remains only progress. At a press conference held on May 20th to mark the end of his second and final mandate as president of the Tribunal, Laïty Kama spoke of the « extremely important task » facing the tribunal to « judge the 35 accused in a reasonable timeframe ». He added that « this decision will be taken under the aegis on *his+ successor ». When asked what he saw as a « reasonable timeframe », the Senegalese Judge replied that « from our calculations, apart from unforeseen circumstances, it is possible to bring a judgement in six months and in any case, under a year. The Musema trial proves this. » With another few days in hand, this would have been demonstrated far more brilliantly.

No Politics

The examination briefly touched on the political aspect of the case. « I was never involved in political activities, either while I was a student or afterwards », claimed Alfred Musema. Of course, he had been « enrolled in the single party », but that had been « a constitutional obligation ». In this field, the involvement of his family before him was limited to his father-in-law, a former member of parliament, and the event that André Guichaoua had earlier spoken of. One of Musema's brothers-in-law was arrested in 1980 on suspicion of involvement in an attempted coup d'Etat. « Unfortunately, and with no justification, many family members were imprisoned », said Alfred Musema: his mother-in-law, a sister-in-law and a brother-in-law. « I was questioned by the state security forces myself. It was a crucial moment for the whole family ». Byumba and the involvement of Musema in local politics still remained to be looked into. « I was more involved in economic and social development than in the political side of things », said the witness, who mentioned two posts he had held: member of the préfectoral committee in which he « played a part in the economic commission » and member of the technical commission for the commune of Rutare. « A witness said here, rightly, that préfecture of Byumba was relatively underprivileged. Having worked for the Ministry of Agriculture, I knew a lot of people. I tried to get hold of some funding, for building health centres and private schools in the commune and the préfecture », continued Alfred Musema, who spoke of a « totally personal contribution ». « Were you ever a member of a Hutu Power party ? » asked Steven Kay. « Never ». « Did you ever promote the policies of extremist groups in relation to the Tutsis ? » « Not in the past, present or ever in the future. I would never do that ».