Witnesses pin Genocide suspect Bandora

 The case of Genocide suspect, Charles Bandora has today continued at the High court with prosecution bringing on evidence from at least 22 key witnesses about the killings that took place in Ruhuha commune during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Yesterday court was adjourned after a three hours hearing of testimonies from eighteen witnesses. Today, and today November   5, all the written testimonies heard from the prosecution, indicated that Bandora actually ordered the killings which claimed over 500 people.

According to prosecution, all the witnesses were separately interviewed and questioned at different intervals, but all their testimonies have a close relationship about who ordered the killing and how they were conducted.

Witnesses, including some that participated in the genocide- and were convicted, stated that Bandora held meetings with various local leaders in which he ordered the killings in the genocide that claimed over a million lives.

Bandora, who looked very confident in court, denied the allegations but the prosecution gave stunning evidence of testimonies of property that was looted and kept at Bandora’s house- where most meetings were held.

Prosecution, which named and listed all the witnesses, said that Bandora had even paid back the looted property after the genocide, and his case couldn’t be tried by the gacaca courts since it was out of their jurisdiction.

Prosecution argued that by Bandora paying the damages was enough evidence that he had participated in the genocide and thus should be charged for the crimes according to the law.

Bandora was in March 2013 extradited from Norway after the Rwandan prosecution sent a file of the suspect’s charges to Norway in 2010 following a tip-off that he was hiding in the European country.

Born in the Southern Province in 1953, he is currently on trial for committing Genocide and other crimes against humanity in former Ngenda commune which is in n Bugesera district today.

Until his arrest he operated businesses in Malawi. In 1994 he was a high-ranking member of National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND) party in Bugesera.

Bandora is accused of having facilitated the Interahamwe in the mass killings of Tutsis in 1994 by training and arming militias and personally supervising massacres in the Bugesera region.

The militias he trained are alleged to have travelled in bands with machetes and small arms, in open trucks, killing people with extreme efficiency.