UN-backed tribunal for Rwandan genocide begins trial of former Government official
23 September 2009 – The trial of a former senior Rwandan Government official accused of committing genocide got underway today at the United Nations war crimes tribunal established in the wake of the mass killings that engulfed the small Central African nation in 1994.
Among the charges levelled at Augustin Ngirabatware, 52, by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) are genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide; crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, and other inhumane acts; and serious violations of the Geneva Conventions.
In his opening statement today, the Prosecutor said that he will prove Mr. Ngirabatware’s individual responsibility for the crimes he is charged with. He added that the former Minister of Planning failed to prevent or punish criminal acts committed with his knowledge by his subordinates.
The Prosecutor told the Tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, he would call 17 witnesses to prove that the accused is individually, or jointly responsible for killing, and causing bodily or mental harm to members of the Tutsi ethnic group in Gisenyi prefecture, and for raping Tutsi women, as part of a widespread or systematic attack on civilians.
In October last year, Mr. Ngirabatware pleaded not guilty to all counts after being arrested in Frankfurt, Germany, in September 2007.
Mr. Ngirabatware was initially charged jointly with Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda, former Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in January 2004.
Over a 100-day period in 1994, more than 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and Hutu moderates were massacred, mostly by being hacked to death with machetes.
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