U. N. TRIBUNAL ORDERS TRANSFER OF THREE WITNESSES FROM RWANDA

Arusha, September 26, 2000 (FH) – The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Tuesday ordered the temporary transfer of three people detained in Rwanda who are to testify in the so-called media trial. The media trial groups three suspects linked to the hate media in Rwanda, which incited Hutus to kill Tutsis during the 1994 genocide.

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The suspects are Hassan Ngeze, former editor of the newspaper Kangura; Ferdinand Nahimana, ex-director of the notorious radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM); and Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, a former politician and founder member of RTLM. Their trial has been held up by a number of defence motions. A status conference Tuesday was expected to set a date for the start of trial. The ICTR did not reveal the names of the three prosecution witnesses to be transferred from Rwanda. However, observers note that former RTLM journalist Valérie Bemeriki and former Kangura journalist Joel Hakizimana are both in Kigali prison on genocide charges. Bemeriki wasarrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The prosecution also intends to call as a witness Georges Ruggiu, the former RTLM presenter held in the UN prison in Arusha. In June, the ICTR sentenced Ruggiu to 12 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity and inciting genocide. AT/JC/FH (ME%0926e)