05.01.07 - ICTR/RENZAHO - THE PREFECT OF KIGALI AT THE TIME OF THE GENOCIDE TO APPEAR MONDAY ...

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ICTR/RENZAHO - THE PREFECT OF KIGALI AT THE TIME OF THE GENOCIDE TO APPEAR MONDAY BEFORE THE JUDGESArusha, January 5th 2007 (FH) – The trial of Tharcisse Renzaho, a 62 year-old Rwandan officer who was at the head of the prefecture of Kigali during the genocide, will open Monday before the Chamber One of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). He will be the sixtieth defendant to appear before the judges of the ICTR. Thirty-two have been judged, 5 of them acquitted, and 27 others are currently on trial. Renzaho is accused of genocide and complicity in genocide, of murder as crime against humanity, of rape as crime against humanity, of murder and rape both deemed violations of the Geneva conventions. He pleads not guilty to all six charges and faces a sentence to life imprisonment, the heaviest verdict the ICTR can issue. He is represented by Mr. Francois Cantier (France) and Mr. Barnabé Nekui (Cameroon). The prosecutor, Mr. Jonathan Moses (NZ), intends to back up the indictment by presenting 23 witnesses in the course of the first session that is to last for two months. The day before the debates opened, the names of the judges constituting the Chamber still haven’t been communicated. The court will be presided by Judge Erik Mose, also President of the ICTR. He is expected to close the debates in Militaries I in the course of January. It appears that his assistants haven’t been appointed yet. Renzaho, lieutenant-colonel, professor at the Military Academy of Rwanda was not close to the regime in power during the genocide. He is a native of Kibungo (south-west), while at the time the presidential circle counted men from the north. He was considered a good officer. He had been trained in Germany and had never been appointed to any leading position be it on the field or within the army staff. After the panic that followed the semblance of attack led by the rebel forces against Kigali on October 4th 1990, shortly after they had passed the border from Uganda, Renzaho was nominated prefect of the town, a newly-created position. With his skills as organizer, he correctly fulfilled his tasks even if in 1994, before the genocide broke out, he asked to reenter the Army. Following the attack against the presidential plane which marked the beginning of the genocide, he spoke on the radio and called the population to set up road blocks where thousands of Tutsis have been killed. On April 12th, the government fled the capital and Renzaho stayed. He will have to establish that he did not fill in for the Minister of the Interior as the prosecution alleges. He is also said to have distributed weapons on several occasions. After the forces of the RPF won, and as an unexpected result of past alliances, Renzaho happened to work at the side of Joseph Kabila, the father of the sitting president of the DRC, when he got rid of his Rwandan godfathers. According to unofficial sources, Renzaho would then have worked closely with the Démocratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda, a movement which has its headquarters in eastern Zaïre and regroups former militaries of the Hutu community who continue fighting the regime in place in Kigali. He ranked third on the ICTR’s list of most wanted criminals and the American government offered a reward for his capture. He was arrested on September 29th 2002 and transferred to Arusha the next day. PB/MG/GF © Hirondelle News Agency