{Rwanda is investigating the death of nine Spaniards killed in the country and DR Congo in the 1990s.}
Prosecutor-General Richard Muhumuza told the [Spanish] Criminal Division of the National Court and the Central Court of Instruction No. 4, in charge of investigating the case and in the process of executing the judgement issued by the Supreme Court on September 24, to lift the arrest warrants against the 40 Rwandan military officers prosecuted for crimes of terrorism, torture, and genocide, acts in which the Spaniards were killed.
Two priests, four members of the Marist Brothers and three aid workers were killed in Rwanda and Congo between 1994 and 1997.
This was acknowledged by the Criminal Division of the National Court in a decision of January 28.
Twenty years after these killings, the investigation is still open in Rwanda – only one person is in prison for the death of one of the priests – while in Spain, the Supreme Court decided to provisionally dismiss the sentence against the 40 military defendants, because they are neither Spanish nor present in Spain.
Rwanda’s Criminal Investigation Department has opened investigations into each of the killings, Muhumuza informed the High Court last May. To-date, only one person has been convicted–by the Primary Court of Gitarama–which sentenced Isidro Uzcudun to 20 years in prison for the murder of a priest.
The suspects in the deaths of the other eight Spaniards are still at large. According to the document submitted by Rwanda to Spain, Catalan priest Joaquín Valmajó i Sala was kidnapped on April 26, 1994, in Byumba “by unknown armed men.”
“The priest drove his own car, accompanied by an armed soldier,” Muhumuza told Fernando Andreu, the Spanish magistrate in the case. “Since that day, Father Valmajó has not been seen again.”
Interrogations
Nine witnesses were questioned by Rwandan authorities in connection with the disappearance of the priest, but their statements have not clarified whether the kidnappers were then government soldiers, Rwandan Patriotic Army, or other armed people.
A witness testified that the area where the priest disappeared was controlled by ex-government soldiers and other armed groups.
As for four Marists, the Rwandan investigation located the place of death in Bugobe near the Nyamitangwe refugee camp in DR Congo. Their bodies were found on November 9, 1996, in a 12-metre closed well.
The investigations revealed that there were witnesses who saw a vehicle owned by the congregation with objects stolen from this community. A witness identified a member of the Interahamwe militia.
The three aid workers, Manuel Madrazo, Flors Sirera and Luis Valtueña, died on January 18, 1997, in Ruhengeri.
Police took statements from 13 witnesses who agreed that 20 armed men dressed in coats attacked the house where the Spaniards lived. One of the witnesses said various houses belonging to expatriates were also attacked the same day, which he described as “the goal” of the attackers.
“These cases are still under Police investigation and remain open,” said the Rwandan prosecutor to Spanish authorities, with whom he offered to “work together” in the investigations.
Spanish judicial sources confirmed to El Mundo newspaper about the ongoing investigations of these murders.
In expectation of Spanish prosecutor’s ruling on the Supreme Court’s decision to lift the arrest warrants of 40 officers, and Fernando Andreu’s execution of the judgment of the High Court, sources familiar with the investigation said prosecution cancelled the warrants.
The New Times
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