Robert Kajuga (Interahamwe)

Jerry Robert Kajuga (1960[2] – before March 2007) was national president of the Interahamwe,[3] the group largely responsible for perpetrating the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi people in 1994. Born to a Tutsi father and a Hutu mother, Kajuga concealed his background and presented himself as being of pure Hutu descent. It was said that being Tutsi, he nearly collaborated with Paul Kagame by helping the RPF Inkotanyi soldiers to infiltrate his Interahamwe for exterminating many Tutsis. This is notable as Hutu Power extremist groups considered Hutus who married Tutsis to be race traitors,[4] and Kajuga went to great lengths to conceal his identity.

Robert Kajuga
Born
Jerry Robert Kajuga

1960
Kibungo, Ruanda-Urundi
Diedbefore March 2007
Kinshasa, DRC
NationalityRwandan
AllegianceRwanda
Conviction(s)Crime against humanity
Criminal penaltyLife imprisonment[1]
Date apprehended
1996
Imprisoned atButare

Biography

Kajuga was born in Kibungo[5] to a mixed-tribal family: his mother was Hutu and his father was Tutsi but had acquired false Hutu identity papers.[6][7] He was a young brother of Huss Mugwaneza Kajuga, nicknamed "millionaire of Rukara," the boss of SORIMEX-Rwanda, a company that manufactured tooth pastes and palmolive soap. To avoid any kind of suspicion about their family being Tutsi, Robert Kajuga kept his brother hidden at the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali. According to Paul Rusesabagina, who managed the hotel, Kajuga was one of the many infiltrators within the Interahamwe sent by Tutsi rebel leader Paul Kagame.[8]

Kajuga defended his participation in the genocide by arguing that Tutsis were responsible for trying to "take power" and stated "[w]e defended ourselves. Even the eleven-year-old children came with grenades. That’s why there are bodies at the roadblocks."[9]

Kajuga fled Rwanda in July 1994, taking refuge in the nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo for two and a half years, before being arrested by UN Security forces and standing trial in Kigali and being sentenced to life imprisonment. Kajuga later died in prison sometime before March 2007 from an unspecified disease in Kinshasa.[10][11]

References
  1. Kambanda, Noel [@NoelKambanda] (26 June 2019). "The list is long, but those are the names of main genocide perpetrators and the sentences they received. #Kwibuka25 t.co/vRS1rqAijZ" (Tweet). Retrieved 3 October 2021 – via Twitter.
  2. PhD, Alexis Herr (2018). Rwandan Genocide: The Essential Reference Guide. ABC-CLIO. p. 98. ISBN 9781440855610.
  3. Dallaire, Roméo (2004), Shake hands with the devil : the failure of humanity in Rwanda (1st ed.), Toronto: Vintage Canada, p. 346
  4. John A. Berry and Carol Pott Berry (eds.) (1999). Genocide in Rwanda: A Collective Memory (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press) pp. 113–115.
  5. "Le phénomène «INTERAHAMWE». Anastase Gasana et Robert Kajuga ou l'illustration de la duplicité au Rwanda des années 1990-1994. | LeRwandais".
  6. Vasagar, Jeevan (16 February 2005). "The hotel that saved hundreds from genocide". The Guardian. London, UK.
  7. ""Leave None to Tell the Story": Genocide in Rwanda". Human Rights Watch. 1999. The militia was directed by a national committee that included Jerry Robert Kajuga, president (himself the son of a Tutsi father and Hutu mother),
  8. "The Grinding Machine: Terror and Genocide in Rwanda". Toward Freedom. 24 April 2007. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  9. "The Rainy Season". Granta. 24 October 2013. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  10. Bachmann, Klaus; Fatić, Aleksandar (2015). The UN International Criminal Tribunals: Transition Without Justice?. Routledge. p. 131. ISBN 9781317631361.
  11. "23.03.07 – ICTR/WEEKLY SUMMARY – ICTR CLEARS A LAWYER ACCUSED OF BRIBING A WITNESS". www.justiceinfo.net. 23 March 2007. Retrieved 12 January 2020. Robert Kajuga died some time after in Kinshasa following his illness.


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