Rwandan witness says Munyaneza shot Tutsis in church massacre

A Rwandan man on death row for his role in the country's civil war says Dsir Munyaneza helped massacre hundreds of Tutsis in a church during the 1994 genocide.

The witness told Quebec Superior Court Judge Andr Noel he saw Munyaneza shoot Tutsis gathered in a Catholic church in Butare in April 1994, where they had sought refuge from Hutu militiamen closing in on them.

Munyaneza, 40, is standing trial at the court in Montreal for his alleged participation in the Rwandan genocide, and is the first person to be charged under Canada's War Crimes Act, which took effect seven years ago.

The witness, who can't be named for security reasons, is one of 14 people who testified in extraordinary court sessions held in Kigali in the winter of 2007, when Noel travelled to Rwanda with his legal team to hold hearings for witnesses who couldn't or wouldn't travel to Canada for Munyaneza's trial.

Transcripts of those court sessions were released to the public on Friday.

The witness testified he was at the church along with Munyaneza, Hutu militiamen and presidential guards when the killing started one morning, about two weeks after the Rwandan genocide had begun.

Some 500 Tutsi men, women and children were hiding inside the church, said the witness, when Munyaneza told him to go around the back and open the door. The Tutsis were ordered to leave the building, about five at a time, the witness said. They were taken outside, brought to a clearing and shot.

"They first used guns, others used clubs, and those who didn't die immediately, it's Dsir who used his pistol to finish them off," his testimony read, originally inKinyarwanda and translated into English. The witness is already facing the death penalty for his role in the genocide.

A second witness told the legal team that travelled to Kigali that he had been hiding inside the church, where the Tutsis were told to not be afraid, because there were buses to take them home, after which many started to applaud and cheer.

Munyaneza's trial is on hold for the summer and will resume in September.

He is being held in custody at a prison in Rivire-des-Prairies, in Montreal's east end, where he's been in isolation since he was attacked last April by another prisoner who beat him viciously.