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Police Killings of Detainees

Human Rights Watch researchers investigated reports of suspicious deaths of detainees in a wide range of locations from April 2006 through May 2007. Most of those killings took place in the six months between November 2006 and May 2007. Details of 26 deaths (and of three men who have not been seen since police reported they had escaped) are given in the table below. Many appear to have been extrajudicial executions.

Human Rights Watch has received reports of other killings in police custody that have not yet been confirmed. These include incidents in Nyanza town, Nyanza district; Gasabo district, Kigali City; Nyarugenge sector, Kigali City; Kibangu sector and Kibilizei sector, Muhanga district; and Shyrongi district, North Region. Some of these incidents have attracted little attention, in part because witnesses fear sanctions if they speak openly about them. On a number of occasions, witnesses afraid for their security have refused to speak with researchers from Human Rights Watch or other organizations and on one occasion a person who did meet with a Human Rights Watch researcher was subjected to interrogation following the meeting.

Of the 26 deaths detailed in the table below, 14 are of persons accused of attacks on genocide survivors and others involved in the gacaca process; nine involve persons charged with murder, rape or theft; and three involve persons detained for unknown reasons.

Detainees Accused of Attacks on Survivors or Gacaca Participants

This section reports the deaths of five men in two incidents in January 2007 and of two others killed in April 2007. In each case, the police claim the men were shot while trying to escape.

Killings in Ngamba Sector, Kamonyi District, South Region

Landuardi Bayijire, president of the gacaca jurisdiction of Ngamba sector, Kamonyi district, was killed in the early hours of December 28, 2007. According to a news report, Bayijire, who was also the local president of Ibuka, was killed in his home with a knife and a blunt instrument. He was sleeping alone in a house located close to his fields, while other members of the family stayed in his other residence on a nearby hill.12

Coming in the wake of other attacks on survivors and persons involved in the gacaca process,many assumed that his death was connected to his being a survivor and to his role in the gacaca court. According to local residents, more than one gacaca suspect had remarked about Bayijire’s severity as a judge, saying that if he had not been part of the panel of judges, they would have an easier time in front of the court. Other residents of the community, however, told a Human Rights Watch researcher that Bayijire had been engaged in a land dispute with one of his sons, Theoneste Niyomugabo, and had quarreled angrily with him the day before the killing. Some local residents said that his son, anxious to get land in order to get married, had previously threatened to kill him.13

On December 29 members of the Local Defence Force, a government paramilitary organization, arrested several men, including Daniel Uwimana, Polycarpe Munyangoga, Alphonse Kagambirwa, and Silvère Kagenza.14 At the time of the arrest, one of the men reportedly asked why he was being taken away since he had always complied with orders to attend gacaca meetings and do the unpaid public labor known as umuganda.15 Four others were also arrested, Célestin Munyaneza, Cyriaque Uyisabo, Nkinamubanzi, and an unidentified man who was accused of attacking a gacaca official, not of having killed Bayijire.16

The mayors of Kamonyi and Muhanga districts, as well as the president of Ibuka at the national level, attended Bayijire’s burial, which was marked by a heavy downpour of rain. Officials told those present that they could not seek shelter, as would usually be done, but must stand, hatless in the rain. After the burial, officials directed people to sit on the wet ground and, according to one person present, said that they would sit there “for the next three days” unless they provided information on Bayijire’s killing.17 Although people were kept sitting at the gravesite for some time, this effort by officials apparently neither elicited information, nor did a search of the homes of the suspects on December 30.18

At a public meeting at Ngamba parish on December 30, a policeman identified by witnesses as the Chief of Police for Kamonyi district told residents that it was important for them to provide information about the crime, given that police officers had not yet found the evidence necessary to build a case against the detained persons.19 In an interview published on January 2, 2007 in The New Times, a newspaper close to the government, Jean-Paul Munyandamutsa, mayor of Kamonyi district, said that the suspects had not confessed or given any relevant information on the death of Bayijire.20

The suspects were first detained at Kamonyi district lock-up where family members visited at least one of the suspects several times between December 30 and January 2. He asked that a clean set of clothes be brought because he had been told he and the others would be taken to Musambira police station for interrogation. When visitors arrived at Kamonyi on January 3, a police officer told them that Uwimana, along with the unidentified man, had been shot as they attempted to flee.21

Some detainees, including Polycarpe Munyangoga, Alphonse Kagambirwa, and Silvère Kazenga, were transferred to Musambira, where several, including Kagenza, were badly beaten. Those injured asked visitors to bring medication. As the week wore on, the detainees apparently lost hope. One told visitors, “Don’t bother bringing any more food. There will be no trial.”22

On January 10, some of the detainees held at Musambira were transferred to Gitarama central prison, but those involved in the Bayijire case were kept in the lock-up. Because family members and friends believed that the men had been transferred to Gitarama prison, at first they did not come to visit. After learning the men were still at Musambira, they brought food on January 13. When visitors returned on January 14, they found police officers loading the bodies of Munyangoga,  Kagambirwa, and  Kagenza into police vehicles. Police officers drove the bodies to the vicinity of their homes and called local people to carry the bodies to the houses.23 One local man told Human Rights Watch researchers that a policeman said, “Get those bodies out and look at the consequences of what you have done”.24

Police officers gave families no notification of the deaths of these men before delivering the bodies. One officer told family members that the three men had been killed trying to attack police officers when they were being taken to the toilet. Members of the Local Defence Force present at the Musambira lock-up told local residents that police officers had executed the three.25 According to those who saw the bodies, one had a single bullet wound at the temple, another had a wound in the back of the neck, while the third had wounds in the head and the stomach.26

Killings in Gasaka Sector, Nyamagabe District, Southern Region

On April 10 2007 in Ngiryi umudugudu, or village, Gasaka sector, assailants entered the home of a witness who testified frequently in gacaca sessions and beat both the witness and the witness’ mother. The mother was so severely injured that she required hospitalization for a week.27

On April 12, police officers arrested at least five men who had participated in the local night patrol on that date, including Jean Gatera, executive secretary of the umudugudu, Gahamanyi, Joseph Nkurikiyimana, Modeste, and Emmanuel Nshimiyimana, also known as “Kajyunguri.”28 At the time of the arrests, police officers beat several people who were not detained, including Gatera’s wife, Violette Uwimbabazi, using heavy sticks. 

Police officers detained the men at Nyamagabe police station and on April 13 refused to allow visitors to see them. When visitors returned the following day, a police officer told them that Jean Gatera and Gahamanyi had been shot while trying to escape. According to a local source of information, both had been shot in the back of the neck.29 Police officers said that three others, Joseph Nkurikiyimana, Emmanuel Nshimiyimana, and Modeste, had escaped. These three men have not been seen or heard from since and family members believe that they are dead.30

Detainees Accused of Other Crimes

The rapid increase in numbers of detainees shot by police between November 2006 and May 2007 coincides with a period of heightened concern and rhetoric about attacks on genocide survivors and others involved in the gacaca process. But both before and during the period of increase, police officers have shot and killed detainees in cases when they were suspected of involvement in serious crimes unrelated to the genocide or to the gacaca process. Several cases are described below. These also appear to have been extrajudicial executions, underlining that there is a general problem of deaths in police custody.

Killings in Kibungo Sector, Ngoma District

Police officers arrested three men, Alphonse Nshikili, Telesphore Karemera and Emmanuel Mfitimfura, at about 6:30 p.m. on April 4, 2006. They found the men in a small bar in the Cyasemakamba area of Kibungo town, Eastern Province and arrested them on suspicion of armed robbery. They arrested another unidentified man shortly after.31

The police, along with the detainees, went to search the house of Nshikili where they found a television set and a large bag. Police officers said the television set had been stolen and later told others in the community that the bag had contained a Kalashnikov automatic rifle.32

According to residents of the Kabare area of Kibungo town, they heard a vehicle stopping nearby, followed by gunfire, several individual shots and then a burst of successive shots, at about 8 p.m.33 Several who went to see what happened found two bodies, lying about 10m apart from each other, in pools of blood, one with   tissue, apparently from his brain, near his head. Nearby were four uniformed police officers, at least two of whom were armed with Kalashnikov rifles. They told the onlookers that the dead men were robbers who had tried to escape while en route to show the police where other members of their group were living. They added that a third suspect had managed to get away.34

One local resident told Human Rights Watch researchers that the police officers had brought Nshikili, Karemera, and an unidentified third man to Kabare because Nshikili had told the police that a resident of Kabare had given him the gun supposedly found at his home.35

Witnesses who saw Nshikili’s body claim that his thumb had been amputated and that there was a knife wound in his chest and a gunshot wound in his neck. A relative of Nshikili, skeptical of the official version of his death, exclaimed to Human Rights Watch researchers, “If someone is running away, how can you cut off his thumb?”36 Members of Nshikili’s family say that police officers were reluctant to release the body and that when they arrived at the Kibungo General Hospital to claim the body, workers were preparing to bury the body without the family’s knowledge. Relatives state that police also objected to them gaining access to an official autopsy report.37

On the day when Nshikili was buried, a family member remembers that police officers warned local people not to talk about his death. “If you do talk, they say that you are an accomplice of those ‘thieves,’” said Nshikili’s relative.38

According to local residents, they were surprised that Nshikili, the son of a genocide survivor, had been arrested since he was not known to have been involved in any previous criminal activity. Emmanuel Mfitimfura, arrested at the same time as Nshikili and Karemera, was released after spending a week in the lock-up at Kibungo police station.39

Nshikili’s family members have engaged a lawyer and have written to both the commissioner general of police and to the prosecutor general of Rwanda, requesting an investigation of his death, with no result at the time this report was written.

In May 2007, the gacaca judges of Karenge cell took the extraordinary step of summoning a policeman named Gakwisi to explain the deaths.40 Under law, gacaca jurisdictions are authorized to inquire into genocidal crimes during the period 1990-1994, but have no mandate to deal with more recent crimes. Nonetheless the police officer attended the gacaca session and reportedly told the court that the two men had offered to show the police where other thieves were hiding, but en route they had jumped out of the police pick-up truck and were shot trying to escape. According to persons present at the hearing, the police officer was asked how Nshikili could have been shot in the throat while running away. The police officer replied, “That depends on the skill of the shooter”.41

According to local residents, the area continues to be troubled by armed robberies.

The killing of Emmanuel Ndahiriwe, Kicukiro Sector, Kigali

On the morning of Friday, April 20, 2007, police officers and members of the Criminal Investigations Department of the National Police (CID) arrested Emmanuel Ndahiriwe at his workplace, Electrogaz (the state energy, gas and water utility). Members of Electrogaz’s internal investigations unit accompanied the investigating officers. According to the police, Ndahiriwe was one of a number of Electrogaz employees and others arrested in an investigation of theft of Electrogaz equipment.42

He was taken in an Electrogaz vehicle, first to Remera police station and later to Kicukiro police station, both in the city of Kigali. That evening a family member visited him and left the Kicukiro police station at about 6:30 p.m.43

The next day, April 21, 2007, persons wanting to visit Ndahiriwe were told by police officers at the Kicukiro station that he had been taken away by CID officers for questioning. In the evening, members of Ndahiriwe’s family sought him at CID headquarters but were told that officers in charge of the file were absent. Friends and relatives hoped that they would be able to locate him on Monday, April 23. By that time Ndahiriwe would have been detained more than 72 hours and under Rwandan law a detained person must appear before a magistrate within 72 hours of his arrest. But on Monday the police officers told them nothing.44

At 5:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning, Radio Rwanda broadcast descriptions of bodies that had been delivered to the morgue at Kigali Central Hospital, a regular feature of early morning broadcasts. Relatives listening to the announcement recognized one description as fitting that of Ndahiriwe. When they went to the morgue, they were able to identify his body. They were told that his body had been delivered by a Toyota “Hi-Lux” vehicle belonging to Electrogaz on Friday April 20, at about 8:30 p.m. Other witnesses saw an Electrogaz vehicle with blood in it. The vehicle in question, used by the internal investigations unit, bore the registration plaque numbered GR 779A.45 According to persons who viewed the body, Ndahiriwe had been stabbed in the chest and shot in the head.46

In a press conference broadcast on national radio, Chief Superintendent Costa Habyara, Director of the CID, stated that Emmanuel Ndahiriwe had been killed by police officers in self-defense, as he tried to grab a weapon. According to Habyara, the death occurred outside of the police station as the detainee was on his way to show the police where stolen equipment was stored and where criminals were hiding.47




12 Anonymous, “Another Gacaca Judge Murdered”, The New Times, January 2, 2007.  http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56&Itemid=1 (accessed January 3, 2007).

13 Human Rights Watch interviews with residents of Ngamba sector, Kigali, April 18, 2007. In Rwanda a young couple lacking the land to support their new household finds it difficult to marry. Most Rwandans are farmers and land is scarce.

14 “Circumstances in which Policemen shot detainees,” statement sent by  Commissioner General of Rwanda National Police Andrew Rwigamba to Human Rights Watch researcher Christopher Huggins, June 4, 2007, electronic communication.

15 Human Rights Watch interviews with residents of Ngamba sector, Kigali, April 18, 2007.

16 Human Rights Watch interview with residents of Ngamba sector, Kigali, April 24, 2007.

17 Human Rights Watch interview with residents of Ngamba sector , Kigali, April 24, 2007.

18 Human Rights Watch interview with residents of Ngamba sector, Kigali, April 24. 2007.

19 Human Rights Watch interview with residents of Ngamba sector, Kigali, April 24, 2007.

20 Anonymous, “Another Gacaca Judge Murdered”, The New Times, January 2, 2007.  http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56&Itemid=1 (accessed January 3, 2007).

21 Human Rights Watch interview with residents of Ngamba sector, Kigali, April 24, 2007.

22 Human Rights Watch interview with resident of Ngamba sector, Kigali, April 24, 2007. Unlike persons incarcerated in central prisons who are fed by the government, those held in local lock-ups depend on family and friends for food.

23 Human Rights Watch interview with residents of Ngamba sector, Kigali, April 24, 2007.

24 Human Rights Watch interview with resident of Ngamba sector, Kigali, April 18, 2007.

25 Human Rights Watch interview with residents of Ngamba sector, Kigali, April 24, 2007.

26 Human Rights Watch interviews with residents of Ngamba sector, Kigali, April 24, 2007.

27 “Circumstances in which Policemen Shot Detainees”; Human Rights Watch interview with Rwandan human rights colleague, Kigali, April 27, 2007.

28 “Circumstances in which Policemen Shot Detainees”; Human Rights Watch interview with Rwandan human rights colleague, Kigali, April 27, 2007.

29 Human Rights Watch interview with resident of Gasaka sector, Kigali, April 27, 2007.

30 “Circumstances in which Policemen Shot Detainees”; Human Rights Watch interview with resident of Gasaka sector, Kigali, April 27, 2007. The names of the three disappeared persons are not counted in the tally of those killed by police officers.

31 Human Rights Watch interview with local resident, Kibungo town, March 26, 2007.

32 Human Rights Watch interview with local resident, Kibungo town, March 26, 2007.

33 Human Rights Watch interview with local resident, Kibungo town, March 26, 2007.

34 Human Rights Watch interview with local resident, Kibungo town, March 26, 2007.

35 Human Rights Watch interview, Kigali, April 26, 2007.

36 Human Rights Watch interview with relative of victim, Kibungo town, March 26, 2007.

37 Human Rights Watch interview with relatives of victim, Kibungo town, March 26, 2007.

38 Human Rights Watch interview with relative of victim, Kibungo town, March 26, 2007.

39 Human Rights Watch interview with local residents, Kibungo town, March 26, 2007.

40 The gacaca system is only mandated to judge accusations of genocide crimes committed between 1990 and 1994 and has no jurisdiction over any other cases.

41 Human Rights Watch interview with relative of victim, Kibungo town, March 26, 2007.

42 Chief Superintendent Costa Habyara, Director of CID, News (in Kinyarwanda), Radio Rwanda, April 25, 2007, 7 p.m.; “Circumstances in which Policemen Shot Detainees.”

43 Human Rights Watch interview with a friend of victim, Kigali, April 26, 2007.

44 Human Rights Watch interview with friend of victim, April 26, 2007.

45 Human Rights Watch interview with local human rights activist, April 27, 2007.

46 Human Rights Watch interview with friend of victim, April 26, 2007.

47 Chief Superintendent Costa Habyara, national head of CID, News (in Kinyarwanda), Radio Rwanda, April 25, 2007, 7 p.m.; “Circumstances in which Policemen Shot Detainees.”