Watching History

6/25/09
Yesterday afternoon (Wed), we went to the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) to see where the hearings for those accused of taking part in the mass genocide of over 800,000 people in 100 days that occurred in Rwanda in the early 1990’s. Once again on this trip we were very lucky because…we saw a trial! Not only did we see A trial, but we saw the closing arguments of the prosecution of the Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Army, Augustin Ndindilyimana. I definitely need to google him for more information when I get home but from what the closing arguments were saying, it sounds like he was one of the most powerful people in Rwanda during the genocide. This was a joint trial for 4 people but we think it was only talking about him on these specific closing arguments and he was the only one present as far as we know (although they mentioned the others names). The other being tried in this same case are Battalion Commander, F-X Nzuwonemeye, I Sagahutu, and Chief of Staff of FAR, Augustin Bizimungu. So if another wants to google and e-mail with info on them…feel free…Mom :-).
We sat in a side room off the courtroom that ran the length of the courtroom with a window so we could see everyone in court. We had headphones to listen and one of the stations translated to English if the person wasn’t speaking in English. Most of the talking was done in English and in French. I think Stephen may have been a little bit bored but Matt and I were completely enthralled and sad we couldn’t stay the whole day and listen to some of the defense too. We had to watch a boring video after, but the short time spent watching history be made in that courtroom was completely worth it. Ok off to placement.
Amani,
Valerie