Sendashonga widow accuses Rwandan government

The widow of the late Rwandan minister, Seth Sendashonga, had accused the current Rwandan government of involvement in the assassination of her husband, the independent news agency Hirondelle reported on Monday. Mrs Sendashonga was testifying in a Nairobi courtroom on the killing of her husband, shot dead in his car in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in May 1998, Hirondelle said. At the time, Sendashonga had been due to testify before the ICTR as an expert witness for the defence and, according to lawyers who had spoken with him, was prepared to talk about the “manipulation” of prosecution witnesses, Mrs Sendashonga said, according to Hirondelle.

Mrs Sendashonga told the court that her husband, a member of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), had fallen out with the Kagame government after voicing concerns over military killings of civilians, the Internews agency reported on Monday. Sendashonga quit his office and Rwanda in August 1995 after accusing RPF troops of carrying out “a second genocide” and falling into a “revenge trap”, according to AFP. Mrs Sendashonga dismissed earlier testimony that her husband was killed after a financial deal had gone sour, Internews reported.