US citizen’s Rwanda genocide case begins

A US Federal Court in Boston has begun hearing the case of a Rwandan-American accused of covering up his role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, reports Al Jazeera. Prosecutors say Eric Nshimiye, a US citizen, took part in a nationwide outbreak of genocidal violence against ethnic minority Tutsis by majority Hutu extremists in April 1994. More than 800 000 people were killed over about 100 days, in what has been called a genocide by the UN. Investigators from the US Department of Homeland Security arrested Nshimiye at his home in Ohio in 2024, alleging he had lied to them in an interview about his time in Rwanda during the genocide. They also allege he committed perjury in a previous trial in 2019 in Boston when he testified on behalf of a friend who was also accused of perpetrating the genocide. Prosecutors say Nshimiye, a medical student at the time of the genocide in the town of Butare, himself took part in the killing and rape of Tutsis. Prosecutors plan to put more than a dozen witnesses on the stand, most flown in from Rwanda, who say they recall seeing Nshimiye participate in pro-Hutu political events before the genocide, and some who say they later saw him participate in genocidal violence in Butare. Defence lawyers told the court that Nshimiye was not part of the Hutus who participated in the genocide. They say the entire case against him is built on the accounts of eyewitnesses, some of whom were only able to identify him after repeatedly being shown his photo, and some of whom have a history of giving different testimony in trials of alleged genocidaires over the years.

Full Al Jazeera report