Search
  1. Home
  2. East Africa
  3. Rwanda

Former health minister pleads not guilty

    NAIROBI

    Former Rwandan health minister Casmir Bizimungu on Friday pleaded not guilty to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity when he made his initial appearance at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, an ICTR statement received by IRIN said.

    As health minister in the 1994 interim government, Bizimungu is alleged to have failed to "take any steps" to prevent massacres committed in a public hospital - the Centre Hospitalier de Kigali - for which he was responsible. The prosecution said that when the massacres started in Kigali, the hospital had taken in many wounded Tutsis from various areas in the city. "On several occasions soldiers who were supposed to be guarding the hospital selected Tutsi patients and killed them on the spot", the statement said. It is alleged that these massacres were
    reported to Bizimungu who "did nothing."

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

    Share this article

    Our ability to deliver compelling, field-based reporting on humanitarian crises rests on a few key principles: deep expertise, an unwavering commitment to amplifying affected voices, and a belief in the power of independent journalism to drive real change.

    We need your help to sustain and expand our work. Your donation will support our unique approach to journalism, helping fund everything from field-based investigations to the innovative storytelling that ensures marginalised voices are heard.

    Please consider joining our membership programme. Together, we can continue to make a meaningful impact on how the world responds to crises.

    Become a member of The New Humanitarian

    Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

    Join