Reached by telephone in Kigali on 21 November 2000, a representative of the Collectif des ligues et organisations de défense des droits de l'homme (CLADHO) (see RWA35555.F of 26 October 2000 for further information on this organization) indicated that Collège St-André, the mosque (often called Kadhafi, after the person who paid for its construction) and the Carmelite church are in the Nyamirambo district of Kigali. All three are located within 500 metres of one another; Collège St-André is on the [translation] "downtown" side, the mosque is on the stadium side, and the Carmelite church is between the two, almost adjoining Collège St-André.

On pages 131-132 of the book Broadcasting Genocide: Censorship, Propaganda & State-Sponsored Violence in Rwanda 1990-1994, published in 1996, the massacres that took place in Nyamirambo in April 1994 are described as follows.

On 7 April, the day after the Presidential plane had been shot down, an estimated 200-300 people fled to the church at Nyamirambo, in Kigali [the name of the church was not specified]. Later that day, a small number of militia members tried forcibly to enter the church, but many of those hiding [...] resisted the incursion. Witnessed reported [...] that, throughout the night of 7-8 April, RTLM [Radiotélévision des mille collines] repeatedly broadcast that the church was full of armed RPA troops and announced that reinforcements were required. At 10.00 a.m. on 8 April, a truck full of security forces arrived and stormed the church grounds, forced people out of the church and shot dead about 60 persons. Many others fled.

A number of those who escaped the massacre in the Nyamirambo church hid in the nearby Collège Saint André. There, a similar siege occurred following another broadcast by RTLM. By 11 April, an estimated 100 people were hiding in the school. According to witness testimony, RTLM targeted the school on 11 or 12 April, claiming it was harbouring RPF [Front patriotique rwandais] accomplices. In apparent response to the RTLM broadcast, on the evening of 13 April, the RPF rescued about 40 of the people hiding there. On 14 or 15 April, militias stormed the premises and killed all those remaining.

A similar case occurred on 10 April, when RTLM directed militias to attack hundreds of people who were sheltering in the Nyamirambo mosque. [...] Approximately 300 people, mostly Tutsi, were killed (Article 19 Oct. 1996).

In Leave None To Tell The Story: Genocide in Rwanda, published by the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and Human Rights Watch, it is reported that on 8 April 1994, soldiers and militiamen, encouraged by RTLM announcer Hitimana, attacked and killed dozens of persons who had sought refuge at a church in Nyamirambo, and that a few days later they killed a number of other people at the mosque in Nyamirambo (Des Forges March 1999, 210).

The attached excerpts from the [translation] "report on the inquiry into massive human rights violations committed in Rwanda starting on 6 April 1994" (Rapport de l'enquête sur les violations massives des droits de l'homme commises au Rwanda à partir du 06 avril 1994), faxed to the Research Directorate, give the names of 130 people implicated in the massacres that took place in the Kivugiza cellule [an administrative division] of the Nyamirambo sector in Kigali's Nyarugenge commune, as well as their ages, ethnicity and place of origin, their political allegiance, their occupation, the weapon used in the crime and the alleged facts; the names of the victims are also indicated.

The CLADHO representative stated that Collège St-André, the mosque and the Carmelite church are all in the Kivugiza cellule (28 Nov. 2000).

This Response was prepared by the Research Directorate after researching publicly available information currently available to the Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find attached a list of additional sources consulted for this Response to Information Request.

References

Article 19. October 1996. Broadcasting Genocide: Censorship, Propaganda and State-Sponsored Violence in Rwanda 1990-1994. London: International Centre Against Censorship.

Collectif des ligues et organisations de défense des droits de l'homme (CLADHO), Kigali. 28 November 2000. Telephone interview with a representative.

_____. 21 November 2000. Telephone interview with a representative.

Des Forges, Alison. March 1999. Leave None To Tell The Story: Genocide in Rwanda. New York, Washington, London, Brussels: Human Rights Watch (HRW). Paris: International Human Rights Federation (FIDH).

Attachment

Rapport de l'enquête sur les violations massives des droits de l'homme commises au Rwanda à partir du 06 avril 1994. December 1994. Commission d'enquête: Cladho-Kanyarwanda. Excerpts faxed to the Research Directorate, p. 24.

Additional Sources Consulted

A request for information was sent to African Rights, but no reply has yet been received.

Africa Confidential.1994.

Africa Research Bulletin.1994.

Amnesty International. 1995-1999. Annual reports.

Country files of the IRB Resource Centre. Rwanda. 1994-2000.

Country Reports. 1995-February 2000.

Human Rights Watch (HRW). 1995-1999. Annual reports.

IRB databases.

Jeune Afrique/L'Intelligent.1994-2000.

Keesing's Record of World Events.1994.

La Lettre hebdomadaire de la FIDH. 1994.

REFWORLD.

Rwanda : Histoire d'un génocide. 1994. Éditions Fayard.

Terreur africaine, Rwanda, Burudi, Zaïre : les racines de la violence. 1996. Éditions Fayard.

LEXIS/NEXIS.

World News Connection (WNC).

Internet sites, including:

Amnesty International.

FIDH.

Human Rights Watch.

Missionary Service News Agency (MISNA).

ReliefWeb.

Search engines, including:

Google.

Lycos.

Yahoo.