A witness told a Montreal court Monday he saw Désiré Munyaneza at a meeting with Rwanda's interim president in 1994 when the leader travelled to Butare to goad local Hutu militia.

Munyaneza is standing trial at the Quebec Superior Court in Montreal for his alleged participation in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and is the first person to be charged under Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, enacted in 2000.

Désiré Munyaneza is shown in a court sketch.
(CBC)

Witness C-19, who is testifying under a pseudonym for security reasons, told the court Monday he saw Munyaneza leave a meeting in Butare in late spring 1994 when interim President Théodore Sindikubwabo was visiting the southern Rwandan city following his predecessor Juvénal Habyarinmana's assassination.

Sindikubwabo met with city officials before speaking to a crowd of Hutus in a stadium on Butare's outskirts on April 21, C-19 testified.

He told the court he saw Munyaneza leave the stadium later that day in a truck convoy which included the local police chief. Munyaneza is accused of playing a leading role in Butare's Hutu militia.

C-19 said he couldn't tell the court what was said in the stadium because he couldn't hear from his vantage point outside the venue.

Shortly after the rally, violence broke out in Butare, weeks after Hutus in other parts of Rwanda began systematically attacking and killing Tutsis.

C-19 told the court he stayed in Butare for a while, where he sought a safe place to hide. He testified he found a haven at a local hospital, but fled after he spotted Munyaneza and another man assaulting a young Tutsi woman. The men dragged the woman into their truck and drove off, C-19 said.

The witness and a friend made their way to Burundi, a 30-kilometre journey that took five days. C-19 said he saw dead bodies piling up in the ditches along the road he travelled and was forced to hide among them one day after coming across a group of Hutu militiamen.

C-19 said he was able to cross the river that separated Rwanda from Burundi, but his friend wasn't so lucky — he was slowed down by a leg injury and the militia caught up with him.

With files from the Canadian Press