The trial of four high-ranking officers in Rwanda’s army during the 1994 genocide resumed on Monday before the United Nations tribunal trying the suspected main perpetrators of the slaughter, the independent Hirondelle news agency reported.
The slow-moving trial, which began in April 2001, had been adjourned in July for the court’s summer recess.
Dubbed ”the military trial”, it is seen as one of the most important before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), investigating the bloodbath in which up to a million people were killed in more than 100 days of ethnically motivated massacres.
The former director of Cabinet in the ministry of defence, Colonel Theoneste Bagosora — considered by the prosecution to be the brains behind the genocide — is jointly accused with Lieutenant Colonel Anatole Nsegiyumva, the former commander of Gisenyi military region; the former chief of military operations of the Rwandan army, Brigadier Gratien Kabiligi; and the former commander of the para-commando battalion of Kanombe (Kigali), Major Alloys Ntabakuze.
All four have pleaded not guilty to a series of crimes, including war crimes and conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity.
The trial has been slow-moving, largely because of a lack of witnesses.
On Monday, a 76th prosecution witness gave evidence to the court.
Called by a pseudonym to protect his true identity, the former militia fighter from Gisenyi told the court that Bagosora and Nsengiyumva sent militia fighters to Bisesero, in western Kibuye province, with orders to massacre members of the Tutsi ethnic minority.
The prosecution has said it aims to present all its witnesses in court by the middle of next month. The defence is due to plead in January.
The ICTR was set up shortly after the end of the genocide to judge those accused of bearing prime responsibility for the slaughter. To date, the tribunal has sentenced 20 people and acquitted three. — Sapa-AFP