- Impuzamugambi
The Impuzamugambi (sometimes Impuza Mugambi; the 'mp' is pronounced as an 'mh'), which means "Those who have the same goal" or "Those who have a single goal" in the
Kinyarwanda language, was aHutu militia inRwanda formed in1992 . Together with theInterahamwe militia, which formed earlier and had more members, the Impuzamugambi was responsible for many of the deaths ofTutsi s and moderate Hutus during theRwandan Genocide of1994 .While the Interahamwe was led by prominent figures in the ruling party
National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development ("Mouvement républicain national pour la démocratie et le développement", MRND), the Impuzamugambi was controlled by the leadership of theCoalition for the Defense of the Republic ("Coalition pour la Défense de la République", CDR) and recruited its members from the youth wing of the CDR. The CDR was a separate Hutu party which cooperated with the MRND, though it had a significantly more extreme ethnically Pro-Hutu and Anti-Tutsi agenda than the MRND. The smaller Impuzamugambi was less organized than the Interahamwe, but there are some indications that its members were more vicious during the genocide.Like the Interahamwe, the Impuzamugambi was trained and equipped by the
Rwandan Government Forces (RGF) and the Presidential Guard of Rwanda's president and MRND leaderJuvénal Habyarimana . When the genocide started in April 1994, the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi acted in close collaboration and largely merged their structures and activities, though some distinction was still evident in differences in their clothing. Somegénocidaire s participated with both militias in the killings of Tutsis and moderate Hutu. After the main period of genocide, members of both militias as well as large parts of the Hutu population fled from Rwanda to the east of theDemocratic Republic of Congo .Of the leadership of the CDR,
Hassan Ngeze andJean-Bosco Barayagwiza were greatly responsible for commanding the Impuzamugambi. Both were found guilty in2003 by theInternational Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda of planning and leading the genocide, incitement of genocide, andcrimes against humanity . They were both sentenced tolife imprisonment . The sentence against Barayagwiza was later reduced to 35 years due to a partial violation ofdue process . After deducting time already served, he will stay in prison for at least 27 years.External links
* [http://www.ictr.org International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda]
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