DOCTOR'S WIFE DEFENDS HIM IN GENOCIDE TRIAL

Arusha, April 11, 2002 (FH) - The wife of genocide suspect Doctor Gerard Ntakirutimana told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Thursday that her husband did not participate in militia attacks on ethnic Tutsis and never sent away wounded ethnic Tutsis during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Anna Nzabumunyurwa also denied all allegations against her father-in-law Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana who is jointly on trial with Doctor Ntakirutimana.

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At the time of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Gerard Ntakirutimana, 44, was a medical doctor at the infirmary of the Seventh Day Adventist church mission at Mugonero in Kibuye province, western Rwanda. He is jointly charged with his father Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, 77, who was pastor at the church. The prosecutor alleges that the two planned and presided over killings of about 6,000 Tutsi refugees in the Mugonero complex during the genocide. An estimated one million Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed in the 1994 genocide according to an official report by the government of Rwanda. Nzabumunyurwa also denied prosecution allegations that her husband and her father-in-law invited Tutsis to take refuge in Mugonero complex before bringing in militias to kill them. She said Pastor Ntakirutimana and his son had taken refuge themselves in near by Gishyita commune at the time of the massacres on April 16th, 1994. Nzabumunyurwa will continue her testimony on Monday before Trial Chamber One of the ICTR, composed of judges Erik Mose of Norway (presiding), Navanethem Pillay of South Africa and judge Andrésia Vaz of Senegal. GG/JA/FH(NK-0412e)