Arrived in France in 1999, Philippe Hategekimana is suspected of having played an important role in the massacre of local populations in Rwanda .
He was naturalized French in 2005, under a new name: Philippe Manier. Arrived in France in 1999 to flee Rwanda in the grip of a genocide against the Tutsis, Philippe Hategekimana has long led a peaceful life in France. After obtaining refugee status by declaring a false identity, the man had settled in the Rennes region (Ille-et-Vilaine) where he worked as a security guard at Rennes-2 University.
Nearly twenty-five years after leaving his native country, the former Rwandan gendarme will have to explain his past. From Wednesday, he will appear before the Paris Assize Court for “genocide, crimes against humanity and participation in an agreement” with a view to the preparation of these crimes.
Former chief warrant officer at the gendarmerie of Nyanza, in the prefecture of Butare (southern Rwanda), Philippe Hategekimana, 66, is suspected of the murders of dozens of Tutsi including the former mayor of Ntyazo, Narcisse Nyagasaka, who resisted execution of genocide in his town.
According to the prosecution, Philippe Manier, who disputes the facts, is also suspected of having ordered the erection of roadblocks “intended to control and assassinate Tutsi civilians”.
Multiple charges against him
He is also accused of the “attack and massacre” of 300 Tutsi civilian refugees on Nyamugari hill, the murder of a nun, “Maman Augustine”, as well as his role in the attack on hundreds of Tutsi civilian refugees on the hill of Nyabubare. About a thousand civilians were killed during this attack.
Forty civil parties, including the Collective of Civil Parties for Rwanda (CPCR), the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) and survivors or relatives of victims, have formed themselves in this case.
Philippe Hategekimana had left France for Cameroon in November 2017, a few months before his arrest, making investigators fear an “organized leak” when the press had reported a complaint filed against him by the CPCR. Arrested in 2018, he was placed in pre-trial detention. The trial is scheduled until June 30.
Before this trial, four cases related to the genocide in Rwanda gave rise to trials in France, two of which have been finally judged.
