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Killings of Detainees arrested by Soldiers

Soldiers of the Rwandan Defence Force (RDF) do not have jurisdiction over civilians. In one case investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers, however, soldiers arrested two men on suspicion of armed robbery and then killed them.

Killings in Rwabicuma Sector, Nyanza District, South Region

In May 2006 officials established a military post in Rwabicuma sector, Nyanza district, to deal with several armed robberies in which residents had been injured. Soldiers at the military post, located at Kakamushi Primary School, Nyarusange cell, were to carry out night patrols and otherwise discourage criminal activity.⁴⁸ 

According to a local resident, members of the Local Defence Force (LDF), aided by local residents, found a man named John but known as “Samunani” hiding in the bush on May 9, 2006, following a robbery in an area known as Kabirizi.⁴⁹ Samunani was taken to the Nyagisozi sector offices where, according to a witness, he was “seriously beaten” with truncheons by members of the LDF before a large crowd. Samunani named several persons whom he said participated in robberies with him and on May 10, soldiers were sent to ‘arrest’ them, although they had neither legal authority to do so nor any arrest warrants. In one case, they apparently persuaded the persons whom they were seeking to accompany them to the military post under the guise of having lost their way.⁵⁰

Local residents told a Human Rights Watch researcher that the soldiers brought at least seven persons to the Nyarusange military post, five of them men: Rukara, a resident of Kigogo village, Kamabuye cell; Vincent Hakizimana; Hakizimana’s brother Aminadabu; Denis Ndagijimana; and an unidentified older man, and two women,  Immaculée Uwimana and the wife of a man known as “Kazungu”.⁵¹ Several soldiers interrogated and allegedly threatened those who had been rounded up and later drove Vincent Hakizimana, Aminadabu, and the older man to the local lock-up in nearby Rurangazi cell.⁵²

Later in the afternoon of May 10, soldiers took other suspects, including Samunani and Denis Ndagijimana, to the lock-up at the Nyagisozi sector offices. That evening, soldiers took Samunani and Ndagijimana from the lock-up, saying that they were taking them, on foot, to Nyanza town.⁵³ The journey, which takes about 40 minutes in a car, takes about two hours on foot. It is unclear why such a journey would be taken on foot and at nighttime, and why soldiers, rather than policemen, would take responsibility for the two detainees.

At about 7 p.m., local people heard gunshots and found the bodies of the two men lying in a small patch of open forest, several hundred meters from the military post. Samunani had been shot in the base of the spine and was laying face-down, while Ndagijimana had been shot in the head and the back. Soldiers and local authorities told local residents that the two men had tried to flee. ⁵⁴

One skeptical local resident questioned the explanation that the men had tried to flee. He told Human Rights Watch researchers:

The police sent a vehicle to pick up the bodies of the two who died. Why couldn’t they have sent a vehicle to take them to Nyanza when they were still alive?⁵⁵

On May 11, police officers, who had apparently taken custody of the detainees at the Rurangazi lock-up, brought them to the scene of the killings to view the bodies, which were still laying there. According to witnesses, three of the detainees had been so badly beaten that they had difficulty walking and they said they had also been threatened with death by police officers.⁵⁶ They were freed shortly after.

In an interview with Human Rights Watch researchers the executive secretary of Rwabicuma sector denied that armed robberies had occurred in the area and also denied that Samunani, Denis Ndagijimana, or anyone else had been arrested in connection with cases of theft or robbery during 2006.⁵⁷